001Uh it is 7 o'clock. I'm going to call the meeting to order. And the first thing we're going to do is a pledge of allegiance. Every stand. Pledge allegiance. All right. Thank you very much. Uh do I have a motion uh to go to executive session uh on a issue uh concerning details of the medical financial credit employment history of a particular person or corporation? All right. Motion by Jerry. Do I have a second? Second by Travis. >> All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. We'll be going to executive session 7:01. One. uh into open session. It's 7:51. Thank you everybody for hanging in while we are in exec and uh we're going to get rolling. All right. Uh number three, correspondence. We have no correspondence tonight. Uh number four is public comment session
002for items that are on tonight's agenda. None. And we're going to get into number five presentations. It's going to be the class of 26 senior trip. You guys want to come up? Oh, you want to go? You want to pass. Good evening everyone and welcome to our presentation on our senior trip that we're going to be having. Um first of all I would like to say that our class officers president Logan Wyant vice president Daniel Basher secretary myself and treasurer is Sariah Mahaland. Okay. So first I want to talk about how we came up with our senior trip idea. So, we really focused on getting everyone involved and making sure that everyone was able to go on the senior trip. So, we put out a lot of surveys asking like what kind of documentation people
003had, if they were able to get a passport. Um, and we just asked like what they wanted to do and the general consensus was they wanted to go somewhere warm obviously. So after that, we figured out um documents, who has what, who needs help getting different documents. Um and then Miss Everly has been speaking with a travel agent and they were able to get us like discounts, get us all booked on the same plane, um get us all in a nice resort. And we presented all of the different ideas for the senior trip and we voted on one. And so we're going to the Florida Keys for our trip for I think 5 days. Um, and yeah, I think we have 20some kids going. 29. Okay. And Miss Everly is going to talk about the
004details. We have 29 students that are able to go on this trip. So, we are leaving on May 4th. We would return on May 8th. They leave school about 500 a.m. So that's going to be a fun one for some of my seniors. And then our bus will go to Newark airport. It is a direct flight on United Airlines from Newark straight to Key West Airport. So it's a 9:45 a.m. um and arriving at 10:02 p.m. Uh Friday, we come back, same thing. United Airlines, it's a straightforward flight. We leave there around 2:30 and arrive at 5:39 back in New York New York and then we arrive back at the school approximately at 8:30 p.m. on 58. Some of the details in there. So, one of the things the kids did a really great job
005with is they took all of the ideas that the seniors had for the senior trip and they were wide ranged. We had many input um surveys that went out and they had a lot of ranges of trips. So one of the things that they all worked through were the pros and cons of each trip and then what they could do at each trip and what would be available to the seniors. So Key West is very much an island of very minimal things going on there. So that was one of the things that we had to highlight was when we're there's a lot of pools, there's beaches, there are a couple of things to do, but it's very secluded. So that's going to be a different um kind of area and that was something that they
006wanted to do. So, some of the things that were there that our travel agent is working on is the hotel accommodations, our Blue Flamingo Resort in Key West, which are extremely welcoming to student organizations and groups. They have also provided a free shuttle for us and to use while we're down there. So, they have a hotel shuttle and that's open for all their guests, but they're willing to work with us as a group and they will book it for us and that is a free transportation for us while we're there. So that was pretty cool opportunity to work with them. Mallerie Square is the shops and street performers and different vendors that are down there. The Key West Aquarium is there. Fort Zachary Taylor State Park is there which has um the beach and the
007historical points. There's obviously the beach and there's multiple pools at the resort, some water sports, some snorkeling. And this trip is really going to give them the opportunity to kind of choose what excursions and what things that they want to do. um because we'll be able to kind of divide out the bigger group so they're able to kind of go and do some different things with chaperones and then they can kind of come back to that resort or they can stay at the resort the entire time. So there's some different areas there and that was all something that they worked through and they discussed with the senior class they did meetings they put all this information out and they did put a lot of work behind this to recognize and try to include everybody in
008that. However, we do know this is not everybody's favorite thing. So, we did have some other options that they're going to talk about in our presentation. >> Hello. Sorry for how I'm dressed. I coming from a theater rehearsal. U come to Newsies tomorrow. Um so, for our day trip class ideas, um our cheapest one would be ice skating. It would cost people nothing to go and we would just be doing it at the fairgrounds here. Um another one we were thinking of would be to go to the movies. Um, we haven't moved forward with picking a movie or anything like that, but we thought it was just an easy, simple one that people could go to and would just be a day trip. Uh, another trip that we would do would be the Statue of
009Liberty, which would be educational. Um, and we just think that that would be a really good trip for a lot of people to do, especially cuz our class never got to go to the Statue of Liberty because of CO. Um, another uh trip that we want to do would be the Cartwright uh water park, which we have been fundraising for, and the other one would be the Six Flags Amusement Park. So, kids can go to whichever ones of those they want. They can sign up for them. So, yeah. Thank you. >> Right. Good evening, guys. To go on those trips, we have to raise we have to fund raise a lot of money. Therefore, we're fundraising the chocolates, which is $2 per bar. If you sell the whole box, the $30 will go towards your
010senior account. And our second main fundraiser is our blanket. It goes will hold them up for you. And if you guys are cold, you guys could buy them. I'll keep you warm. And they're $25. And if you buy one, $10 will go towards your senior account. And those are the chocolates. And our third fundraiser is talent show. We wanted to have a talent show, but unfortunately nobody signed up. Therefore, we canled it. So, but uh we're going to have a lot of future fundraisers. For example, Little Caesar's Pizza. And if you sell one, $6 will go towards your senior account. And if you guys have many ideas, you guys could email us or talk to us about it. And it'll be nice. Thank you guys. You guys have any questions? >> Two questions. One is
011mentioned 29 kids are going. How many are in your graduate? >> We have 67 graduating. >> My other question is about bus to Newark airport. I've heard from track parents that the bus that takes the kids island can't go through New Jersey that it sticks to the city. Is that an issue? potentially. Um, we have to talk to the bus garage. There are certain buses that are able to go through Jersey. It's just certain ones cannot and certain drivers can. So, it's something that the bus garage will have to work with us ahead of time to make sure they have the right driver and the right bus to go through them. >> I have a question. Um, in the past for senior trips, the senior class has asked the board of ed to cover the
012expenses of the bus transportation to um, Newark airport. Is that something that your class is looking for or have you figured in the bus transportation in with the first student? >> So that is something that the senior class is asking for the district to cover is the transportation to the >> Do you have that amount? >> We do not have that amount. The bus garage has to we don't have that at this time. >> Yes. So they would it's a school sponsored event. So would they >> Yes. >> I think Mrs. Everly is anticipating three. >> Three. >> 29 students. >> 29. I don't know if there's a number in the policy >> one to 10 question I just worry about that's all crazy world forgive me if I got to stay safe >> me
013we also think the same way. Um, so we are beyond above and beyond >> on any of this. >> Appreciate it. >> Did I miss it? What What's the cost per student? >> Cost per student is funded by them and it's approximately $850 per student. So they set up a payment plan. So there's it's spread out through a payment plan and their fundraising is individual and class fundraisers. show right now for their individual fundraiser goes directly to their fund is the chocolate sales. So, everyone had the opportunity to sell chocolate. $30 of that box goes to that individual student. The blankets and the pizza fundraisers are going to the full class to support those day trips because the ultimate goal on those is free of cost. So, everyone has the opportunity to go on those.
014We've also had two sponsorships that'll be uh coming through donations for two students to go on the senior trip from outside organizations and an organization in-house that'll be on our board when the donation comes through. Um and those are being sponsored out. Two students are going sponsored for these trips. So, we do have that going on as well. And students were made aware to come and speak to me. Some have. We've arranged some different payment schedules and some things and worked really closely with our families. >> And Miss Everly, the chaperrons, there's three to the 29, not you plus three. >> Nope, it's three to the 29. Y >> the blankets are how much? >> $25. >> And the timeline to get them? >> We have them in house right now. So until they run
015out. >> Oh, there you go. I'll >> take four. >> Daniel will be on it. Oh, go ahead. >> Thank you, Mr. Dean, for supporting us. And if you guys would like to buy it, >> I think there's some board members who'd like chocolate. >> I will say the senior class has put a lot of effort into this and they did really consider a lot of the layers that go into um this and what everyone would enjoy. They put out a lot of surveys. They wanted a lot of input on this and they wanted to make sure everyone had the opportunity if they wanted to go. Um, and that was a big one. So, I think from the get-go, what I was super impressed with was the first thing they said were if we leave
016the state, what documents do they need? How are students going to get these documents? Can we help them get these documents? And some of our teachers and staff have also helped because forms are confusing and how to go about that. So, we've done a lot of behind the-scenes work to make sure that any student that really wanted to go on this trip was able to. And the day trips were another opportunity that everyone put input into and those opportunities because not everyone does want to go on an overnight trip or anything like that. So, those day trips were super important for them as well and they took a lot of feedback in there on simple trips that still got the class together. And I think the Statue of Liberty one uh Miss Long and I
017were super impressed with because we're like, "You want to go to Statue of Liberty?" like, well, we never got to go because it was our co year. So, that was really fun for them to kind of all want to do something like that and because they missed that and they never got that their co year. So, that was another cool thing that we're going to be setting up and we're going to make happen. >> I have one more. The 850 is that including meals for the kids or are they going to have to bring their own? >> So, we're working with the travel agency. Um, it should include a couple of the meals. The breakfast is all included for all of it. Um, we're working with them to see what is in the area so
018we can kind of bulk deliver some things. Uh, there is also some package deals. It just depends what's going on when they officially book through everything. So, right now, we're working with the business office to finalize the bookings down there. And when they do that, they'll be able to kind of see an outreach and say, is there a group rate here? How much is it? Does it fit into that cost? Uh, so as long as it doesn't go over the 850, that was a big piece for us. But we're also fundraising separately and we'll be able to try to figure out those meal costs. Um because we're not going to let any student obviously be on the trip that can't make that. >> Yeah, that that was my concern. Get down there. >> Five days
019of food. >> Yeah. So, breakfasts are already set. It's more of those other pieces, but we can't It's one of those things because it's a group and it's so secluded in that area that we really had to wait until we finalized bookings to to pull those pieces together. And same thing with some of the excursions. Not every excursion is for everyone. not everyone wants to even go to the ocean part. And that was another piece that helps being such a secluded area is we can send a group of 10 to do something while another group stays and goes to an aquarium. So, everyone kind of has an option and we can separate out and divide so everyone has an opportunity to do what they would like to do. >> Anybody else? >> Have fun. Okay.
020Next up, uh we're going to roll right into the uh administration presentations. Who uh who wants to go first? >> Good evening everyone. It's always fun following students speaking. Um, but that sounds like an exciting trip and they've done a lot of hard work and Miss Ely and the council has really worked to kind of make sure everyone is included throughout the entire senior year. So, it's great to see that group kind of coming really together in their last year here. So, we're going to just give you a quick update about our readymath kind of pilot. So, especially our fourth grade team has been extremely excited. I get talked to every other day. You can ask Mr. Benell, but they're just saying how they can see the kids thinking. and they can see their work.
021They're seeing what they're doing and they're having math discussions. So, it's not a quiet classroom, but they're not talking about video games or Fortnite. They're talking about solving the math problem posed in front of them. And we given them some tools where you can see they're standing up. They have different ways to work through the problem and they're learning how to do it in multiple different avenues. So, it's a problem, but they're solving it two or three different ways and then discussing it and having those kind of conversations about why one student used this technique versus another one. So, it's really been great to see and we're going to continue looking at it and meet and kind of do an evaluation in the next month or two to see if ready math is where we
022want to go or if we want to stick with big ideas. Um, our new teacher academy is something new. We worked with our mentor coordinators to kind of make sure our newest teachers have the most support we can give them. So, after school every other month, we meet for about an hour in here and we go over different things, do check-ins. Uh, one of the last things we did was a reading. So, sometimes with teachers, it's hard to talk about what do you do when you don't know what you're reading because we're so good at reading. So, one of the things we read about was cricket um at an eighth grade level. So, some of you may have think of cricket as a machine, but we were reading about cricket as a sport. Um, I
023was first introduced to cricket when I was down in Cape Town presenting and I had no idea what it was. Completely listening to my teammates explain all the rules. So, we wanted them to go through kind of a practice of if you're reading something, when do you know you don't understand? Wasn't written too difficult, but how do you do it? So, we gave them some tools. We went through the group was great. We got to a point where one of the teachers said, "When you didn't understand, what happened?" And she said, "The images stopped coming in my head." Have you ever talked to your students about that? When they're reading, did that video in their head stop playing? I never thought of that. It's a great way to explain it to our children. So, they've
024been tremendous. And then we do some half days where we do some deeper dives into different teaching techniques, especially with programs like teach like a champ, things like double planning. What does a teacher do? What does a student do? They've been fantastic. They've been receptive. and the mentor coordinators we meet every couple months just to kind of review are we going where I think we need to do what are they coming up in your meetings and then we kind of just have this nice collaboration to give them support in real time instead of just waiting to a post observation to have discussions or look into anything like that that's my brief update we haven't had much school so let us know but that's what we've done in the interimm thank So, I will say uh
025good evening everyone and I just want to say we are in the middle of our annual review season. Um with all the snow, we've had lots of rescheduling to do which is always a lot of fun. Um one thing I will say this year we did try to set specific days for the case managers to limit some of the disruption in the classroom. That is working out really well. However, um the snow days are not. Um but I will say the parents all really did get a update in the beginning of the year in their case manager letter saying when their meetings were. So we have had a lot less um the day before the day of I need to change a meeting or a scheduling conflict that way. So that's been really good. Um
026we are still continuing with our collaborative IEP review. Um, we continue to look through our IEPs and look at consistencies, expectations. Um, and next month at our extended day, the plan is to really come up with some consensus around language for the different portions of the IEP. So, that's about it. Aside from snow days and rescheduling, we're trucking along in the PPS department. Any questions? >> How many IEP students do we have? Uh we have about 145 and um 45 right now. 48 with some new additional 504s. >> Mhm. Any anyone else? >> Thank you. >> Good evening. We are still coming down from the excitement of our bear bash. For those of you attended, we certainly appreciated you being there and I appreciate the board recognizing the uh thank you letter that was forwarded
027to you last time we met. Uh from what you can see, it was an extremely successful night. Part of my retirement plan is still not party planning. Uh but that party planning was on anything that I did alone. So I'd like to start off by just thanking Tanya Hugler who's a huge part of making that night a success. In addition to all of our extracurricular groups, our clubs, athletics, our teacher TVTA association, as well as our TESSA association, we had a number of volunteers that evening, including our student volunteers. And so, you know, as we were planning this event, a last minute idea had to do with making a volunteer pass for those students who were coming in dedicating their time to the evening to help out in some of the activities that were happening
028that night. And those badges were literally a lanyard with a card stock piece of paper. And the students wore them and sought me out no matter where I was for that evening to find this tag. They were extremely proud to be able to be part of the event. And it was amazing to see how helpful they truly were. When they were put out of station, our students stayed at that station until I encouraged them to go get a grilled cheese. Um, I think they would have just stood there and just engaged with all of our families that were here that night if I could if I would have let them. But I did make them take their breaks. But overall, as you can see from the smiling faces and really just the feedback that we've
029gotten from the thank you letters. So for every community partner that came here that night that was in this space, um, each of them received a personalized note signed by myself and Miss Hugler for participating and they, some of them even responded. So, the comments that you see there are just truly the appreciation back for them to be able to be invited to our first winter bear bash. I have not called it an annual yet, although I have a feeling that it's going to become that. Um, but we are already in the works of planning our summer bear bash. And as I had um alerted before, our winter bear bash um was very specific just our community relation partners and it was an isolated group that we were trying to get in. We were successful
030with that. But our summer bear bash will will go ahead and be the big broad event that we are familiar with making sure that we invite all of even our local clubs and partners. Uh but we are already planning that summer bear bash and uh maybe an annual winter one. We'll see how that goes for 2027. Uh any questions? >> Thank you. So, I get to follow the fun of uh Bear Bash. I apologize for any emotional whiplash that's about to uh happen here. The I wanted to give a little bit of a glimpse this month into something that's really behind the scenes and kind of invisible to most people. So, lots of times people think of it, they think of the nuts and bolts, keep the network running, network accounts, that type of thing.
031cyber security they realize is part of it but it's kind of like oh that's that firewall or anti virus thing but there's a lot more to it so what I'm doing tonight is giving you a glimpse of we process the news on this in the cyber security realm on a regular basis on a daily basis and we're constantly looking to see are any of the threats that are being announced a threat that we need to be concerned with here at the school that we need to do something to address and what I have here in the Next two slides is just cyber security threats that have been announced since our last board meeting. This is just the last two weeks things that we processed. We discussed in our department and went from there. So the
032first one here is CISA. For those of you who aren't familiar with CISA, they are the cyber security and infra infrastructure security agency. They're part of Homeland Security and they ordered an emergency patch for an actively exploited Dell flaw which caught our interest. Of course, we have a fair amount of Dell infrastructure here. Uh, federal agencies were given 3 days to patch and part of the reason for that is this particular flaw had a CVSS score of 10. So, you don't need to know what CVS stands for would bore you further. Um, but what you do do need to know is it's a 10-point scale that basically lets us know how serious is this flaw. All the way from a one being you really don't have to worry too much about this. It would be
033very hard to take for somebody to exploit this and even if they did, it wouldn't cause much damage. all the way up to 10, which is the case here, being a remote attacker, could hit a system, have no rights to it whatsoever, and exploit this flaw, and using this flaw, give themselves full administrator rights to the systems, and that's as bad as it gets in my world. So, this had a CVSS score of 10. We looked at it immediately. In this case, it turned out this was related to Dell's recover point for virtual machines, which is a software that we fortunately do not run here. So, we were able to determine we did not need to do anything with this particular software. Um, and part of the other thing that made this a 10 was
034this flaw was being actively exploited by a Chinese aligned threat cluster at the time, which is why CISA put out the alert immediately. The next one that came through was there was an unsecured database that was found publicly accessible from a digital verification company, a fraud verification company. So when you log into websites and you get that prompt there to determine whether you're human or not, that's done by an outside company. So, one of those companies that does that kind of identity verification, their database that they use to determine if people are valid or not, there was a database of nearly one terabyte of full names, birth dates, social security numbers, physical addresses, gender, and postal codes on American citizens that was openly available out there on the internet. Obviously, this isn't a flaw that
035directly impacted us, but it does raise the fact that I said, "Okay, I need to start working to get a communication, a refresher training out for our staff to let them know about this and to be even more vigilant, especially regards to identity theft. The next one was uh there was a beyond trust zero day exploit. Um almost a perfect 10 score as well, a 9.9 on this one. So, Beyond Trust is a security vendor. They provide antivirus. They provide other uh security products. And while they were not they're not a vendor that we use here, it did underscore for us as we were talking about this that the tools that we use to protect ourselves can also book be targets for attack. They can be things that attackers can use to exploit for us,
036which really has two lessons there. One, how important patching is. We're constantly patching systems. The number of different systems that we have that we have to be aware of for patches and stay up to date on is incredibly important that we are always up to date with those. And the second part is we use what I call a defense in-depth approach. So we have multiple layers of defenses provided by different companies. So even if our firewall vendor had an exploited, they have to get past other layers of defense in order to get into our network. And this this type of attack that Beyond Trust uh fell victim to just kind of underscores why that is so important to continue. The next one was a social engineering campaign, a new technique that's being used for social
037engineering and this one uses native Windows tools in the attack. And I won't go into the the depths of this other than to say that again it used that that uh fake capture type of popup and and it prompted the user to run a command on their machine to prove they were a human. When they ran that command, it actually executed against the attackers servers and gave them information that was used in the next stages of the attack to actually uh get access into the network and create uh uh a remote access Trojan, plant a remote access Trojan in the network, giving them backdoor access into the network ongoing from there. And the outcome from that investigation was that we really need to make sure that we we're working on a training right now. We're
038going to put out a video hopefully uh middle of next week with a training for our staff to be aware of this and what they should be looking out for to spot the difference between valid capture prompts and ones that are not. The next one was there were six actively exploited Microsoft components including Microsoft Word with a CVSS score of 8.8. Now this one was the first one out of these that directly affected us and that it's software that we run here. So this was really an all hands-on deck. Everyone in my department dropped what we were doing and worked almost exclusively on getting this patched, getting this p this Microsoft Word and other Microsoft components patch out to every PC that we've got. Um, and then evaluating which ones didn't receive the patch, going
039out in person to those machines and getting that done. So, normally when a patch comes out on the first Tuesday after the second Monday of the month, um we wait until late in the month before we start applying those patches just because sometimes the patches themselves have flaws and we don't want to push out something that causes people problems. But when it's something like this that is uh highly urgent and affects us and could really represent uh severe vulnerability to us, we will do that immediately. The next one is a there's a new fishing technique using public facing APIs. And an API is basically a programming interface. Um in this case, an API that provides connectivity into our Google infrastructure or into another company's mail infrastructure. and attackers are exploiting those APIs, finding ways to
040use those to send fishing attacks into a company using the company's own email server. So, if we fell victim to this type of thing, it would mean that our users would be receiving messages that could potentially hold a virus payload or other methods to initiate attack. and it was coming from a valid Tri Valley email address which means it would bypass our the vast majority of our uh virus filters and those types of things. So from this we that's triggered a review for us to go through look at every one of the APIs that we have into Google and make sure anything that we no longer need is disabled and removed and that's still in progress right now. And the last one I have for you, just because that wasn't enough for two weeks, um
041was the RED report 2026 came out um the day before I did this slide or the day I did this slide. And that is a report from one of the major security vendors on the trends they're seeing in the past year. And what they're seeing is a shift in attacker techniques from the media encryption. You've heard me talk about uh ransomware before. It's a big threat for school districts and obviously it can cause a ton of damage. The problem from the attacker perspective is a ransomware attack is very noisy. When they start encrypting your network, you know about it immediately and we're all trained to take action immediately. Start segmenting off the network, shutting machines down, trying to limit the damage and the attackers are then closed out. They don't want that. So now what
042they're seeing is in the past year 80% of the top 10 attack techniques are now dedicated to defense evasion persistence or command and control which means getting a foothold in the network and a backdoor in so that they can access your network and extract data out whenever they want. All of this is done as quietly as possible with the object being that they can be in there for months or even years without you realizing it. Unfortunately, school districts are not well equipped to spot this kind of attack. The types of software and that are necessary to reliably spot these kinds of attacks are not things that school districts are really looking at yet. For the most part, um I have one plan in mind for dealing with this which I'm not going to publicly discuss.
043Um anybody after the meeting wants to know, I'd be happy to discuss that with you. But >> yeah, I was just curious what we do separate email. >> Uh Yep. Absolutely. Two separate ways. You can either forward that right over to me or there's also in your email whenever you have a email message open in Gmail you will see on the right hand side there's an orange fish hook and that is for fishing report. So if you have a message looks like fishing you can click that and use that to report the fishing email to us as well. But if it does look very targeted, please just email me or even call me on that immediately because if you're receiving a targeted attack message, it's highly likely the other staff are as well. So >>
044Erin, first off, we may need a translator for some of what you just said because >> I'm sorry. I try I tried hard not to get into the lingo there and >> looking at a lot of stuff up there. >> I purposely didn't tell you what CVS score stood for and stuff. No, I I want to thank you for for you know, you you are in your craft and it's incredibly important because I know a lot of people in this room do not know what a lot of this stuff is. I don't know what it is. Um >> and largely we try to keep it invisible because we we we prefer that we're the only ones that can't sleep at night. >> It's immensely important and thank you. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. Uh, Aaron.
045So, Tim kind of beat me to the talk button, but I just wanted to thank you and your team for everything that you do. Keeping up to date on all this um is monstrous task for your department and uh keeping our our staff, our students, us, everybody in the district safe from uh these cyber threats. And uh thank you very much to you and your team. >> Thank you. >> When there's the last threat, how many you feel that it it affected or potentially affected >> the the Microsoft Word one? >> All of them. >> Oh, all of them in our school across the spectrum. >> Oh, they're just in these ones that I outlined here. probably with the scope of these ones, just about every American is affected in one way or another by
046one of these. >> So, it's not just schools that >> Oh, no. Absolutely not. Uh for profofit organizations are even more vulnerable because they've got bigger IT budgets. They tend to have even more software and everything that they're using and it's >> Yeah. I' I've gotten notice of of for two events of my own alone in the last uh week. >> Yes. >> Yeah. We actually haven't done it that yet this year, but one of the uh the fishing training is included in there. Um we're required to give uh information security training to everyone who has an account and I haven't done that for the board yet this year. So if we were able to find a time where I can meet and just go through that uh cyber security training with you. >> Yeah.
047I'm not talking school. I'm talking about personal. Yep. >> Thank you very much. Okay. So, I'm going to talk about some things that have been going on in the secondary school. So, one of the big events that we just had was our elective fair, and that was on Wednesday the 28th after a couple of reschedules, but we made it happen. Uh that involved seven groups of students in grades 9 through 11. 19 teachers presented with over 50 elective courses. So what happened was we shut down for half the day for grades 9 through 11 and these students traveled between different classes and they learned hands-on from the teachers that teach these electives what the electives were about. Um some of them were held in the classroom spaces that these courses are happening in. And we
048ended up um doing a survey after because this was the first time that we had done it for at least a few years before I was here. I don't think they did it um for a while. So when we did this, we did a survey right after to staff and students. And the survey feedback was all very positive and extremely helpful so we can start planning for the future and making this another event that we do yearly. Um, one of the quotes from one of the student surveys was, "It made me excited to get a chance to take some classes I wouldn't have looked at twice beforehand." So, one of the big things was when you're reading a sheet of paper and you're in those course selection meetings with your guidance counselor, what it says
049on paper, you might just skim it or it's not really your thing or you don't really want to know more about it. And then when it's different, when somebody's up there presenting that course to you and going through the details and all the exciting things and that was a lot of the feedback that we received. Staff were super excited about it. They felt that this was a really great opportunity for students. The students were attentive. The students traveled with note pages that were all sectioned out for them so they could remember what they were seeing. So when they go into those course scheduling meetings that I have already started and are actually on the end of finishing up with the counselors, they're able to really dig into what pathways they want to do and what
050courses they want to take. So this was a huge success in our book and we're looking forward to doing it next year, possibly expanding to another grade level as well and really giving that opportunity to students. So with that, our course selections have started in the guidance department. Students are coming down. They're learning more about their classes, about their pathways, about the graduation requirements, and they're looking at those electives that they can insert into their schedules as well. Scheduling meetings are happening behind the scenes with just the counselors right now. And then we will move into the staff, the teachers, and all of that part as we're working behind the scenes to make sure that we're aligning everything with the new requirements that are coming out from Blue Ribbon. College credit reimbursement. We're receiving a
051lot of feedback on that. As you know, our second semester has finished. So, we have wrapped up some of our college courses. We are finalizing some of our paperwork with our business department. And then as soon as that finalized paperwork comes through, that'll get blasted out to any student that has already completed a course. We've done our back-end work. We've pulled all the student grades. And then the parents will submit and families will submit the form for the college reimbursement for that credit recovery program that we were started last year. Well, the start of this year scholarship workshop. We did have a scholarship workshop planned. It did get cancelled because of weather, but we have a scholarship workshop that is coming. They will be coming here. We will announce the new date of that. Uh
052Mr. Williams was working that through. And that is an opportunity for families to come in is a representative from Hudson Valley that comes in and talks about different scholarships, some ways that you can apply, some things that'll give you a leg up. And it's really just an opportunity for families and students to learn more about how to give them that up when they're in a scholarship pool and things like that. Scholarships are getting blasted out daily. You're going to see a lot of emails and notifications about that. We have a section on our website that constantly gets updated daily. We're getting scholarships in. I think last year we had 100,000 plus um in funds given out in our scholarship night. So pay attention to those. We're encouraging students. We're working onetoone with students. or helping
053them through those processes. They can be overwhelming. However, we did learn a lot of the local scholarships will only receive a couple of nominations in there. So, it's a really great opportunity to get a lot of money for our students and we encourage them. We're encouraging families to encourage them to really participate and make sure they're applying for those. Competition night is fast approaching. that will be in March and the student officers and student council have been meeting. There's been a lot of discussions. They're looking to do some really exciting things. So, that is going on behind the scenes. State testing is coming up, which means our teachers and students have been trained. So, our staff all get a yearly refresher and CBT simulation and then we also do our regent uh training. So, all
054of our staff have now been updated for the year for all of our testing that will be coming up. We also got chosen for some testing simulations. That's through our computer-based testing. We've already completed those and those are off and those were successful. Uh last year there was a hiccup at the state level. So I don't know if you were aware or saw in the news and media New York State had an issue with their CBT testing. It was a complete state server end. It was not on our end. It did put some stress on our students. Our staff were quickly flexible. Our tech department was involved. We were all hands- on deck and made that happen. But it did put some hiccups in last year's. The state is reassuring us. Of course, we never
055know. So, we are hopeful that we will go off without a flaw, but our staff were incredible in that moment and very flexible. And our students really did not feel the huge impact of that. We really were able to work with them through that. So, our simulations went through. RNs are all clear. We're good to go. I ready diagnostic information. That's our seventh and eighth grade diagnostic. they just completed their uh midyear assessment and that information was mailed out to families as well as some information on how to read those reports. So that is something that our seventh and eighth grade families have received. PLC work, we're continuing to dig deeper into some of that common language that we were talking about, some gaps, some acceleration areas and our assessments. So every PLC group is
056at a different level. It's really catered to what we need in that department and every department is kind of focusing in now and honing in on different components and different pieces and I really think everyone is starting to really feel the value in these and you know it's been a great area that we are able to work with those staff onetoone and an administrator is able to sit there and kind of work through those pieces with them and it's really become a collaboration piece that I've enjoyed as well as I think some of the staff. So, we're really starting to see some of that work and we're really feeling those effects and the positivity that comes out of that. Any questions? >> I have one uh regarding Sunni Sullivan. >> So, this year they changed
057the uh enrollment >> for the classes. >> Is Mr. Williams or guidance able to tell us if there's a problem with the with the students enrollment only because I know several parents were very confused by how the process is now working and yes I I want to make sure that every student has the ability to take the class that >> absolutely >> they sign up for. >> So there's a few components there. So Mr. Schneider and I did some work last summer and we went to the college itself and met with them and explained some of the hiccups and some of the concerns that we had and some of the concerns that our families had. So we went and met with them. Um some changes were made, some changes were made late, some notifications, some
058uh security measures were were breached there. So we finally were able to pull it together and they did change their registration halfway through the school year. So, uh, that came to us about a week before classes had already started and then they gave us a few days to get everybody registered on an online component which can be confusing. However, some of it was still printed out. So, we have again I have talked to the college, I have called them, I have emailed them, I have let them know kind of the burden that this is and then um, you know, they are willing to work with me in the sense of if something isn't going through correctly, we can fix it. So what we just got today, what I requested is who actually got through and
059registered. So we pushed that out to our staff today to review. So every student in those college courses, the staff member that teaches that college course has just received the registration email. So now what they will do is they will reach out to each individual student, make sure did you want to register for this college course and get the college credit or are you just taking it as a college course. So, because there's two different pathways, you can take it for the credit or you can just take the course itself. Uh, so each teacher now will go directly to each student, make sure they're in the right section. We just received that today. Um, so the staff should be reaching out, I would say, tomorrow, if not Monday, with that information, making sure everyone who
060is supposed to be registered is registered. One of the really hard things that we have as a district is we don't have access to all of this information usually. So, we have to reach out directly. they have to send it to us. It's through like a third-party situation and it becomes very muddy and difficult. Payment is also a very muddy process with the college. It's unfortunately all with the college and again Mr. Sander and myself went there. We worked with them. We tried to explain um and it's we're held to the reigns of what the college is doing. We're doing our best to communicate it out as quickly as possible. We understand it was not an easy situation and it's not um all fully if it was one way or the other virtually done or
061handdone it would be okay but they've done parts switched over and parts not. But we did just receive those lists and we're hoping that can help. Um and I just communicate as much as possible to them and that that does help. We've had some students where they've gone the entire year thinking they're registered and then at the end we realize they're not and it was just because they didn't inform us. So we call, we go, we make it work. You're welcome. Any other questions? Thank you. Hello everybody. I'd like to start out by shouting out some students who have for the second year in a row swept the Sullivan County Volunteer Firefighters Association poster contest. Every fall uh when there's fire prevention day, the association puts out a theme. This year's theme was charge into
062fire safety lithium ion batteries in your home. And this year we had a first, second, and third place winner, which was the second year in a row we've swept the awards from the rest of the county. So extremely proud of Ariana, Austin, and Sarah for doing a great job on their posters. Earlier this month, right before Valentine's Day, we had our prek fashion show. If you have not seen the pictures, they're adorable. If you were there, the dance and cookies and the juice was great. Uh part of the prek curriculum is to go over fashion, talk about the different types of clothing, and they culminate this into a giant little fashion show where kids get to walk the red carpet and show off their best moves and show off their best uh best duds. So,
063it was a really great time. Uh parents showed up, they were able to take pictures and really watch the kids strut the catwalk, as you will. Um, and lastly, we have uh well, not lastly, but on the PowerPoint. Lastly, uh, our PLC's for an update are moving. Uh, they've been a lot of interruptions with the snow days, as you guys have heard through these presentations, but uh we're picking up momentum as we left off with the uh the two-hour delays and the snow days, and really talking about the difference between what a standard is, is it the teaching component, or is it what the students are supposed to be demonstrating. So, we're having some really great conversations and making sure that uh we're getting priorities really laid out. And hopefully in the future, within the
064next few months, we'll be doing vertical alignment so our grade levels will be able to touch base with the precursor grades or future grades to make sure that they're all lined up with what their expectations. And before I roll, uh we did our final honor roll count this week. uh we'll be recognizing 80 students in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade for honoral, high honoral and principal list. And today and tomorrow, Miss Pringle and I are giving out 250 attendance awards to students who have 95% higher attendance in the second quarter. So that's more than half of our school. We talk about the atrisisk kids. We we have meetings with Miss Williams and MTSS to really kind of hone in on the students who are chronically absent or going to potentially be chronically absent. and
065we're really not paying attention uh in the limelight to those students who are showing up every day. So, having these awards, having the kids um smile, get their little uh bracelets, and tomorrow they'll be getting a different trinket for four, five, and six um to really highlight the the good work they're doing. They can't learn if they're not here. That's one of the biggest messages we're sharing. >> Any questions >> on the ReadAcross America that you have coming up >> next week? Yeah. >> Yes. Um, >> did you have a good turnout for readers? >> Yeah, I think we're booked for readers, correct? >> Yeah, we're booked and we have some extras in reserve, so some classes might get an extra reader. >> Good. I'm very happy to hear that. >> And uh, next Thursday
066night, to plug TVTA, they're having their uh, dinner and a book event next Thursday night from 5 to 7. Correct. 5 to 7. Okay. Um, so if there's there's an RSVP form that went home with all of our kids in the backpack express, parents can get that in so we can get a count. That would be great. Okay. All right. And we'll roar into March. >> Just uh, how many students did you say in honor? >> 80. >> Yep. So that's off the top of my head that's about um, little less than half of the whole group. I think we've got about eight kids 170 kids. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Thank you. >> All right. Good evening everybody. So, uh quick athletics update. Um we are in the home stretch of the winter
067season. Um we had Santino Hafner representing us at the state ski meet. Um he his first run he was in 24th place. Um so he was up there Monday and Tuesday while the snow affected us. They were up at Bristol Mountain and that affect them up there. Um we had boys and girls indoor tracks were our division winners both. We had uh just put in the order for the uh patches from the division. So we have 42 patches coming for the uh boys and girls indoor team. They're going to be going to the state qualls here on Saturday and we're already setting up our walkthrough uh the ES. We have the bear and the ES getting ready for pre-state sendoff to the ES. Um, also hot off the press got the text about the time
068this meeting started, our girls varsity basketball team will be playing at Sword on Monday at 6 PM. Um, and hopefully we win that one and the championship game will be at the Mount on the 6th. Uh, right now these numbers are a little old, but um, those were our res our registration numbers for spring sports. Um, so right now for the time we had 60 uh signed up for JV and varsity, uh, 16 for modify, but that opened up a week later. Um, as I'm sitting over here, I'm still getting emails with registrations, so they're still coming in as those numbers are going up. Um, and I've talked to a lot of the spring coaches and uh, they're reaching out to some of those athletes that they know are going to be participating and just
069have to uh, get on and get registered. Uh on the wellness side of things, um we are their secondary school is uh the Sullivan 180 2026 art heroes. So uh as you saw during Bear Bash, we were selling hearts. Uh our school, our entire district was doing heartbased activities. We had spirit weeks based on heart health. Um all of the districts in Sullivan County raised just over $2,300 to the heartathon. um with the we got extra bonus points for having Bear Bash in that time. Um and we came in first place by one point over Sullivan West. So on top of all the great things that um that come from this with um raising money and teaching our kids about heart health, we are also going to get to pick a prize from Sullivan 180.
070Um so there's a few different options. I the echoes that are going to be coming through or gaga pit. Um that's one of the many options. We'll figure that out when we talk to SA 180. Um and lastly, uh a single bite. We're setting up our classroom visit and field trip for our seventh grade. Um this year they're going to be going to uh Hemlock and Flowering Sun Farms, the same locations that the seventh grade went to last year. And we're setting up our two classroom visits as well. Any questions? >> I don't have a question, but I wanted to just say thanks for jockeying the schedules. I know the snow days have not made it easy, so um thanks for keeping. Thank you. >> All right. Next, we have the budget uh administrative component
071presentation. All right. [clears throat] Thank you everyone for your great presentations. We have such wonderful things happening tonight. I'm going to present the program component. This is our meat and potatoes of what we do here. Of course, always rooted in our purpose and our direction and what's best for our children. Tonight is really about the direct investments in our students in our classrooms. So, tonight I'm going to talk about staff, which is really a legal thing. I'll explain in a second. Um, our teaching, our instructional media, our pupil services, transportation, our community connection, our employee benefits, and the inter fund transfers. So, this one is funny. It's a projected increase of 18.4 4%. All this is is a shift in our budgetary codes. So, we're taking our legal services. We have a retainer that we
072keep with our attorney firm and the majority of the work we do with our attorney comes out of the program component. So, what we've done is just properly code that. So, it's not an increase in the cost of our services. It's just properly coded. This really is what we do. This is why we're here. This is all of the um stuff that goes into our classrooms. It's about a 7.1%. This is all of our teacher salaries, our special ed teacher salaries, our gened, our teaching assistants, our aids, our subs, all of our classroom supplies and equipment, any a lot of our professional development comes out of here, textbooks, all of our tuition to Boseies, and then any of our children that go to other schools, the tuition for that. And then our oed services which
073includes our PT, our OT and our speech services and their materials. We have a decrease of 18.9% projected in our instructional media. Uh that is two again because of the budgetary um shifts. Some of our well our tech director Mr. Butler was not properly coded and so we shifted him correctly and that caused a significant decrease for us. And as Erin was talking a lot about all the uh intricate stuff they're doing to keep us safe, he's also doing a lot of work to um lower the com the budget for technology by working with Boseies looking at Boseies. What can we buy from Boseies that's going to be aidable and save us a little money there. Our pupil services um this is a projected increase of 19.5 and again this is a budget code correction.
074So, our psychologists and our guidance counselors weren't properly coded before and now they have the correct codes. Um, we did not have our attendance person in this and they are now. And then just really our uh supplies, materials, and contractual health expenses that we have. This also has our athletic salaries and our Boseies cost. And I'm going to show you the Bosei slide at the end, but we we contract with Boseies for Huddle, our Huddle camera. And we are super blessed to be able to have our huddle camera at various locations so we can capture all of our athletic events at home. But we also contract our officials. And one thing we did this year was we used three officials at the majority of our games. Next year we won't. We're going to go back
075to two unless it's a game that we really feel like we need to have three people on the floor watching, you know, and really doing a great job for us. Um and that will so this will actually decrease a little bit. people transportation is going up about 2.4%. Um, and you know, this is our daily stuff. This is our busing, our field trips, our sports, and our late runs. Um, the reason it's not really going crazy is, you know, the CPI index that kind of controls what happens with our transportation contract. The diesel fuel runs are projected to be about 4.5% less this year. Gas is going down. So, that balanced it a little bit. And I don't have numbers yet, but I have to believe that we are going to see a decrease in
076transportation just with a purchase of that school vehicle because we've really been able to transport kids around where it would normally cost us maybe $250 to drop a kid off for um if they were at an event at a different school. Uh let's see what I would say about that. One thing I do want to just kind of point out that we are so lucky about is our late run. So we run a 4:15 bus in the afternoons and we run a 5:15 bus in the afternoons. And so that has allowed us to when we brag and say we've got 150 160 kids staying after school every day for academic support or clubs, part of it is because we can give them a ride home and and that's really a b a bonus for our
077kids and and same with athletics. So a lot of our students that if they didn't have that transportation might not be able to participate. So again, a real testament to our community and to our board for allowing us to to offer those to our children. Community services, this is decreasing uh 4.7%. This is our yearly commitment to the town of Neversync. We pay them $10,000 and then we partner with them throughout the spring season at the 42 park. Um it lets us play games up there if if our fields are not um able to be used because of water, excessive rain. it decreased because there was a stipend in there for uh a census person for $500. That's not an annual thing. So, we took that out. We'll put it back in when it's time
078to do that again. Our employee benefits are going to decrease about 2% and again we're looking at the same numbers that we were with the other one the other two components. The retirement system is going to be at 17.6%. The teacher retirement system just came out. I think it's 8.24. Um, it's a little bit lower than when I presented last time. That just came out. Health insurance, dental, and vision. We're going to remain at a 14% increase. Hoping to give ourselves a little bit of a buffer with those unknowns. And then social security and Medicare workman's comp, you know, those are going to be kind of out of our hands. The inner funds transfer, there's no increase in this. And this is kind of an interesting one. The interfund transfer is the difference between what
079we the federal government gives us for a grant and what the state approves that grant to be, we always have to fund the difference. So, for example, if we let's say we have a title one grant from the state for student services and it's $100,000, but the state only says it's worth $80,000 or 80%. the district always has to make up that difference to maximize that federal grant. So that's um that fluctuates. It depends on how much we get from the federal government and it depends on how much the state gives us in value back. We always owe 20%. Sometimes we owe a little bit more. So that's a wash every year. It's just something we have to do internally to make sure that those federal G grants are are filled completely. Here's a look
080a little bit at what we use Boseies for and what the projected costs are. So, we have our career and tech program. We have special education and related services. We have our alt ed. Um, we have our spark and ITAP. We're just really intensive services for some of our students. The related services are the nursing, anything that goes along with that. We purchase all of our computers, our hardware, software, Chromebooks, laptops from Boseis. Um our athletics as I was talking about comes out of that. Our library services which is our automated system and then any our we can do some inter loans between Boseies and other districts. And then our arts and education which is I explained last meeting we took great advantage of and we've saved almost $19,000 so far in field trips for
081kids. Um they're proposing a 17% increase in the Bosey's budget. Again, the good news is we pay for seats and if we don't fill those seats, we get that money back. So, we might say we want 55 seats for career and tech, but we might only have 47 kids go. So, we'll be reimbursed the f at the end of the year for those seats we don't use. Same with any of the all ed. So, we might project we're going to have four kids in that program, three kids in the intensive programs, but we really only use one. So, we always get reimbursed. So this year we budget about $450,000 for our reimbursements annually from Boseies. This year we're going to end up with a lot more. Um they put a project together. They were working
082on the uh cosmetology space at Boseies. They had some issues last year and they weren't able to get that completed. So we get the reimbursement because we've always paid already paid into that. So it fluctuates. Um so that 17 will change because it's based on the seats that we've we've kind of ordered. So, here's an overall look at the program component. Um, we are looking at a 3.37% increase overall. Um, we're keeping things as tight as we can. We're trying to be very mindful. I will I will give a little kudos to Martha Turbush. She came in yesterday and said, "In all my years, and you know, Martha's been she is the history of that business office." She said, "I have not seen in a long time the diligence going into planning this budget. you
083are very attention to detail. The codes are being doing being done correctly and so the office staff has really been working to get a great handle on our spending. So that's where we're at for the program component. Next time we meet I will be doing our tax cap, our levy. I'll do a big summary of all of the components and then talking about um our contingency budget if we should need that. What questions can I ask or answer? >> I had a question. And um you mentioned therapy salaries. Um what therapists do we have inhouse versus uh contracting from outside? Like I know we have OT inhouse speech and PT. >> Yes. Mhm. We have all those. >> They're all in house. >> All All in-house. Yes. >> Okay. Great. >> We contract with Kim
084Costa, but she works here with us. She's Catskill Kid, so she's here with us. You mentioned the official link. >> That's for basketball specifically. >> You want to be cautious of that. What's that cost year? >> Uh uh it's what about 120 an official? >> So what do you figure the savings would be? >> It would be minus 120. So we're paying $360 a game. We would go down to 240. be cautious about thinking about that because they're getting older and they're having trouble getting officials. >> Well, as we can see, running up and down the court. >> I agree. One thing I I thought worked well this year is there are some new officials coming and it's nice for them to be in a three-man team with some of our more veteran officials to
085learn the ropes. You know, um officiating is tough to recruit, that's for sure. when you did the presentation under TR, what did you what percentage did you have >> for the TR? >> Yeah, the uh TRS >> uh 17.6 and that's coming directly. No, for the teachers retirement system 8 >> that is that what you had down or did you now that's what is 8.24 to four. That's recommended. But what did you have recommended before that you >> I think what I recommended at the last meeting was like an 8.69. So it's decreased and that just came out. >> So we didn't have much savings there then. >> No. >> Transportation. >> Mhm. >> I know. You know I have a problem with that. It needs to be looked at. We have less kids and
086we're paying more. And I understand cola now. Is this part of cola the amount that's going up? 2. >> Yeah. Yeah. So >> 42%. >> So we don't have that cost the consumer price index yet, but we we anticipate what that is. What's going to save us is the diesel fuel. The cost of fuel is going down 4.5%. >> We really need to look at that. >> I've been saying that for three years. Thank you, >> Aaron. When will Boseis be coming to present to us? >> So we can arrange for Boseis to come at any time. I have a superintendent meeting tomorrow. So I will certainly inquire about what would be a good time for them to do that. >> Yes. >> I have a question. Um we've discussed earlier in the year. Does
087it benefit the district to purchase another vehicle to transport some of these kids especially for the the smaller sports programs and the other extracurriculars? Uh, we have that white bus. I don't think it's super useful, but this van seems to have saved us a significant amount of money for sure. >> So, the white van has become more useful because Tanya got her um 19 license, so she can drive a bus, so she's been able to take that on trips, too. Um, I do think it would be a benefit for the district to look at investing in another school vehicle. The one we have right now has a recall with it, and it's limiting us a little bit. and how many kids we can actually transport. And we're having a heck of a time with Toyota
088trying to get a replacement and they don't have a a plan for the recall. The the second seat has got some welding issues and so they're recommending that nobody sits in it. Don't worry about any of us that all road down to New York City in it. We're fine. Um but we've been really battling with Toyota to get a rental something. Um I do think another school vehicle is something we should look into. let us finish the budget and look at where we stand for this year and it might be worthwhile to make that investment to get a school suburban which would be uh a choice of mine. I think the van was about 41,000. I think the suburbans are going at about 61,000. Um a little bit more room better in this kind of
089terrain that we have. But again, us being able to transport a lot of us have become occasional drivers. uh it's it's it's really 15 20 minutes for us to hop in the car and take kids someplace and if that saves us 250 bucks a run or something, we are more than willing to do that. So, we'll look into that. >> I saw a vehicle at the administration a number of times. It appears to be like a catering vehicle. It didn't appear to have plates in the front. What is that? Is that ours or? >> Uh that belongs to a staff member. >> Okay. Thank you. roll right in the superintendent report. >> I sure do. So, uh just it'll be very quick. A couple of things. Ellenville Central School is doing a uh capital project
090right now. They're working on their field and their track and I know they've been talking to area schools about possibly using their field and track. Um I know Mr. Kudelli is in contact with them. Rondo is uh going to be hosting their big invitational here in May, but they are asking for opportunities to come here and use our track for practice and possibly use our football field next fall for games. Uh we're willing to listen to what they have, but it would not be feasible if it was going to impact any of the stuff our students are doing. So, it would not bump any of our students out. We'll get that information and then we'll come to the board to ask for your approval on that. Um, the Cold War tax exemption I wanted to
091bring up a little bit tonight. We have a total of 36 parcels in Sullivan County. That includes the town of Fallsburg and the town of Denning and Olter County. Um, we believe of the 36, 26 of them are eligible for the Cold War exemption. If you break that all down, it's about $8,200 total in a tax exemption for all 26 parcels total. And if you divide that over our taxpayers, which is about 5,500, it would be about a $1.40 on average for each household to cover that exemption for these veterans. So, I am going to ask tonight for the board to consider an emergency resolution um for this exemption. Just want you to think about that. I too want to give a little bit of an update on our emergency closings. Um we banked originally
092for seven last year. I think Mrs. Boly knew it was coming and we moved to eight. Um, we've really used six, but because of uh something that was written in and signed by the governor in 2019 and ED law chapter 505 605 when a state or local declaration of emergency has been executed, the district will not have to make up that day in order to comply with 180day requirement. So, we technically are we're operating with four snow days left or emergency days and and we're going to adhere to that. We're going to hope we get through next week and then we're going to see some sunshine and warm weather from there. So, I just wanted everybody to be rest assured that we are still in great shape. Our neighboring districts are not in such great
093shape, but we are. And we've put that same amount in to our school calendar for next year. We have received two foils. We received one on January 29th from Jeffrey Lee from Smart Procure for all purchasing records from October 1st until present. and we received one on January 23rd from Holly Hafner representing the Thomas Droan Waxman Pitigrow and Mey LLP for copies of the most recent collective bargaining agreements and any applicable MOAs for teaching assistance and aids and then any sip for district toileting which we don't we don't offer that. That's all I have. Any questions on that? Did the government declaration come with any money reimbursement? >> Imagine that. >> No. When we went to the three-hour delay yesterday, and I I do have to thank the admin team. I have to thank Daisy.
094I think I called her four times before 7:00 to see if she could make this happen. Um, we were able to put together, you know, a modified schedule where every period happened, but the students had a hot lunch. Um, and that's what we get to our aid for the day. And we really did not want to close. It was just the timing and the the way that snow came in. >> I have something quick. Uh, Erin, you spoke about Ellenville upgrading their field and utilizing our field. Um, we are now one of the only area schools that has, you know, relatively low-end facilities. Liberty, Monaceel, Eldrid, Ellenville, you name it. They're all getting upgrades. I would really like for this administration to make that something that is a forefront uh item. >> Yes, we met
095with land uh architects yesterday. Um we're going to be finalizing our contract with them for the next board meeting. They came up for a few hours and again we reiterated to them how like a huge priority. you know, we've got some infrastructure stuff, but um it in my eyes as as a competitive lens, if nothing else, we need to be able to compete our soccer teams and football teams with our area schools because they do have those turf fields coming in. Um and and LAN is they've got some fantastic ideas for our gym space and then for across the street in our track and field. So, it's absolutely a priority for us. >> Thank you. Anybody else? Thank you. Item seven, uh, item Z, board wants pulled from tonight's agenda. I have an item. All
096right. So, strike call from the agenda. All right. So, this is a resolution to approve the entire consent agenda minus item 12. Uh, this is an action. I need a motion. >> motion by Jerry, second by George. Believe vote on this. Hey, Heather. be second. >> All right, that was unanimous and we're going to move on. All right, we're going to go to item 12 on the consent agenda. Personnel carry that discussion question on certification. >> Can you tell me who one from Arizona. >> Okay. What I'm Tell me what your question is on the certification. >> Certified in New York for teaching. >> All right. Let me pull her application here. >> I don't see I don't see any references other than Arizona. So, I I think she's just relocated here. She's just come
097back here. >> Well, that's fine. But what is it you need to be working in a district a school in that position according to New York State rules? >> So, this is a substitute teacher. >> Correct. Then >> so as a substitute teacher, what credentials do you need in New York State to to substitute teach? >> We we don't need any >> nothing. >> No, we we we recommend that you've had two years of college. And for us, our practices, our younger subs, our college students are in the elementary. We don't have them in the secondary school, but you don't need any type of certification to be a sub. >> Sub to teach. >> A sub to teach. >> And what does a teacher need in New York State to teach? >> A teacher needs
098a New York State certificate to teach. >> Very interesting. >> Some states have a reciprocal program, so you could be certified dually in different states. >> Very interesting. All right. So, we have a motion. We have a second. Uh my hand a hand vote if you approve the personnel second. Any opposed? 8 one opposed. Motion carries. All right. Moving on to 13. Old business. There's going to be an action. Have a motion. Jerry, you have a second. >> Second by Travis. Any discussion? Right. Let's proceed to Motion carries. That was unanimous. Moving on to public comment session for items that are not on tonight's agenda. Don't think we have any. We move on to 15. New business. Um, do I have a motion to uh carry the adoption of the full war veterans exemption? >>
099Second. >> Motion by Pat. Second by Rose. >> Going to be by hand. Raise your right hand if you're four. All right. And [clears throat] be it further. Whereas, pursuant to section 458-B of the New York State Real Estate Property Tax Law, school districts are authorized to provide a partial exemption for taxation for qualified Cold War veterans. And whereas the Board of Education of the Tri Valley Central School District and recognizes the service and sacrifice of Cold War veterans residing within the district. And whereas the board desires to extend the cold war voter veterans exemption to eligible veterans not currently receiving any other veterans exemption currently authorized by the district. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the board of education of the new of the Tri Valley Central School District hereby adopts the Cold War
100Veterans Exemption pursuant to section 458-B of the New York State Real property tax law. And be it further resolved that the exemption shall apply to school district taxes beginning with the next assessment role prepared after the effective date of this resolution. And be it further resolved that the district clerk is directed to provide a certified copy of this resolution to the appropriate municipal assessors officials as required by law. All right. Item 16, we have the board comment section. >> Start with you. Terry, >> I'd just like to congratulate all the second quarter honoral students on a job well done. Um, that's all I have. >> I just want to wish good luck to all the athletes. I attend the awards for the uh I guess you call the junior high seventh and eighth grade and
101I noticed a uh I've attended many of them and I noticed an increase in numbers of receiving the awards. So I asked someone that was uh wellversed in knowing what's going on in Tri Valley and he mentioned that uh cell phone use was a big one. the kids aren't using it. They're paying attention and that uh is a great thing. The only thing I have to say about it, when I came on the board three years ago, I tried to get that done. So, I should say we're three years behind the results. So, I just want to mention that. But thank you staff. Thank you for the kids that that's learning that. Another thing is last fall we had some uh at least I did some anxious moments and comments in reference to the geese
102on the field and to this date I presented what I need to present. The committee is no longer in existence. You know geese season's right around the corner. So what is our intent and what's our expectations and what are we going to do? What what are we thinking about? I think that's important to talk about because uh we talked about it uh quite a lot last fall. So, uh I'm just wondering. Thank you. >> I just wanted to say uh great job class of 2026. I hope it all works out. It sounds like it could be a lot of fun and uh keep it up. Good job. I want to buy a candy bar. >> The goose situation is very near and dear to my heart. So we do need to re-eval reestablish the committee
103to move forward with conversation to address the goose mitigation mitigation. Um so what we just we need to have a motion to create the committee again. Correct. and then we can meet to discuss what we're going to do to address the problem. >> This is the goose poo committee. >> Yeah, >> I'd like to be Yeah, I want to be part of >> and that would be great because I have um several things we can purchase. I just kind of need your go-ahad on what you think is going to work and and then Jesse's ready to go. >> Do we really need to have a committee? Can't we just go on what the uh what we put in? Because Aaron wrote up what I had. That was very important. And uh if you got an
104idea what you need, why why a committee? Just go bring it up before the board and be done with it. Let's move on. >> I'm fine without a committee, believe me. >> Okay. >> I mean, right. I mean, >> all right. So, I will I will have for all of us my our suggestions of what we're going to purchase to put out there >> and and the cost mainly too, you know. Yes. Yep. >> And then the letter. >> Yes. Okay. Thank you. Mhm. I'm good. Okay. >> Thank you everyone for your presentations tonight. >> All right. And uh we're wrapping up winter sports. Uh big thank you to the coaches. Uh ton of time and effort put in. Uh thank you to staff for jockeying around a number of snow days and events. And
105thank you to Cass for always having things set up out there, raising money, getting shirts. Um, you guys probably don't hear about how much that they do, but you do a ton. So, I see you in the back there. Shout out here. It's important work and our kids wouldn't get all that stuff if they didn't do it in their volunteers. Thank you. All right, the next one's very important. Jerry second favor. Oh, wait. Okay, you got to wait for the electro. Hit the button. Unanimous. Yes. Yep. Have a good night.