TVCS Board Meeting 2/12/25

001Good evening everyone. I call this meeting of the board of education of the Tri Valley Central School District to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Ice flag. We're going to skip to item three. A new board of em board of ed member vote. In front of you, you do have a ballot for the new board of ed member. If you please We have one vote Tim Diamond by Jerry Stevens. One vote for Tim Diamond by Kerianne Pulley. One vote Tim Diamond by George Dean. One vote Tim Diamond Nicole Berkkey. One vote Tim Diamond for Travis Hartman. One vote Tim Diamond by Tammy Chabot. One vote Tim Diamond for Pat Kelly. And one vote for Tim Diamond by Rosewood. That is unique. Mr. Diamond, can you please come up? Next, we are going to

002move on to the election of the board of education president. That ballot is 12. Prior to the uh vote, I would just like to say that uh I withdraw my name. I nominate Tim Diamond. I'll second it. All in favor? That is unit. All right, bear with me. It's my first go here uh in the new seat, but uh I'm I'm glad to be here. I'm happy to be back. Uh and I appreciate the support from the the board and the community. And we are going to roll right into subject E, the election of our board of education vice president. Do I have a nomination? >> Nominate. >> All right. Kell Carrie Poli is nominated. Do we have a second? >> Second that. And uh I think my name was in the running also for

003and I'd like to withdraw my name for vice president. >> Okay. Second by Travis Hartman for Perry Poli. Any discussion? All in favor raise your hand. All right. Any opposed? Unanimous. Thank you, Carrie. There she is. Very right hand. I fully pledge and declare and the constitution. I will faithfully discharge according to the best I believe we're going to go back into our original agenda here. And uh we have a motion to go into executive session. >> Motion. >> Second. >> All right. We have uh Jerry is a motion. Travis Hartman's a second. Uh we are going into exec session. All in favor of going into exec session. Any opposed? All right. See you in a couple minutes. Item four, correspondence. Uh, we're going to be back in session at 7:41. We do have a

004piece of correspondence here. I will read this to you. It's dated February 2nd, 2026. Dear Superintendent Long and the Tri Valley Board of Education, thank you for your support and participation in our Bear Bash event. Your involvement play an important role in making this event a meaningful and successful experience for our students, families, and staff. Bear Bash is more than a celebration. It reflects the strong partnerships between our schools and the community we are proud proud to be part of. Your commitment to supporting our students and families helps strengthen these connections and reinforces the shared values that make Tri Valley such a special place. We truly appreciate the time and resources you dedicated to this event. Your leadership helps us create positive, memorable experiences that foster school spirit and community pride. Thank you again for

005your continued support of the trial central schools. And it's signed with sincere appreciation from uh Jen Williams, director of multi-tered system supports and community services, and uh Tanya Hugler, who is the community schools leazison. So, thank you so much. That's a really nice letter. Great job with Okay, next up we have uh public comment um for items that are on tonight's agenda and we have two disregard. We're going to roll right into presentations, but we are going to break out of order and we're going to call up uh Mr. Bo Mueller uh and he's here to speak. So Bo, if you're here, come on up. I'm here today to pitch all to all of you an idea I had a middle school. When I was younger, my cousin named Rebecca worked at the elementary school

006in Cleveland, Ohio. And at a Christmas party, she had asked everyone to collect pencils for her because the students at the school were poor and didn't have enough pencils. When I heard of this, I had thought of ways to help her. After some thought on her problem, I had asked the custodian nearby my mom's office to collect pencils for me. After just a week, he had found around 30 pencils. I had sharpened and bought new erases. Eventually, after a few months, I had 300 pencils I can give to Rebecca. I put them all in a box and shipped them off to Cleveland. But I didn't stop there. the custodian would still collect them for me and I started to give them to teachers in the elementary school. As I went into high school, the custodian

007janitor, the custodian retired and I and I outgrew the idea. But recently, I thought, why not bring my little program back and keep giving pencils and other things such as pens or markers back to uh teachers and students instead of them being thrown away. All I need to do is leave boxes in each custodial closet and ask the custodial crew nicely if they could pick up anything that seems reusable. I can come to the school and pick pick up whatever they found and sort through it or what was found and could be taken home with me or I can where I can sharpen all the pencils, test the pens and markers and bring them back to give them to all the teachers. I believe this idea could save a lot of waste and keep pens

008and pencils in the hands of learning students. Thank you for your time. One more thing I like to say, I put a photo on the Smartboards. Um, when I was younger, I had a I was a part of a app called YOLO where my friends could u send me anonymous messages and one of them knew that I was collecting pencils for students. Uh, in the photo, it shows a box full of pencils that I gave back to teachers in the middle middle school and I would sort them by like number two pencils because certain pencils can be used for tests and everything. I thought that pencil that photo would help me. Thanks, Bo. Okay, we're going to keep rolling here. We're going to get on to number six, presentations. And first up, we have Bear

009Cub. Uh, and Omar Deloquad. Come on up. Good evening everyone. Well, I just want to start out by saying that program absolutely. >> Okay, I was just speaking to to Bo. Um, so Bo, what I was saying is that Bearcup Basketball would love to support you um in expanding whatever um initiative you're trying to do. Um, I think it's a wonderful initiative and um, if you want to just reach out to us, we will be more than happy to support you. Um, so, so Bearcup basketball is here today for a very specific reason. But before we get into that, I really thought it would be wonderful to kind of share more information, not only to the board, but the community around our program because there are there is a lot that really goes on behind

010the scenes that people don't necessarily notice. Um, Thank you. >> Excuse me. Is that going to double up on the other screen? No. Apologize. It's just difficult to see technology, right? Thank you. Thank you. All right. So I think um and really I think this entire presentation really speaks to um the last four years that I've truly been in involved with the program and we really truly had some humble beginnings. Um when Bearcup basketball um transitioned over, we didn't really have anything. Um at the time, um Brent and Judith Clark had had pretty much um tapped out and um they reached out to us. Um and at at the time it was a very very tough transition um because there were really wasn't a lot of infrastructure. Um plus we at the time we were

011um we had a big threat to the program which was uh fundraising. And so we truly truly had some really humble beginnings. This is us and this is how we started. We literally um were out in the community doing co coin drops um trying to raise money to for equipment um at the time um for some security personnel. And so you can see our kids. These are our kids um out there in the community raising funds um one day it snowed and the kids were still out there. So, I truly truly mean that we had humble beginnings and it's the support of the community, the kids that really got us off the ground. With that start, one of the things that we quickly established was infrastructure. Um, we didn't have simple things like a logo.

012There's our logo. Um, that came from scratch, grassroots. Um, with that new logo came a new culture. I was really really big on creating a culture that we can emanate out in the community and so culture became a huge part of our program. We didn't have a mission statement. We created one. Um purpose of TV Bearcubs is to promote youth sports and foster leadership, character, sportsmanship, discipline, and a love for basketball. We ensure every child has has a chance to play regardless of ability or experience. Our program emphasizes honesty, integrity, teamwork, respect, commitment, education, and community involvement. Helping young athletes grow into responsible, active members of society while learning the value of competition, victory, and perseverance. That is our core. That is our mission statement. That's what we stand by every day. as our program

013evolved. Um, I mean, for starters, we're a 100% volunteer-based organization. We exist because of our volunteers. Our board are volunteers. Our coaches are volunteers. This year we have 24 coaches. Um, our referees are volunteers. Um, our scorekeepers are volunteers. Um, everything we do is because people have taken the time to invest into our program for our children. Additionally, every dollar we raise goes back into the program. The there are no administrative fees. Everything that we we raise, whether it's through registration, through our fundraising, 100% of it goes back directly into the kids. So, who do we serve? And some of these numbers are are for this year alone. So, this year alone, we have um from 1 through 6th grade, we have 145 Traley schools uh school children that are involved. We do serve first

014through sixth grade. Um and how however, we also do uh kindergarten basketball clinics. We'll get to that later. Um, when we first started, we didn't have a first gate first grade program. There was a need. We saw an opportunity. And a couple years back, we expanded to first grade. So, now we serve first through sixth grade. Um, the kindergarten kids through clinics and each year, which I think is pretty impressive, we've had pretty steady growth. We average about 220 kids um that we serve not only in our community but across the greater community as well. I just want to just share some pictures with you guys. This is our kids in action. Um here some of the kids are playing games. You can see the angel's range. You can see how cute these pictures are.

015I don't have to sell these pictures. I think they speak for themselves. But this is what we're doing every Sunday throughout the games. It's these kids interacting, playing with each other, um having fun, and really instilling that sense of community into these children. These are our kindergarten clinics. Um you can see they're actually practicing the bear stance, right? Um simple little things like this. They start early, right? We talk about community pride. We talk about Tri Valley Bears. That's what it's about, right? They learned this early. Earlier I spoke about culture. One of the biggest things that's ingrained in our culture is equity and access. We hear about it all the time. This is important to me. Right? When we think about culture, when we think about what we want our program to represent, we

016want to make sure that our program is accessible to every child that wants to play. We don't have any exclusion exclusions based on financial need, experience, or ability. We provide access to equal access to coaching, equipment, playing time. We even sponsor children that can't afford their registration fees. And we've created a very discreet process that supports family dignity. And um once again, it's very discreet. Um and this year alone, and you'll see this later on, we sponsored over 25 kids in our community. All of our program decisions are guided by fairness and inclusion. We've made a lot of investments into our children. All of these initiatives are initiatives that started from the ground up. As we got more fluent in fundraising, as we got um more fluent in our infrastructure, we were able to start

017truly reinvesting into our children. We started a weekly snack program. That snack program was a result of us watching some kids be hungry. I mean, that's to me that's really important. That was the originating part of that program, right? It was trying to create equity and access across across the board for all children. So, while they were in our care playing games, everyone gets a snack bag every week, right? We didn't want to marginalize the few. In addition to that, we now have what what I consider the gold standard. Every kid that comes through our program gets a personalized water bottle, a shirt, and last year we added winter hats, matching winter hats by that. Um, so they're looking kind of stylish. Um, we've also invested in a lot of equipment. Um, every year we

018we retire basketballs. We do donate basketballs back to the school. Um, and we purchase new equipment so that all the kids have access to high quality equipment. In addition to that, we now give every child a trophy at the end of the season. In addition to that, we have the gold standard is a party. The last two years, we've been able to have a party, all expenses paid by our program at Li Liberty Heights where every child can attend and have fun for the entire day. We've also incorporated a move up game for our sixth graders. Um, so these are just some of the investments that we've made back into into our kids. Here you're going to see some of some of the pictures from our end of the year celebration. This was just last

019year. You can see all the different coaches with their teams, um, all the kids. Um, honestly, it's a really, really good time. I've even jumped in with with the kids myself, so I can guarantee it's a good time. I may pay for it later, but it's definitely worth it. Um, game day, there's a lot that happens on game day. I mentioned that um there's a lot of volunteers, there's a lot of moving parts, but at the end of the day, we've been able to on average have about four clinics a year with about 15 children attending each clinic for a total of about 60. We have open gym, so on the elementary school side, we have open gym for first through fourth grade. And on the high school side, we have open gym um for

020fifth and sixth graders. And we also have some kids that come back to help out and be role models to those kids. Earlier I mentioned culture. Our culture is one of community, especially family engagement. A few years ago, um I started to have a conversation with um a gentleman from Liberty. um he ran the Liberty Parks and Wreck um basketball program. They were struggling. Um we had a great conversation and that year we made the decision to open up our program and have some of those kids from Liberty Parks and Wreck come play with us on Sunday Funday. I'm going to tell you three years ago, best decision we made as a community. That decision has paid off today. But this was about a shared value system. And really the core core premise behind it

021was let's just get these kids to play basketball. That's it. Nothing else. Nothing more. Kids want to play, let's get them to play. We've created partnerships. That was a partnership we created um with them. We've created other partnerships as well. So, we partner with the Tri Valley Little League. We give out Thanksgiving dinners. Um, I've personally delivered some dinners myself. Um, so with the Tri Valley Little League, they started something. They asked us, "Hey, do you want to be a part of this?" Partnership was formed. We held a concession stand with the Tri Valley PTO. Um, last year we recently supported the the coat drive. We have a strong established relationship with our local catechist program um that truly reinforces faith and family unity, ensuring students that that they can play while they're attending family

022masses. That one's special. We'll come to that one later. We've also collaborated with our local police department. For years, we held the dunk tank. Last year, we had one of our Falls finest come and join the Dunt Tank. Um, they volunteered. We reached out to the police department, excuse me, and one of their members came down, was in the dunk tank, and guess what? Kids were dunking a police officer. It was great fundraising, I'm going to tell you. Um, this here is our community in action. So, the picture in the left, remember that Liberty Partnership? Those are Liberty girls volunteering at our games. See that picture on the right? Preview to my basement. That's on the one side. You got the adults. There were plenty of kids. On the other side, we were making snack

023bags. There's the famous dunk tank. The beauty behind this is the emphasis on community. You see our own kids. All of these kids went through our program. And you can see Officer Gonzalez on on the bottom left. Um, this is about the kids coming back, volunteering, having fun. And a lot of these kids actually spent hours at our dunk tank. Again, going back to culture, culture is important. So, we wanted to promote core family values and giving back, right? One of the ways that we do that is by having our our parents or really encouraging our parents to be at every practice, every game, every open gym. Our games encourage intercom community interaction that brings families and players together for for a full day of fun while strengn strengthening relationships within the community. Each year,

024many of our former participants return to support the program as volunteer referees, scorekeepers, and that ranges from middle school all the way through high school. We even have some kids that come back once they leave the community and and are back in our community that are like, "Hey, how can I help you?" And a lot of them end up doing something for us. I mentioned the Granville fair, the Dunk Tank, I mentioned all of these wonderful t uh volunteers, but again, I I just want to reinforce it's about coming back, about being ingrained in our program through all of these different events. This year, I'm especially proud because as of three hours ago, I just got a delivery of our snack bags. Our snack bags were actually completed by Fallsburg students this year that needed

025volunteer hours. We talk about sportsmanship. Sportsmanship is key to our program. When I talk about infrastructure and structure, one of the things we implemented was um a code of conduct. It's a code of conduct that every student has to sign at the start of every season. These are things they're going to have to do later on in life when they're playing modified sports, when they're playing JV, varsity. We're starting that early, right? These are the expectations th this is. And it fosters a conversation between player and coach at such an early level that I I personally think um these children are better off for it. For us, sportsmanship is an understanding of and a commitment to fair play, ethical behavior, integrity, and general goodwill towards an opponent or your team. We instill being supportive. We

026instill it's okay to lose. Um, we instill the the this natural thought process of simple things. You see a player on on on the floor, help them up, right? We're starting all of these foundational values early on for all of these kids. I know I mentioned a lot of this already, but these are just some quick bullet points. On average, we have 220 kids that we serve. 145 of them are in our community. Um, we have 24 volunteer coaches. We sponsor 25 plus registrations. And again, we're 100% volunteer-run organization with 100% of our fundraising going back to the children. If you haven't picked up on the trend here, our program is more than just basketball. We help children build character while providing opportunities for them to come back to volunteer. This to us instills the

027importance of education and sports. We work with different communities and create partnerships with entities outside of our program. Most importantly, we create a safe space where our children can have fun and instill a love for the sport. This is about instilling those core values while teaching our kids to play basketball. This is just a statistic um around the impact that sports has on not only children but education. I'll let you read those numbers, but all of this basically shows the importance that sports play at an early age all the way through a kid's educational career. There's things that that are gained through basketball. Whether it's boosting confidence and motivation, whether it's social strengthening social and emotional skills, building discipline and time management, mental health, mental health is a big factor um in society today. All

028of these things are part of a child's experience in a basketball program. And this right here, this is us. This is us showing school spirit at I think this was one of the girls games. Um you know all the kids got got invited and we all went to center stage and this is a good reflection of our program. Now it wouldn't beat me if I didn't take this opportunity to have a shameless plug. We need volunteers. We need referees, scorekeepers, board members. We need folks in the community to step up and help us out. um you know consider coaching next year, help us with our fundraisers. So if you're interested in in supporting a good program and I stand by that it is a good program. Please consider volunteering. Um we can always use the

029help. So I hope you guys have a broader uh perspective on all the things that we do as a program. Um, I know a lot of you have kids that have been through the program, but the real reason we're here is really advocating for more gym time. Because this year, our gym time was reduced, causing a detrimental impact to our ability to serve our children in a consistent manner. I am in your house. That's why we are here. I yield the floor. I'll start off with a couple questions. Um, one, what is the cost of your program to those who are able? >> So, our registration costs are $50 per child. If you have two, it's 75. If you have three, it's 100. Um, the one thing I will say is this year our modified

030boys numbers I've heard of um are higher than they have been in years. And I'm from what I just saw. One, I'm very impressed. Um, two, that has to be the success of this program. You're you're feeding into our larger our our higher grades, not larger, but Omar, you and I, our sons are on the same team. You have 10 athletes on a varsity team. um the growth that's going to come out of this program looks amazing. So, thank you for what you do. >> And that is a concern, by the way. Um we are a feeder program, right? >> Right. And and if you don't have the numbers to continue to support um the the growth for all of our kids, then we end up in a situation where our boys are are are

031playing my son is a freshman playing varsity, you know, and so >> this program is important as a feeder program as well. Um so definitely um I know you know that. >> Yeah. One other question is you touched upon the program with the catechists. I know for my family um a 10 o'clock game on a Sunday would have been a problem with the kids going to church and going to Sunday school. Um could you just touch on that? Absolutely. Going >> absolutely. So last year was the first time in in three years that this presented a challenge for us and and I I I pride myself on transparency. It was a it was a challenge that we did not expect um that occurred very last minute. One of our strategies to help alleviate the situation

032um was to immediately deploy one of our board members that is very ingrained in in the church community. Um I think you you guys all know her, Janet Walters. Um you know, and so we had some very transparent conversations with the church and actually unintentionally a partnership was born. Um it was again last year very last minute but this year we were already prepared for that. We had already started conversations with with the church um and we were working on contingency plans to make sure that no kid um would suffer and not be able to play basketball. We had talked about some very very creative ideas. Um one of which was having a special mass for for the kids. um there was a certain level of leniency that was going to be provided. So I

033think we did our due diligence in terms of taking a a bad situation and getting ahead of it for this year. But but I'm also transparent. We were caught off guard. This was towards um right when the season was was starting. There wasn't much we can do, but we did every single thing that we could um to foster a relationship that would help us create solutions and and overcome barriers. >> Thank you. Um, is Bearcup Basketball a 501c3? >> We are not officially a 501c3. >> Okay. Um, when did the uh district receive the game schedule? >> What do you mean in terms of we we released the game? >> Well, you have a schedule for games, who's playing what day and at what time? And >> you're talking about the school district. >> Yes.

034Yes. So, our first schedule went out uh probably about 14 days ago. Somewhere around that range. >> So, two weeks ago >> probably. Yeah. >> Okay. Um Erin, if you could um was that sufficient notice for the school and did you request it any earlier or We we don't have a copy of the game schedule. >> Okay. Thank you. Um you mentioned that by cutting um two hours on Sunday is detrimental to the program. >> Absolutely. >> Please elaborate exactly how. >> Thank you. So, so two g two hours while it doesn't seem like a lot, two hours b pretty much impacts four teams with with teams ranging somewhere between 10 and 12 kids a team. Um, it's roughly I mean, if we want to be accurate, it's about 48 kids. I'll round up to

03550 for the purposes of this conversation. So, that's our season typically lasts about 7 to 8 weeks. So if we go on seven weeks, 7 * 50 is 350. If we go by 8, it's 400. >> How many teams do you have total? >> By age group right now, um we have six six first and second. Um, six third and fourth about six third and fourth and eight fifth and six. Those are off of memory. Um, how my kids never had an interest in basketball, so we never participated in the program, so I'm not familiar with all the timelines and all that. Um, how long is a typical game? >> So, games vary by age group. >> Okay. um with the younger kids that their games are shorter because obviously >> attention span is is

036an issue. Um each game so the younger kids we typically have a an hour block um for for each game. As we move to third and fourth is typically around an hour and 15 and as we get to the older kids it's about an hour and 30 minutes. And again these are just rough >> estimates. That's fine. Um and practices are strictly Monday through Friday. >> So practices are Monday through Friday. Um right now we have um Monday through Friday on the elementary school side and Wednesday through Friday on the high school side. >> Okay. And I know when my children participated in AYSO um at each level, the younger kids only had practice like one night a week and then two nights as they got older. Do you do that with your >> All

037the All the kids practice one night a week. >> One night a week >> and then there's and then it's one day of games. >> Okay. I'm just trying to understand the program more. >> Oh, you're good. I'm here to educate. >> Um, and is it possible um to add any games during the weekday schedule um for like potentially the younger children? So, >> so it is something that that the board and I have discussed. >> There are there are challenges in that um at times we do make up games. So, you know, we have a a >> a weekend that's snowed out. Um it's really easy to make up games with the first and second graders, right? uh we try to fit games into practice, but as you get as there's more volume, there's

038setup in the school that needs to occur. Um there's there's a lot more um coordination that needs to occur. So, it makes it a little bit more challenging for us to reschedule games, which is what why most times we don't um we don't have the support and infrastructure to really truly ensure that even a board member is is present during that time. And that is one of the things that we we do. A board member is present for every single game um just to make sure everything is running smoothly. So we don't have the bandwidth and capacity to support makeup games which is really why we don't make up games. >> Um also it it does infringe on practice time, >> right? Um because if you're making up a game, yeah, you're you're playing the

039sport, but you're taking away from the learning of structured practices. So, I've spoken with um some parents that have um older children now and that have participated in the program in years past um particularly uh when uh the Clarks ran it and um there were no weekend program. everything was done during the week. Um, what changed that you need that extra day? >> I don't think that that's accurate actually because when the Clarks ran it, I was actually a coach. Okay. >> Um, and and there were always games. >> There were always games. The game The difference was the games were on Saturday. >> On Saturday, >> correct? >> Okay. Um, >> okay. I think I'm Thank you. And and just to further elaborate on that, um so when we when we were first building

040our culture, one of the biggest pieces of feedback that we actually received from parents was um that Saturdays really took away from um a lot of the weekend things and errands that that they had to to conduct. Um so I'm going be honest there there's no win-win. We're we're never going to make everyone 100% um happy in any decision that that we make, right? However, I am a number cruncher and I live by the 9010 rule and most times that margin is really the 955 rule, right? We strive for 95% knowing that we can't fulfill 100. It's impossible. At times we're forced to make very difficult decisions and we don't take those decisions lightly, but they are difficult decisions. I've had board members cry um because they are heartbreaking decisions. But we we we run

041a program where we have to make decisions that impact the masses. And I'm okay with the 95% 955% rule. And sometimes those decisions are unfortunate, but it it it's the risk that comes with operating a program. And I'm sure that um while we don't make the community 100% happy, we always try to find solutions that are within our reach and that is something that we do consistently and we do try to get to the 982 rule, the 991 rule. Um but we are put in some very tough positions as well as a program. I think uh anybody Jerry have some >> I would actually like to explain the beginning of the Bearcup program for some history of the Bearcup basketball program. It was started in the 1990s by Andy Tagert, elementary school physical education teacher

042and varsity boys basketball coach to help teach the fundamentals of basketball. It also expected his players to give back in refereeing games and to have some coachings included the present solvent west girls basketball coach Patrick Donovan. It was built with a 1-hour time frames for games and practices to allow for growth of the number of teams in the program and still respect how much time the school was used by the program. Practice time was set for 5 to 7 in the elementary gym and the secondary's upstairs gym. Monday through Thursday. The program had practices on Saturday until games started. Originally the games were 9 to3 on Saturday in the elementary school and it went to 9 to5 eventually as the program grew and then went to three or four hours on Fridays. I started with

043the program in 1996 1997 school school year coaching and helping with refereeing and running the clock in n in 1999 2000 school year I took over as the coordinator of the program through the 2010 2011 school year we had many people who helped grow this program in 20201 this school year I had four great people who helped by taking over refereeing and running the clocks for the games and actually two of them in the back of this room right now. In 2000, we built on giving student athletes many opportunities to coach teams and build rapport with younger students who then gave then came to their basketball games. The programs always had a great working relationship with the school district that includes the administration and the board and they we worked as partners. There was this

044I remember Mr. Dean having concern one year we came and spoke. We worked things out. Thank you. I do want to speak to that. Um because I I am fair. Um while I am here for a very specific reason, I always tend to live my life in a very fair manner. Our partnership with the school has always been phenomenal. I go back to those humble beginnings. We were out there fundraising because we were supposed to pay for help pay for the red shirts. The school took care of that for us. That changed everything for us. That gave us the opportunity to invest back in the kids last year. We um so we were looking at a storage facility. The school provided storage for our equipment. So I'm fair. We've always had a great partnership and

045I I think we retired your jersey, Jerry. Um, you know, we've we've always had a phenomenal relationship. However, something went sideways in terms of us having a reduction in in Jim's time that impacted our ability to serve the children that that we serve. And to be transparent, I have no idea why. I have no idea why the reduction occurred, what what prompted the reduction. And I stand before all of you here today being transparent and fair. And I think it's only right that transparency and fairness is provided to us as well. Having to go outside of our our own community to fulfill a game schedule really puts a burden on on a very very skimpy volunteer um list that we have. But I will say in true uh Bearcup fashion, those partnerships that we worked

046on facilitated our ability to make a phone call and say, "Hey, can we use your gym?" And with open arms, we were welcomed. So for me personally, home is home. I'm a member of this community. This is my home. I don't really want to have to travel to the neighboring community, although I consider them part of my community to play games, right? It's an inconvenience not only for our program, but for families as well. Because now we're splitting games between one day, which was our Sunday funday, to now having some games on Saturday. I need to make sure that board members can go to Liberty on a Saturday and then on top of that we need to be here on a Sunday. We don't have the capacity and infrastructure to support that. If I could

047just throw a couple things in here. Um first off, thank you Omar and the board. I I know most of you pretty well. Um I've coached in the program. I actually played back in the day in the little baby bear cub program. Um, and my kids are now uh all varsity basketball players in part because of what they learned in the program. So, I don't think you have any opponent sitting on this board that doesn't want the community to give the kids everything that that we can. Um, and before I dive into that, I think it does highlight for the board and the community uh a lack of gym space for the district. And this has been an issue for the last I don't know 20 years where we are practicing high school teams in

048in a gym that isn't full size. So that's something that we have to work on uh at some point discussing expanding out our gym space because we are tight. We have modified teams that are they're practicing in hallways, right? So so everybody is aware the basketball program in Tri Valley does not have enough gym space, right? For the kids that are playing school ball, there's not enough space. track kids are running the hallways, right? Like we we have a little bit of an issue that we have to work on with that. Now with Bear Cub, the school I think has been pretty flexible. Um obviously this is day one for me. I don't know where those two hours went. Um but there there is significant cost. Uh it's not like when Jerry back in the

04990s was was doing this, you know, we didn't have the the Andy would unlock the door. There'd be no security. there'd be no red shirts and it was like, "Hey, go play guys. Couple ball." >> So, >> listen, I had key access and and I was opening up the door turning on the lights. So, I I remember those things. >> This is Yeah. I mean, it's it's it's a it's a significant cost that goes to the program, right? And that's a cost to every taxpayer, not just Bearcup parents. Um, everyone's sharing this. So, uh, do I think that that maybe we can find these two hours? I think that's a discussion for the board and with admin. Um, but you know, I don't think anybody up here, uh, takes anything away from you guys great

050work. I'm a big believer in the program and thank you. >> And Tim, I I appreciate that. And and look, I all I'm really asking for is let's have that conversation, right? Let's figure it out. I think we have more than enough intelligent people in this room to to figure out how to resolve challenges and barriers and our program is willing to figure it out with you guys. If it's a financial need, right, or a financial issue, let's talk about it. Let's figure it out. We we do fundraising and and I think we do it pretty well, you know, and and so if it's a matter of us adding an additional fundraiser to help offset some some financial costs, I'm I'm all in. Um you know, I think at the end of the day, it's

051figuring out a solution and a path forward um that's sustainable. Um and and my hope is that the program does continue to grow, right? But I want to be able to have an avenue to have those those productive conversations on an annual basis because my hope is that we're having the conversation of, oh man, we need another hour this year, right? Or maybe next year there's a reduction. I I don't know. But but I think it's important for us to be able to have um some serious conversations around needs, what can be supplied, and some transparent conversations around that. and and I welcome those conversations because you guys have been nothing but amazing to us and I'm grateful for that. Um, you know, just hearing these stories, I mean, it it shows me that there's

052always been a strong partnership and I want to keep that partnership going for years to come. But I also don't want to be in a position where I find out that that there's a reduction in gym time and we're scrambling to figure it out. You know, that's just me being transparent. All right. Uh Nicole's got something. >> Looking at your schedule, I have had the privilege to take a look at it. Right. My children are involved in the program and I was part of the program. Um it's been my favorite thing. I think I might still have some of my little jerseys. Um I think I might have found your two hours. So when I look in the blue space on your schedule, um the first two weeks are utilized for our first and second

053graders right here on our home campus. Um, but then at 3:45 and 4:45, so two 1-hour slots, it says Saturday game at Liberty for the rest of the season. Why isn't the gym being utilized during those two hours? >> So, I'm not sure. I don't have the schedule in front of me, but what I will tell you is that we had to actually adjust our schedule because of the reduction in two hours. And there are some concessions that we had to make in terms of truly standardizing a schedule um because of the loss of two hours. That was the schedule that was put out to the parents. Is that accurate? >> It is accurate. >> Okay, then it should be that those two hours are there. I just I I'm looking at it and I

054do see it. >> I also noticed there's no 4:45 game in the high school like there is in the elementary. Is that something that can be added as well? >> So, the younger kids is are too small to play in a bigger gym. But to answer your question again, there are some concessions that we had to make in in terms of the scheduling um that you're seeing the end result of it. You're not seeing all the inner workings of that. >> Well, can we bring those teams in and play? Are these four are the four the orange, yellow, green, and black are those four Tri Valley teams? >> They are. So at every So those four Tri Valley teams during those two hours each Sunday, all four of our Tri Valley teams could play them.

055>> See? Okay. So I'm going to make this blanket statement. >> Mhm. >> I think I've been pretty clear that our program is not just about Tribe Valley kids. We expanded our program to extend to additional communities. And and I will I will address um something here because I I've heard I've actually had people question me and and ask why aren't we only worrying about our Tri Valley kids? and and and I want to respond to that because our program is not just about Tribe Valley kids. Our program and its fundamental values is about a broader community. And so when we look at the schedule, I can't take out the additional teams that are part of the Liberty community and that partnership that we created. So, while those four teams are in fact our Tri

056Valley teams, they're not reflective of the program as a whole. >> Could we keep some of the Saturday games with Liberty and still utilize our gym space for those two hours on Sunday? >> We are utilizing our gym space, >> not to its fullest because I don't have the schedule. the district did not receive the schedule nor how many teams were participating >> and and just for the sake of everyone else in the room I think that the scheduling can be sorted out at another time with staff from the school and not the school board. Are you >> Yeah, I I absolutely welcome a conversation. We would love to sit down because I ran a little Lady Scott's program. Kevin is coaching. We could sit down and look at some opportunities. No way in this

057world did I want to impact our students at all. You know me well enough to know my number one priority is our students. The decision to go to a 12:00 time on Sunday was really for families. And I was very articulate in my email about that. It was simply for family time. It was never intended to cut program or impact kids in a negative way at all. It was simply family time. If Omar you will share with us the number of kids you have and the schedule because we don't have that. We would gladly sit down with you. I don't think it needed to go to a social media level because we never had the conversation. We never got the calendar from you. So we couldn't even sit down and say, "Hey, listen. Let us

058figure this out." because we also run an adult ed program and if our kids go to only any postseason play that may impact gym schedules too on top of some elementary evening events we have. So the school is more than willing to sit down with you. I can shoot you some times next week. If you want to share your schedule with Mr. Credelli and myself, we are on it with you. >> I I appreciate that. Um, I'm also confident in my board and their ability to to create scheduling. Um, because one of the things we do try to do is ensure that all teams are playing an equitable amount of time. I can appreciate what you're saying, right? But I also need to paint a picture of of what we went through, right? games are

059starting. We're scrambling to create a a schedule. And to be honest, it took us two rounds of schedules. Um, right? It's like, "Oops, sorry, don't follow that one. Here's an updated one." Right? It's a difficult task. Um, and anyone that's scheduled or or created a schedule knows that, right? >> Right. guys. I want to let uh Carrie chime in here. >> Hi. I I have two questions. So, the first question is the registration fee, is that being charged to kids that are outside of Tri Valley District? So, are the Liberty kids also paying that registration fee? So, no, they're offsetting our costs um through contributions for the stack packs. >> So, they're not paying a registration fee. >> They're only coming to play with us. >> Um second thing is I coached club basketball for

060six years. I'd had three teams at one time. I really think and I highly recommend that you look to kind of reimagine this year because we do struggle with gym space. We've struggled with gym space since I was a player of modified basketball. It's something that it's not an immediate fix. Um, looking at your your little ones, your first and second graders, do they need to play games? Could it be could could the program be tweaked where it's more of a skill base? Um, do the uh third and fourth graders, do they need to play in the bigger gym? Like really looking at the age level, the skill ability, the level of the volunteers, what they're teaching that the students. We wanted a feeder program because look at our girls basketball team last year. Absolutely.

061the the benefits, you know, of this program are significant. And I don't think we want to um not encourage Liberty to be a part of the program. That's not the issue at all. It comes down to dollars and cents and gym space. So, I I really highly encourage you um to just take a minute, meet with Aaron, meet with Kevin, and just look at that schedule. And sometimes things can be tweaked and they can work out. Do you expand the season? Do you shorten the season? Do you push it later next year? do you start earlier next year? Like these are like long-term um kind of things to take into consideration, but I don't think anybody sitting at this table doesn't want to see Bear Cup basketball happen. Um it was one of the best

062memories I have of my kids and and the kids in the community and some of the kids uh who their parents are sitting here at this table. So, um I just appreciate everything that you do because you did bring this program to next level 110%. Um, but I I really think that further conversations have to happen after this meeting and down the road to try to retweak the schedule and then I I really don't think it's going to be a problem. >> I I can appreciate that. >> Hold on one second Omar because I want to make sure everybody's heard on the board. George, go ahead. >> I'm a Tri Valley guide through and through. Been here forever. My family's been here forever. We contributed not only to the school but to the community. being

063on this board, which has not been mentioned at all today, fiduciary responsibility, what was your cost the first year that you started here without the district helping you? What was the cost for the for your program? Because I know you struggled and that was one of the reasons why when I got on this board three and a half years ago, I was one of the first ones to say the program is struggling. has always been a Tri Valley Bear Club program. Tri Valley. What was it cost that year? >> So >> for you, >> so the the projected cost was was or projected contribution that we we were expected uh to provide was $5,000. >> And what is it today? >> It's zero. you know, fiduciary responsibility is the responsibility of this board and we

064had to look at that and it's meant for the tribe district and I got a a thing here that was done by the administration to figure what we were contributing. We contribute event staff security cleaning rotation. This is for the Sunday games. Now, the hour relate and what it cost for a 9-h hour shift for for each year it was 10,400544 that we opened up this school. This is taxpayer money. >> What was that number again? >> 10,544 per year. Now, if it's a 7-hour shift, it's 8,204 per year. So, there is a substantial difference in in cost. But my concern as well is I've never seen an insurance policy from the Bear Cubs. >> We provide it year after year. My question is how does it ensure and indemnify somebody from outside of our

065school district? That is not clear in my mind and I'm not sure it's even there. >> So we do provide we actually have two policies um and parks and reccks have their policy as well. >> But you didn't answer my question. How does that cover anybody from outside our district? Do they bring their own insurance or they insured? Because you know as well as I do, anybody gets hurt, it's going to go to the deep pockets and it's going to be the school district. And I, as a representative of this district, fiduciary responsibility is concerned about that. And accidents do happen. taking that in consideration, there's 75 kids that are coming from outside the district. 75. You said it yourself. 75. So, if they weren't part of the program, we would have more time for

066Tri Valley kids and they would have more playing time as well. And that's what I look at. Try Valley. Everything is great. I mean it it's a great program but I have problems with other and then I have another problem. I for my concern I don't think there should be this school should be opened on a Sunday for anything period. It's a time for reflection. It's a time for kids to to step back families to reset. anxiety level across this country is so high that maybe a day of rest and a Sunday would be is meant for that would be the best time. We always had it and and Jerry can confirm this. We always had it on a Saturday. I didn't understand why this Sunday all of a sudden and I understand, you know,

067but also the town board talking about the town board with the little league, that's quite a big program. The town board gets consistent a lot of updates consistently from the people that run the program. I haven't seen Beco been here since I've been on the board and I wish we did just to say thank you, but I haven't seen and this is what's happened. Confusion has existed from it because nobody gets together to talk about it. And it can't be the day that the program starts. Has to be started because this is the way a school district runs. We have to plan in advance for everything because this program really is something that is not part of the academic program at Triva. Our our kids that we really have to deal with it comes first

068because they have games and everything and these gyms are being used. So communication and and proper scheduling for the district is is is the utmost and I believe that we could have remedied this. But also the the games always started. I remember it very well because we were really was concerned about getting the gym or the the one in here done and it was always done Christmas time. Right after that Bearcup started so they started in Janu January or late December. So it gave them a lot more playing time. So that's what I understand. Why why we limiting such a small time for them to play? Was it scheduling? Was that part of it from the district or? >> No. >> So we we start as soon as as the kids come back from from

069school. There was a lot that I'll try to dissect um in segments. So for starters, we do start as soon as they come back from from winter break, from Christmas break, we start we start practices. Um there's no lost time there. Um it's not realistic to start any time before that because the kids are off off of school for two weeks. So we start in January and we go through the end of March. Scheduling has never been an issue and gym time because of lack of availability has never been an issue for us because Monday through Friday we're utilizing both gyms. We we've utilized both gyms for four years. Um so and even the weekends has never been a problem. The only reason it became a problem this year was because there was a 2-hour

070reduction um in time. We've never had and and look, as someone that that runs this program, I know how challenging it can be. I know that you guys need time to react as well, but it's never been a problem. It for four years, we've run this program the same. I mentioned infrastructure structure. It it's scalable. It's repeatable up until this point. I also in terms of of and I'll be the first to acknowledge um while running this program, you know what, every year I said, "Hey, I should make it to a board meeting. I was busy hiding out in my my bear cub uh uh cave, right, and hibernating." Um look, I'm accountable. I probably should have come and and presented here at the board previously, but but also to be quite transparent, the amount

071of hours I dedicate to this program while having a very demanding full-time job, kids in sports, trying to be a trying to be a family man, trying to be a husband. You know what? It also didn't really allow me for for that time to come here. Um, and yes, it it got to the point where we can agree to disagree. Um, my philosophies of the program will not change. Um, and again, we can agree to disagree, but that doesn't take away from how grateful I am, and I I laid this out early on for the partnership that we've had with the school, whether that that means providing gym space, financial support, that partnership has always been strong. And I want to acknowledge that. And and and you've been a supporter. you helped us with the

072gym space. You came to my house and said, "Hey, right, we had the conversation. Hey, we're trying to find you guys gym space." Right? That's how integrated we've been. And I acknowledge that our program is grateful for it and I don't shy from the support that you guys have given us. I think we just need to sit down and figure it out and I'm I know we will come up with a solution. I know it. >> I agree, Omar. I agree with you 100%. We will come up with a solution. It's not going to be with the board tonight. Um, obviously Aaron and Kevin and you guys can connect. Um, let's get gym space for the kids. Let's let them play basketball. But we have a pile of other agenda stuff. So, we are going

073to move forward unless someone on the board has something compelling that they >> one last question. You need to get us tell us that that anybody outside this district is covered through your insurance. We need to know that and we need to have that policy. >> I I will I will work on on that this week. >> Thank you and thank you for what you guys do. >> Thank you everyone. All right. Next on our presentations. Sorry about that new guy. Veterans Service Agency. Stephen Walsh. You could come on up for a presentation. All right. No. Steven Walsh. Uh put that. Okay. All right. And the next is going to be uh item C, budget administrative component presentation. Okay, I'm going to talk us through the administrative component of our school budget. All right. Always

074we'll discuss our purpose and our direction and that this is all rooted in our students and what's best for our students. So, our decision- making is always about program and ensuring our kids have everything they need to be successful. Tonight is the second component of our three core components. We'll do our final component, which is the program component on February 26th. So, tonight we're going to talk about board of education, our central and business administration, which is our district office, our staff, central services, administrative and improvement, and employee benefits. So, our drivers for the board of education budget takes us to a 21.4% projected increase and that really is due to some of our memberships. We all belong to NISBA. Every board member belongs to NISBA. But on a really positive note, in the last

075couple of years, we have increased the amount of board members that are attending NISBA conferences. Last fall, we took five of our nine board members to New York City, and so there were some increases with that. We also have the district clerk salary in there. Legal notices, as you know, by New York State law, we are required to advertise in two newspapers. Uh, most everything that we do. So, all of our board of education meetings have to be publicized. All of our election information needs to be publicized. and then any other required publications and those are expensive software training and professional development for the board that includes our board docs and as I was talking a little bit earlier we're going to be transferring over to diligent community it's going to be a new platform

076for board of education meetings pretty cool we've been doing some webinars on it uh this will give us a platform where not only can you watch the the video of the mo uh the meeting you also can have the agenda right there next to you. And then if you want to go back into the board uh meeting video to watch, the agenda will have camera icons each near each section section of it. So when you hit that, it'll take you to that section in the board meeting. You don't have to scroll through the whole thing. We also do a lot of professional development for our board and for our district clerk. Heather is a member of the Association of School Business Officials and they have a district clerk strand, so she does attend those conferences.

077This also includes our election workers and these are our election workers not only for our board of education vote here but also our Daniel Pierce library and then supplies and materials for our board and our elections. The central administration proposed is um the chief school administrator that is my budget. It's a 3.4% increase that is for contractual salaries including me and Mrs. Striker my administrative assistant. That is my dues for some of the memberships. I belong to the New York State Council of School Superintendent. I belong to NISBA. I belong to rural schools and I belong to the association for supervision and curriculum development. Um supplies and materials which is fairly minor and then professional development. So we have several opportunities as superintendents to attend conferences. I choose one New York State school superintendent conference

078a year. I go to the one in the fall. I am a member of the board of directors for rural schools for New York State. So I am obligated to go to some of those meetings and those conferences. I don't attend all. I'm also uh the Sullivan County Superintendent Representative for the House of Delegates and again required meetings at the state level and then a conference that we go to the business administration side. Um we will be appointing a new school business official this evening. That's a projected 9.2% 2% increase. This includes our business staff. We have a coser with Boseies that does our accounts payable and our payroll. We have tax collection monies that we have to account for. We have software to process all the taxes. We have to um cover the cost

079of mailing and printing and preparing all those taxes to go out. our auditors. Um we've been working with Sullivan County and Boseis trying to join many opportunities for requests for proposals and so we currently use Nenter as our auditor. We went out with for an RFP with Boseies. We had four auditing firms um bid with Tri Valley and in speaking with our new business official um Cooper Ays came in at the best rate and this our new business official works directly with them and recommended that for Tri Valley. So at the end of 2526 we will end our partnership with N Newenter and we will move to Cooper Ays giving us a $14,000 savings over the next four years with them. When we look at our staff, we're down almost 30%. Um, part of that

080is the reallocation to proper budget codes. So, our legal retainer not only covers just our administrative, it covers our program and it it covers our capital. And so, we went and reallocated funds in the appropriate budget places. So, that gave us a reduction there. We do require fingerprinting for all of our staff, all of our subs, all of our student teachers, and now um after our board committee work, all of our volunteers. So, we don't allow anybody to go on field trips with kids or participate in events at school unless they're fingerprinted. And our policy committee did a lot of work and a lot of conversation on covering that cost, which is about $100 a person. But it's a small price to pay to know that our kids are with safe adults. our Boseis personnel

081services. This was a little bit of a reduction because this is um mostly Donna Hemer who does a lot of publicizing and advertising for things and because we have Mel and we have our own communication person, we could reduce a lot of that. And then records management. As you know, New York State law required last year that we have a records management officer appointed um with our staff and we did some removing in our business office and we have a records management officer. We are contracting with U Boseies for about $700 to come in and take a look at our records. We have decades I am sure all of your report cards from kindergarten are still here. decades of records and they need to be digitized and they need to be gone through because there's

082some we are mandated to archive and there's many that we don't. So that's a huge project that we are working on. When you look at our central services, we are projecting a 2.6% decrease. That is because of um postage and related equipment. You know, we we're not mailing as many things anymore because there's so much more you can do with our website. And then our specialy items which is insurance and our Bose's ad administrative cost. As you know last year again we did an request for a proposal with Sullivan County Boseies to look at some insurance carriers. We were with Nicer who who is a reciprocal not a carrier. Um and through that RFP and and really a kudos to Dwight Kum. We did a lot of work with him. He went through our entire

083policy. He looked at areas where we could we needed to add some more money to the line of items and take some money away where we didn't need to have as much. And with that switch from nicer to Udica National, we saved $36,000 for the district. So that's part of it. The Boseies administrative costs are just that. They are what we pay our portion to Boseies for the administrators there. And with the merger of Manor Rosco, again, our districts had to pick up that that loss of that additional school. The administrative and improvement proposal is an increase of 15.8. And again, this um I'll talk a little bit about the reallocating of the budget codes. This is our assistant superintendent for curriculum office, including his administrative assistant, our building leadership. Our athletic director wasn't properly

084coded. And so um we moved him to where he is supposed to be in the administrative portion of it for his position and that also our support staff. So again, a lot of this increase really isn't an increase. It's just a proper allocation of items into the budget codes. The employee benefits, these are these non-negotiables. We are projecting a 6.63 overall increase. The New York State employee retirement system is same as I presented with the capital component. It is 17.6% is what we're predicting. The teachers retirement system came in a little less at 8.6%. Health, dental, and vision will follow the same process as the other capital component going out at 14% to give us a little protection because it's very unknown. Same with social security and Medicare and workman's compensation insurance. Those are really

085out of our hands. So overall, and Erin, I'm not sure if you can move that corner thing there. Kind of gets rid of the bottom line. Overall, you can look at where we've been from 2024 to where we will be through 2027. Thank you. And we're looking um really after proper budget coding and being really tried to um trim where we could. We're looking for the board to consider a 7.9% overall increase in our in our administrative budget. What questions can I can I answer? >> Um let's go back to essential services. I think it was central The very first one, the one that was uh 214.42%. Very first one. >> Yes. >> Would you go in each one what is costing us? Because I as a board member went to those sessions, but I

086didn't go to any spa and I didn't go to anything that cost a lot of money. So 21.4. Would you break that down to what it cost? >> So I will I could break that down for you. >> No, each one. >> Yes, I can break that. I don't have that for me, but I will break that down for you. >> We as a board member, we don't get too much here. >> So, the 21% is all of that. I know. So, the switch to like the the different board docks is going to be an increase, but it's going to be >> I just want the public to know that we didn't go on vacation. >> No, no, no. >> This is our dues. >> Thank you. >> This was our travel. Yes. No, you're

087correct. Any other questions on that one? >> Yes. And um you talked earlier on one of your presentations, maybe it was u business and one of the biggest increases was our insurance, but here you got a 6.63 insurance. I don't get it because you said that's going to be way high. So how did we get down to 6.63? >> So we got down to 6.63 because we correctly coded things. So, we've got a little room in health, dental, and vision, which still kept us low. Social Security and Medicare was down a little bit. Workman's comp was down a little bit. So, overall, while we know we've got a 17.6 for the employee retirement system, um it balanced itself out pretty well. >> No, I just raised that question because I know there's towns and other

088districts really worried about the insurance increase. >> Yeah. So, we were we were smart and we're going to be smarter. Some districts didn't anticipate um the increase in the health insurance and some districts were ending up with a 16 or 18% when they only budgeted for an eight or nine and that was a huge hit. We we budgeted for 10, we came in at 8.9 and just because it's it's a little uncertain, we're going to go at 14 just just to be safe. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. So Tim, I'll do rate my superintendence report if >> Sounds good. >> Next item. All right. So I do want to also piggyback on Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Hugler's letter. The winter bear bash was a blast. We had over 360 people attend. Everybody left with

089a board game and tomato soup and grilled cheese in their stomachs. But the the ability to bring our littles up to the high school was a big event. They were all over the school. We had activities upstairs, downstairs, in the egg, in this room. We had community partners here. The gymnasium was just wild and alive. It was a great evening. And what a perfect winner to do an indoor event. It It was really a wonderful night and we'll have many more. And we've got quite a planner in Mrs. Williams. So, I'm sure she'll be thrilled to do this again. I do also want to just give a little bit of tidbit of some of the work we're doing. There is a coaster at Boseies called Arts and Education and we brought it up before and

090it was something it was really valuable to me as a principal because it allowed it allowed more of my kids to go on field trips because we got money back from the coaster. So, we made a position last year and we gave a stipen to Caitlyn TG and it was $1,300 and we've asked her to be the liaison between Tri Valley and Boseies. So, every field trip now runs through her to ensure that it matches the arts and ed requirements. To this day, we have recouped $19,000 in field trips for kids, which is exceptional. So, the return on investment is fantastic. And I thanked her today and I told her I was going to thank her in public tonight. But just having that person to take advantage of the coaster is going to just allow

091our kids to do more and um it it's great. Super pleased. I also want to give a shout out to Carlton Duck and his crew. So, we had Hillyard here the other day to do a walkthrough with him for um a couple of projects he was getting some quotes on and he got the nicest email from the guy who came and he just said, "I've never been in a school that looks so clean and it was it just was really nice to see the floors clean and there's not garbage on the floors and there's not garbage behind the bleachers in the gym and it was just really a lot of pride and so Carlton and his crew day and night do an exceptional job and I'm really proud of that uh Mrs. um Foley had

092asked at the last meeting about an update on foils. So for this year we have re received 16 foils and our cost to process those is approximately $686 and that's all I have. >> Thank you. Any questions from the board? >> All righty. Moving forward. Uh, number eight, items the board wants pulled from tonight's agenda. We have an item. Go ahead, Timmy. >> Could we please pull 13A personnel? All right. Thank you, Tammy. That's it. We're going to have a motion to pull uh the personnel number 13. Do we have a second on that? Second from Jerry. All in favor? It's going have to be a hand vote. Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. Unanimous. 13. All right. I have uh an action here. It's the uh consent agenda. There's a resolution to approve the

093entire consent agenda minus 13 personnel. Do I have a motion? Right. Second Nicole, second from Rose, >> and I believe you can vote electronically for this one. >> Okay. Hand vote if you are in favor. Right. Any oppose? Motion carries. Unanimous. All right. Bear with us here. We're going to be doing these one by one. Uh Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education does hereby approve the appointment of O'Reilly Kelly as a substitute aid teacher assistant and teacher. >> Excuse me, Tim. >> Yes, >> you we have to approve the consent agenda minus 13A. >> Okay. >> I I didn't hear that being read. Oh, gotcha. Gotcha. >> I'm sorry. >> No, no, that's that's uh I'm going to need some help. Uh be it so

094be it resolved. The consent agenda was approved uh unanimously minus 13 which is the uh personnel portion. Now we're going to move into Okay. Upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education does hereby approve Riley Kelly as a perdm substitute aid and teacher assistant and teacher. >> Motion by Jerry. Do I have a second? >> Second by Carrie. All in favor? Raise your hand. Any oppose? We have We have eight yays. one abstain. All right, that motion carries and then we're going to roll on to be it resolved. Upon the recommendation of superintendent of schools, the board of education is hereby approve Alexander Polley, a PDM certified substitute teacher and substitute aid and teacher assistant. Do we have a motion? Motion by Nicole. Do I have a second? Second by Jerry.

095Uh all in favor, raise your hand. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of superintendent schools, the board of education does hereby approve Tatiana Schllet as a PEDM substitute aid and teacher assistant teacher. We have a motion. Motion by carry. Do second. Second by Travis. All in favor? Raise your hand. Any oppose? Motion carries unanimously. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of superintendent schools, board of education does hereby approve Amanda Eberly for an extracurricular senior class advisor. Do we have a motion? >> Motion. >> Jerry the motion. Second. >> Travis. >> Tammy with a second. >> All in favor? gone without a senior adviser since the beginning of the year? >> Uh, no. Amanda's been their adviser since the first day of school and we never had anyone sign

096up to be the adviser and so we talked with the TVTA to see if we could move forward with Amanda because she's been committed to the kids. >> Thank you. >> Y uh all in favor of Amanda Everly in that position. All right. Carries unanimously and All right. Be resolved that upon the recommendation of superintendent of schools, the board of education does hereby approve Chris Russo senior for the varsity baseball head coach. >> Move. >> Motion by Rose, second by George. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of superintendent schools, the board of education does hereby approve Randy Deal as the varsity baseball assistant coach. We have a motion. Motion by Tammy. We have a second. >> Second by Rose. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries

097unanimously. Be resolved that upon the recommendation of superintendent of schools and the board of education does hereby approve Chris Russo Jr. as a baseball program volunteer. Motion by Tammy, second by Jerry. All in favor? Motion carries unanimously. Be resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent schools, the board of education does hereby approve Josh Smith as the modified baseball coach. Do I have a motion? Motion by Rose, second carry. All in favor. All right. The motion carries unanimously. Be resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education does hereby approve Bethany Hamilton as the varsity boys golf head coach. I have a motion. Motion by Tammy. Do I have a second? Second by Nicole. All in favor? My motion carries unanimously and be it uh be it resolved that upon

098the recommendation of superintendent of schools, the board of education does hereby approve Jen Williams as the varsity girls golf and coach. Have a motion. Motion by Rose, second >> second by Travis. >> All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Be resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education does hereby approve Jared Carrier. I see a Jiren Carrier as the varsity softball head coach. Do I have a motion? Motion by Jerry. Second by Carrie. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Here you go, Kev. All right. Be resolved that upon the recommendation of the Super Schools, the Board of Education does hereby approve Victoria Griggliano as the varsity softball assistant coach. Motion. Motion by Tammy, second by Rose. All in favor? Right. Motion carries unanimously. Be resolved that

099upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education does hereby approve Jordan Cardy as the modified softball head coach. Do I have a motion? Motion by Carrie. Second by Nicole. All in favor. All right. Motion carries unanimously. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education does hereby approve Tyler Echoff as the varsity boys track head coach. >> We have a motion by Tammy. We have a second by George. All in favor? The opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Be resolved that upon the recommendation of superintendent schools, the board of education is hereby approve the Skyler Musa as of RC girls track. So move >> words with the with the motion. Tammy with the second. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. We have resolved upon

100the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. The board of education does hereby approve. Donna Brooks as the modified track head coach. Do we have a motion? Motion by Jerry. Second by Rose. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. be resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education does hereby approve Elena Knight as the home track scorekeeper. Do we have a motion? Motion by Tammy. Second by Nicole. All in favor? Any opposed? Oh. All right. Four. Okay. All right. It's uh unanimous. Be resolved the that upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education does hereby approve Bethany Hamilton for the JV varsity basketball score. Motion by Jerry, second by Travis. All in favor? >> This is going to be an eight zero vote because Pat stepped out.

101Motion carries eight days. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools board of education is hereby approve Rosar Reynolds as the pit band trumpet. Do I have a motion? Motion by Tammy. Second, Jerry. All in favor? Okay, we got a eight eight no or eight yays. Sorry. eight years. That motion carries. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of superintendent schools, the board of education does hereby approve Bethany Hamilton as the PIP band clarinet/ saxophone. Do we have a motion? Can I move the motion? I call with the second. All in favor? Any oppose? Motion carries. Eight yays. be resolved that upon the recommendation of superintendent schools, the board of education does hereby approve Andrew PAC as the pitband pro trombone. Do I have a motion? >> Motion by Carrie, second

102by George. All in favor, right, that's eight yays and no nazs. Be it advised, I'm sorry. Be be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education does hereby approve Keith Edwards as the extracurricular pit band guitar. Do I have a motion? >> All right, with no motion, that is wrapping up our personnel portion. >> I I just have one question. Are all the coaches certified? >> Everyone is certified and everyone is up to date with their CPR >> and they've all been fingerprinted. The ones that don't work in the screen. >> Mhm. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Tim, I'd just like to say um I know you don't have the computer. Um there is a leave of absence that needs to be voted upon. >> Okay.

103Next page. Uh it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. The board approves a leave of absence for employee 00194. Motion by Jerry second. All in favor? Any oppose? Motion carries. I think that's it. Does anybody else have some on the consent agenda here? I'm working off paper on that. All right. Uh item 15, old business. We have any old business. >> We do the MOA. >> It'll be a new business. >> Anybody else? Old business. Okay. Item 16 is public comment session for items that are not on tonight's agenda. And we do have Logan Wyant who is going to speak to us about some uh artificial intelligence in the school's curriculum. Come on up, Logan. Hello. Hi, my name is Logan Wine and I'm here to discuss the new silent killer of

104my generation. It's not drugs or vapes or even a medical illness. I'm talking about a silent killer that everyone, even this school, is actively promoting, AI. When I first started coming to Tri Valley 14 years ago, this school was filled with life and humanity. One of the core principles that was drilled into my head was to try my best to put in all the independent effort that I can. This is why I have been dumbfounded by the way this school has started to embrace AI. AI or artificial intelligence such as chat GBT or Google Gem Gemini is a silent killer of all of our minds. I have watched it demolish the pillars in people's minds that this school spent years building up to make us decent citizens. These pillars are critical thinking, problem solving, effort,

105work ethic, creativity, empathy, humanity. In just one year since AI became widely used, I have seen what it does to people's minds. And this school is not only standing complacent, but embracing it. About a week or so ago, one of my teachers asked me and my classmates how comfortable we are using Google Slides, Google Sheets, and AI programs such as Google Gemini. She then explained that someone might come in and teach us how to become more proficient in these programs. I refuse to become proficient in AI. Not because I don't like it, but because the use of artificial intelligence in this school will destroy my brain in the very environment where it is supposed to be built up. Just last night on the news, I saw a study that 82% of psychiatrists say that AI

106is bad for the development of children's minds. So we shouldn't have it in the school if it's actively hurting our thinking skills. You may say that AI is helpful or that AI is a useful tool to help teachers and staff ma manage certain things. Instead, I ask you to look inward and choose the moral path because the bottom line is that AI is in fact morally wrong. The effects AI has on the environment are astronomical. Every time you ask AI a question that you could solve yourself with maybe a minute of critical thinking, you are actively contributing to the destruction of natural habitats and towns across the country. In order for AI to work, it is powered by big data centers that suck up water and electricity in order to keep running. In the year

1072023, AI data centers used 19 billion gallons of water. In the year 2025, AI data centers used 43 billion gallons of water. In just 2 years, the amount of water AI used went from 19 billion gallons to 143 billion gallons. This is more than enough water to drain every single reservoir in the Catskill Mountains. AI data centers have also caused electricity bills across the US to skyrocket, making living even harder for people in these already economically troubling times. Not only does nature cry out against this horrible monstrosity, but so do thousands of Americans who live in small towns just like this one. Many families can no longer get um running water because the data centers suck up all the water in the surrounding area. AI is destroying the earth as we speak. And every time

108you open chat GPT and ask it a question, you are contributing to this. AI is killing our earth and AI is killing our brains. These are heinous crimes against both the Earth and Americans, and I do not believe our school should be supporting this. If New York State decides to put AI into the curriculum, then that's fine. You can't do anything about that. But right now, you are choosing to actively contribute to the destruction of the environment and your students minds, the very thing we trust you to grow and develop. I beg of you, do not move forward with promoting or using AI. Do not teach it. Do not encourage it to use for either students or teachers. Block it on our Chromebooks. I implore you to not even use it yourselves. Stop trading humanity

109for robots. We all need to wake up before it's too late and stop using artificial intelligence. Thank you. >> Could I ask a question? >> Yeah, Logan, if you could just hang out for one second for questions. >> Would you uh give us some examples how it's being used by the faculty in classrooms? I don't understand AI too much. >> When they did a presentation here, I asked to have a bigger presentation because I didn't understand it. >> I use my own brain still. So, I don't know much about this AI. So, explain it to me. How are these being used in the classroom? >> Um, so I know that sometimes it can be used for organizational things such as that. Um, just a few days ago, I look around and there's posters that were

110generated by AI hung up around the school, whereas we could have just asked people with artistic skill to make the posters themselves. I just I know that it's often used for organizational things. And I just feel that we've gotten we've made it so far without having to use AI. And so now this thing comes along and it's it's similar to cell phones. We don't realize that it's damaging our brains, but then it just piles and snowballs and we're using this thing that in reality is destroying the earth. And I don't blame people because people just don't know about it. And that's why I'm here. Just so many people don't know the detrimental impacts of AI on the environment and your minds. But the bottom line is we just need to snip this out the bud

111before it becomes an even widespread issues because some schools across New York State are really integrating it into their curriculums and teaching students to use AI. And I just feel that instead of turning to AI, we should be teaching independent thinking skills and really, you know, this um nipping it out the budget being used in a curriculum. >> Yes, we are. We are using AI and I know Mr. Snider is dying to show his presentation. I just have been holding him off so we could get through the budgets. Logan, that's very interesting data on the water usage. That's that was very interesting and thank you great insight. >> Thank you, Logan. >> All right. Um, no more public comments. >> Yep. Go in already. Okay. So, we're going to move on to uh 17 new

112business. We have uh assistant superintendent of business and finance uh appointment. Uh this is an action. >> Do I have a motion? >> So move. >> Right. Jerry motion second by George. Um we're going to hand vote this. Do we have any discussion before the vote? >> The only thing I would like to say is Jeff couldn't be here tonight. He had a prior obligation, but he will be with us for the um February 26 board meeting so he can be introduced to the board. I've already started working with him on several things. Tomorrow he will have a Tri Valley email and we'll be starting to share our work with him. >> What's his starting date? >> Starting date with us will be Monday, March 23rd. But he's going to be doing some behind thescenes

113stuff, you know, prior to that. He might not know that yet. Jeff, if you're listening, you'll be getting a lot of emails tomorrow. >> All right, we uh we have an action on the table here. Do we have a vote? All in favor? Uh hand vote. Any opposed? All right. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools that the board of education at its February 12th, 2026 meetings approves the appointment of Jeff Roick to the assistant superintendent of business and finance position pending fingerprint clearance on March 23rd, 2026. Salary for 2526. School year will be $178,500 prrated. Next up, uh, we have a tenure appointment for Andrea McGregor. This is an action. Do we have a motion? >> Motion by Tammy. >> Second by Travis. Any discussion? >> Andrea sends her

114best. She was not feeling well at all this morning when she called. She thanks the board for honoring her with this. She is where she's always wanted to work and she's very thankful for the tenure. So, we hope she feels better. All righty. We're going to go to a vote. It's going to be a hand vote. If you are a yay, hand vote. Any nays? Motion carries unanimously. Be it resolved that in compliance with the provisions of section 3013 of the education law in part 30 of the role rules of the board of regents and upon the recommendation of Aaron Long, superintendent that Andrea McGregor, uh, probationary teacher, having been appointed by the board of education to a three-year probationary appointment in the tenure area of school psychologist effective January 19th of 2023 and having

115been shown that Andrea McGregor holds a valid New York State certificate number 811676. 6142 in the Tri Valley Central School District. Now, by resolution of this board of education dated February 12th, 2026, this board of education does hereby appoint Andrew McGregor to tenure in the area of school psychologist effective February 23rd, 2026. Next up, we have a teacher aid appointment, Columbbo. Oh, and I believe the teacher's here. Columbo Simon Matteo. Hello. Uh, do we have a motion? Motion by Nicole, second, second by Tammy. Do we have any discussion? All right. Uh, do we have We're going to vote by hand. All in favor? Any opposed? It carries unanimously. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools that the board of education at its February 12th, 2026 meetings approves the appointment of

116Gina Marie Columbo Simon Mateo to a teacher a position ending fingerprint clearance commencing on February 18th, 2026. This appointment is a at step seven per the current Tessa contract for 2526 school year pro. >> So Gina is here today. Gina Marie, can you raise your hand? Welcome to our team. We're so glad to have you. She will be a fantastic addition in our high school. And thank you for sticking out a long meeting tonight. We appreciate it. >> Most of the meetings are not this long. >> Not so. >> All right. Uh we're on to D. Approval legal notice annual school budget hearing and vote elections 2026. This is new business and it is an action. Do I have a motion? Motion by Jerry, second by Rose. You have any discussion? >> Please make sure

117those machines do not do what they did last year. We know the problem we had with them. Please. All right. There's going to be a hand v Oh, hand vote or do you have some is a hand vote? All in favor? Any oppose? Motion carries unanimously. Be it resolved that the board of education approves the legal notice for the school budget vote/election for 2026 as attached to the public portion of the agenda. Subject E, budget hearing, personal voter registration and school budget vote/board member election dates 2026. This is an action. Do I have a motion? Motion by Rose. Do I have a second? Second by Carrie. Any discussion? It's going to be a hand vote. Raise your hand if you're a yay. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Be resolved. Upon the recommendation from the superintendent

118of schools, the board adopts the following dates for the school budget vote and board member election 2026. Annual budget hearing Tuesday, May 7th, 2026 at 7 p.m. Secondary School Collaboration Center. B personal person personal voter registration Wednesday May 13 2026 and Thursday May 14th 2026 400 pm to 8:00 p.m. both days administration bill C school budget vote and board member election day be Tuesday May 19th 2026 1 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. secondary school main downstairs gym. Subject F, memorandum of understanding between Tri Valley Central School District and Tri Valley Essential Support Staff Association. This is new business and it is an action. A motion motion by Jerry. Do I have a second? Second by Rose. Do we have any discussion prior to vote? All right, we're going to vote by hand. All in favor, raise

119your right hand. Any opposed? All right, motion carries unanimously. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education approves the memorandum of agreement as attached to the public portion of the February 12th, 2026 agenda between the Tri Valley Central School District and the Tri Valley Essential Support Staff Association. Subject G. Memorandum of understanding between Tri Valley Central School District and Tri Valley Teachers Association. This is new business and it is an action. Do I have a motion? >> Motion by Travis. Do I have a second? >> Second by Nicole. Do I have any discussion before the vote? All right, we're going to do a hand vote. All in favor, raise your right hand. Right. That's going to carry unanimously. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of superintendent

120of schools, the board of education approves the memorandum of agreement as attached to the public portion of the February 12th, 2026 agenda between the Tri Valley Central School District and the Tri Valley Teachers Association. All right, next up is 18 board comment session. Let's start over with Tammy. Anything, Tammy? >> I have nothing tonight. >> Okay, Rose. Nothing wrong. >> I had a couple. Um, I hear you're over in the elementary or over in the in a school teaching. Is that what what's going on? We we every time we have a board meeting, we're hiring more and more people. What what's what's the problem? >> We've had a we've had a number of absences lately with our teaching staff and so uh last Friday in particular, it was really difficult to cover all the classes.

121So, a lot of the administrators had to step in and cover. I thought we had a problem with the with the uh students absentee. Another thing is I am not comfortable until we get an insurance policy from Bearcup to have outside students or outside district coming to Tri Valley. I am not comfortable at all. He was very vague on it. >> I'll follow up first thing tomorrow morning about that. >> Well, they're going to be start having games and stuff and starting Um, you know, I'm I'm not comfortable. >> Understood. >> I believe Omar did say that there was two uh two insurance. One was from Liberty Parks and Recck, which would cover the additional people, assuming they're registered through their program, and then the other one was the normal Bear Cub. I could be

122mistaken. >> So, currently, Mr. Credelli only has the Bear Cub one, correct? So, we'll need to get a copy of that Liberty Parts and Record. And they also need to name Tri Valley as a uh co-insured >> co-insured. Okay. >> Both of them. >> Okay. >> So, when you have an insurance policy and you're going into a different um somebody else's property or venue, you have that um property owner um basically uh a co-insured So Tri Valley Central School District should be listed on Bearcup's policy and it should be listed on the parks and wreck too. So then should >> So it it's similar, George, like if you rent out the pavilion at the fairgrounds through the town, they require you um on your homeowners policy to you get a rider essentially and you name

123the town of Never um town of Neverink and the uh Neversync agricultural um society. Thank you. I couldn't think of the word. Um, and they get named as well, so that if, god forbid, something should happen, they're covered under your policy. >> No, I understand that. It's not my first rodeo. >> Okay. >> Um, my question is, do they have it? Do we have a copy of it? >> Right. We have that one. We do not have the Liberty one. And my question is, does the Liberty Parks and Wreck understand that Tri Valley is going to put a 100 plus kids on their insurance waiver? Right. So, we have 75 Liberty kids on ours. Are they are is Liberty Parks and Wreck comfortable ensuring 150 tribal kids? I don't know. We'll definitely have to dig

124into that much more. It It's a serious issue. If May I be clear, what is what are they paying to come here to play? Our kids are paying on the average of $45 or $50 per unless it's a a larger family. Well, what are what did he say they were paying? >> He said they were not paying. They were offering food for the snack bags. I know when my kids played in the Liberty League, when our Bearcup program was kind of in between, um, we did pay a fee. We paid the same fee that Liberty kids played >> or paid. So, I would imagine that they're paying their fee that's going back. >> Mhm. >> I don't think we should be subsidizing the kids are from outside the district. All right, we'll go to Travis

125and work this way. Traff, you anything? >> Nothing really. Just thank you Aaron for the presentation. We really appreciate all the information. Get out there to everyone. >> I just wanted to give a small update on the students. I'd say two main things happened since last board meeting. One of them was the bear bash. It was great. I volunteered there with a few of my friends. Uh, and all the students said it was like a wonderland. It was really nice. Um, it was very, very fun and it got the school spirit up a lot, which is great. And also the salad bar, I know it was talked about it a few board meetings ago. It's just started and I noticed it's taken a lot of stress off of some of the lunch ladies and I've

126only heard positive feedback about it from the students. But that's all. Chris, have you had any of the varieties of pizza? Are you noticing those? >> See, I stay on the sandwich line. >> So, do me a favor tomorrow and just take a peek over in the hot side and see what those pizzas look like. >> Of course. >> Thank you, >> Chris. Thank you for that. >> Cool. I'll say, Gary, >> I just have one uh two things. So Bo Mueller, what do we have to do to make that happen as far as his request to put the boxes in the custodial areas? And the second thing, it was brought to my attention that the calendar for next school year, the spring break does not align with other local districts. Um, most specifically Fallsburg

127and Boseies. So there's kind of like a gap where um Boseies could students could potentially have two full weeks off from school and falls would be in school where our kids would out be out of um school. So there it was brought to my attention to please make sure we look at it to make sure it >> so we we went back and forth as the mature superintendent trying to hash out a calendar that we all started on the same day and all had the same breaks for just that reason. I don't know where it went ary, but all of a sudden a couple of schools have the same spring break as us and a couple schools are the week before. So, we will go back to the drawing board on that. >> Yeah, there

128were some families that were concerned about child care. Um, if there are teachers in a different district, if they have kids that are in Boseies and kids are in Tri Valley, it just it it creates havoc for them. And that was the exact point was we were trying to be consistent all the way across because we have teachers that teach here but their kids go to a different school or maybe their spouse teaches at a different school and so we were trying to really align and it was really around OC's kids not having any gaps in their program. So we we'll fix that. >> Thank you. >> I'd like to say congrats to Tim on being our new board president and Carrie being our new vice president. And a shout out to our boys modified

129basketball team for the spirit they showed cheering for the modified girls today. >> That's a that's a great point. The modified kids were that gym was loud, man. It was it was rowdy in there. Kids popping deep three-pointers. It was It was pretty cool. I was It It was fun to watch. Um I caught the boys game. I didn't catch the girls game. But um thank you for that, Jerry. Uh with that said, we are coming into like sectional time for all the sports. So, uh, I just remind the community to come out. The these kids definitely play harder when everybody's like screaming and getting crazy in the stands. Um, and thank you. I'm excited to be here. Excited to be in the position. Um, I want what's best for the school. Uh, this is

130home to me. Um, I know most you well, and I think, uh, everyone here should feel comfortable enough to come and and talk if there's any issues. So, all right. With that, >> Tim, Tim, >> sure. Um Erin, do we have a date when um the um Boseies is coming to address the board? >> We have not set a date yet for Boseies to address the board, but we will get one. >> Mhm. >> The moment you've all been waiting for. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? Sherry, second by Rose. All in favor? Hand vote. Okay, everybody. Have a good night.