001Good evening everyone. This is Monday, November 10th, 2025. This is a regular meeting of the board of education. Um, I'd like to call the meeting to order. I have a motion. Scott second. All in favor? Okay. And now we are going to convene an executive session to discuss um TTA negotiations. Um, can I have a motion to convene? Second blue. All in favor? Okay, everyone. Okay. All right, everyone. We will be back at approximately 7:30. Thank you for your patience. We just came back from executive session and first order of business is pledge of allegiance. Okay, we're going to start off with board comments. We held our first strategic plan ste committee uh meeting on October 21st. Uh this was an introductory meeting where we discuss our approach for collecting data and community input. And
002we also reviewed the superintendent's implementation timeline. Uh we're also tasked with familiar familiarizing ourselves with New York State's portrait of graduate uh which will be used as a guide throughout our process. From now through next May uh the committee will be hard at work reviewing data and gathering feedback from members of the district to shape the next fiveyear strategic plan. The final plan will move into implementation next July. I was on that committee as well. So, thank you very much. Other than that, I don't have any other comments. >> As not yet, I think we're doing the end of the month and um >> I believe we are. >> Yeah. If anybody wants to join the facilities committee, we're looking for additional member or two. So send me a resume to the board and review
003it. >> Um so I just want to say first of all a congratulations to all of our sports teams who advanced to regionals and beyond. Um I wish you luck in the next set of games. Um special shout out to our girls soccer team. They had amazing accomplishment this weekend. Um and also our cross country and swimming um is on to the next level as well and we have boys football coming up this weekend. Um also um throughout the last month I had the pleasure of attending both the PTA parents night out and the athletic council cheer football fundraiser. Um both were really great nights out. So thank you to those organizations. Um committee updates. We had a policy committee meeting um where we discussed the varsity state athletics PD waiver. Um the discussion was
004to run the pilot program and we will um get feedback from that pilot program for the winter sports and um decides how we're going to form the policy. Um it's totally new to us. So we out a survey to see who's going to be interested and about how many kids are going to um participate in the waiver and then we'll see how it works kind of um decide what how to write the policy um from there. Um we're also going to be looking at a couple of new policies coming up and overall taking our policies and just doing a good review because a lot of them have not been updated in quite some time. Um and we also had our finance committee meeting um in early October which we had an in-depth presentation from our
005external auditors. They also did a minute presentation at our last board meeting. Um we discussed our financial standing as well as the health of our reserve balances. Um and they reported that all was in line with the district of our size and our business office does a great job. So um comments Mr. Superintendent. >> Thank you, Madam President. Uh, so to echo some of the similar thoughts of the board and congratulations, I just want to share a few minutes of some of our great student accomplishments that we've had. Uh, but before I do that, I want to take a minute to uh celebrate our veterans in honor of tomorrow and Veterans Day. So, thank you to all our veterans for their service. My father was a proud veteran and I always like to acknowledge his
006service to all of our brave men and women protect our country day in day out. And kudos to our go adviser with Iver for organizing a taco day with wear your veteran pride which I have on today. Many of our staff did as well. So great initiative and great to see all of our students and staff participating today to support our veterans. So thank you very much for organizing. In terms of our some of our student accomplishments, they are many. So bear with me to go through this great list uh of some of the things that we've been celebrating recently. So our coral ensemble singers Masara and PG Nako performed in the all area state concert for taste. Great job to them. Strings orchestra instant handy was selected to perform in the all state orchestra
007this year. He's also appointed as assistant principal second violin uh at the all state orchestra conference. So congrats to Vincent. We had several of our students that were acknowledged for uh received honors from the Italian award night at East Chester High School. It was actually the last board meeting that we did, so I wasn't able to attend, but I know our kind teachers were there. So, middle school, we had Angelina Ari, Alexis Greta, the high school, Angelina Lee, Marco Morcia, and Roco Bante. He won the uh scholarship for the the Italian scholarship winner award. So kudos to them. For some of the athletics front, we had a lot of great accomplishments from our athletics teams this year. So varsity boys uh hard-fought battle in the semifinal playoff game. They fell a little short, but a
008great season. They lost to North Salem. Our varsity cheerleaders did a great job this season. first time in the competitive game day competitions and the cheerleaders again fell short to in Arlington to a tough north valley team excuse me valley team that's been had a team for many years but our student athletes did a great job very proud of their first season in the game day the girls varsity soccer this past weekend up in Bingington I had the pleasure of going along with some of their uh staff that were there Mr. Miss Costanoy was there. We were able to cheer on the girls team and we had a lot of loud and proud parents in the audience uh cheering them loud and uh they were victorious 42 over Brotten and they're going to move on
009to the state championship weekend this upcoming Saturday. So, we wish them well in their endeavors and they're going to hopefully bring home the title. But either way, we're very proud of our girls soccer team and the tremendous season. So, this was their first ever regional championship that they won in Bingmpington. So kudos to them and we're going to look forward to hopefully celebrating them in the near future here at an upcoming board meeting. Uh making sure we acknowledge their accomplishments and the wonderful season in addition to many other student accomplishments that we've had. So varsity volleyball at the county championship on Sunday was a tremendous hard game against North Salem. Went all five sets. Uh the girls fought their hearts out. came up a little short, but just a real back and forth team, back
010and forth game that they they played with great pride and you know, we have a tremendous future ahead in girls volleyball. I think there's no seniors on that team, so we'll be right in the mix next year as well. Um, again, the student athletes did a great job representing Tahoe as all our students do and tremendous season. I saw I was able to see a lot of the girls volleyball team and just tremendous skill level and athletes and the community spirit that they bring together with the team. highest level of excellence. So, kudos to volleyball uh varsity girls swimming. So, congratulations to Brenn O'Keefe. Qualified for swimming and diving sectionals 500 yard freestyle with a time of 552. So, congrats and varsity cross country. Sophia, Violet Lynn, and Isabani qualified for the state championship in
011Queensberry on Saturday. So, we're continuing to move on and uh compete all across the state in all sports. And this upcoming Friday is our varsity football. Uh they will be traveling to Mayek High School as they take on for section one championships and class D tournament. So, good luck to all of our student athletes coming in the near future. We have great things to celebrate here. So, that's it for for those quick updates. Uh just a couple of other things in terms of conference day. So kudos to our all of our teachers and staff. I think um we had a couple of initiatives that we spent good deal of time on. One was with magic school AI kind of getting some professional development for teachers to the toolbox to really start to use uh artificial
012intelligence and lesson planning design supporting students differentiation. So hopefully that'll be a good initiative. I know some had started the year working on it. So we had a representative from Lyric here providing professional development which was a good activity and I think they left with a good feeling about that and the second one is a much bigger lift and that's where we're starting our curriculum. So we have uh more conversations to come uh new new initiative kind of getting through the the software with Atlas that professional develop is done virtually. So something that we have to consider of looking at how to further support our teachers to make sure it can be successful. I think everyone sees the value in really looking at curriculum maps and having a really articulated curriculum that we can have
013for our own resources internally as well as for the community to know what our students are teaching and learning at each grade level and to make sure that we have continuity as well. So more to come on that but I think the good first initiation to that I think it is a big lift. It can be a little anxious and overwhelming but u conversations of how we can support our teachers and really make it manageable. You know we'll go piece by piece and you know work on that together and make sure that we can be successful and make it reasonable so that the outcomes are really successful for teachers and that we have as a great resource for our district. That's it for my updates and I don't have any comments. Good evening. A lot
014of great things have been achieved at Taco in the past couple of weeks. Our raging parade was a huge success as always. We love getting to interact with our college students who we know look up to us so much. Um our sports have been doing extraordinary. Um very proud of our soccer team for making it for the first time in history. So and of course every other team who fought their hardest and I know a lot of students are excited about the pilot that was put out this week and last week. you guys is one of my favorite public comments from our community. >> Hi, good evening. My name is Alexander Campana and I live on a Pasadena road um New York and I'm here representing the sector. I just wanted to announce um that
015in a few days, Tuesday, December 2nd, uh at 7 p.m. in the library, we're going to be hosting our charter night event. So, the where we're going to become an official PTA. Um, and we're just inviting the whole community to join us in celebration. And that's it. We're very excited. weird. Um I'm Terz Gardier 114 Park for a few drive New York. I'm here actually um for the athletic council. Beth is stranded. All the airline is for well I'm going to say what everybody's already said congrats to our girls soccer team going to state huge deal we were swimming a lot of luck cross country also congrats and the swimming team I think is really important to highlight because it shows how we collaborate with our partners and give for a small school we're able
016to give the opportunity um to participate in many courts that we can't house here so that's a big deal as well Um, the athletic council has been cheering on and sending them off with their goodie bags for their travels team. Both teams have recently received jackets courtesy of the council. Big thank you to all the volunteers and participants who made last week's poker night fundraiser such a fun and successful event. Was not there, but I heard it was great. I heard from many people. Um, where am I? So, as mentioned at the recent board of ed meeting, the athletic council fundraising and memberships directly support all of our Tuco athletes. We are very proud to share that we recently donated approximately $7,300 this school year to eight Tahoe teams. Memberships are still available. Your support
017helps us fund all athletic grants and future initiatives. We appreciate all the support. Thank you. Hi, I'm Stu Wares. I'm the president of PTA. Um, couple updates. Uh, since last month, I I want to um say that our parents night out was a successful event. It was a lot of fun. Um, it's always a lot of fun to see all of the younger couples that are there um enjoying a night out and I don't know any of them and so I'm like, "Oh, wow. This is terrific. We have a whole new crop of people coming up." I try to um get to know people so I can rope them in on the executive board at some point or other. Um but I do want to say a quick thank you to Mr. Fiori and Mr.
018Morash because they um agreed to offer some priceless experiences for our raffles. Things like VIP seats for the middle school play next week. You know, our concerts um the play in the spring um VIP viewing area at the Raga Muffin Parade um was a hot ticket. So, that was um was a really nice addition to that event. Um I'm excited to say our grants committee has been able to award 11 grants so far. Um we got more requests this year than we ever have, which means it's it's fantastic because it means that the teachers know that we're a resource for them. Was really hard. We couldn't um give every grant that um that was asked. Um but we do um want to encourage the teachers to still continue to ask us for um for this
019funing because it's We really um we really love to be able to be that resource for things that the um district can't um can't fund. Um I want to mention the JCK Foundation, the parent workshop that was held here in the library a couple weeks ago. Um it was part of a program that Mr. Colliso brought in for the kids and the faculty. It was fantastic. Um I heard great feedback from the kids and I definitely um learned a lot as a parent. Um we're going to um post the video on the PCA website. people who couldn't attend and I would encourage you to just kind of try to skim through it if you can. There were a lot of really good snippets and and the bottom line is that as parents we probably are
020too hard on ourselves and uh to try to give ourselves a little bit of grace when it comes to helping our kids navigate their mental health journey that we also need to recognize that um we are having you know we also have mental health journeys to go through as well. So that was um a really great program and uh again I want to thank Mr. for bringing the JCK Foundation to Chahoo. Um, a couple upcoming things, um, the community service committee is hosting a food drive, um, to benefit ECAP and hope. So, you'll see dropboxes at both Puddle and the middle school high school, and you'll see a flyer going out in the next couple days with uh, details of the things they're looking for. Um, the fifth grade poinsetta sale is about to launch.
021So, those flyers are going to um, be going out. Um, and we hope the whole community will, you know, you know, uh, join the tradition to decorate your home and support the the fifth graders. You know, it's not just for the codle kids to support, but hopefully the whole community um can purchase some poinsettas and wreaths. Um, community fitness night next Monday the 17th at Pure Bar. So, look for some information about that this week. Um, finally, um, our data we you um I mentioned that we had a new database uh, it's called membership toolkit. So, we migrated everybody over will be, but people need to activate their account. So, in case you you may not know if you're not getting Tahoe emails because you get so many emails, you probably feel like you're getting
022every email. But if you haven't gotten things uh that you sort of felt like you used to get last year um about PCA events, you may not be activated. So, go to tucoa.com, put in your email address, and it'll tell you how to activate. You don't have to become a member to activate the account. So, please do it. Um you can of course, become a member. We would love your $15 dues. Um, but again, we just really want to make sure that you're receiving all the emails about our upcoming events and programs. And my final thing is that I want to say congrats to Alex for SEPTA. It's he has put in so much work over the past six months and I'm really excited that um all coming to fruition on December 2nd. So, um
023I hope everybody comes out to supports the job. I already forgot. I'm gonna be fired. One more thing. Um, look out for the Metro the Metro Holiday Sale. That's the um company that will like customize the swag, whether it's like football, basketball. It's going to come out in a few weeks. You can customize it to whatever sport you want to support or just the Tigers. Thank you. Um, thank you Susan for your report and all the PTA does. Um, I do want to say that when you become a member, it does prompt you to then sign up for the email. Um, I I feel like I feel like I it prompted me to put in my information for um like the new school thing when I did it. Um, I think so, but it's a
024good reason for coming. Um, I really do encourage everybody to become a member of all three organizations. Um, they we are one community and we should all support each other. Um, and these three organizations give that so much to the district and I'm really looking forward to congratulations. Okay. Um, first recognition of the audience. So, I'm just going to read our publication statement. Um, The board of education allows for public participation at its regular monthly meeting. The first recognition of the audience period is reserved for comments or questions related specifically to items on the current public meeting agenda. Each speaker is permitted one opportunity to speak for up to three minutes. Responses from the board or superintendent may be provided later in the meeting during the board or superintendent comment session or may be followed
025up at a later date as needed. The board and the superintendent will not engage in back and forth dialogue during the public comment and question portion of the agenda. Anybody for recognition of the um Then we move on to the next item which is the consent agenda. Um, approve consent agenda. Resolve that board of education of the Tucker Unifent. Do I have a motion? Second. All in favor of the board. Approve a donation. Um, resolve the board. of the Tucker Union School District has been informed of donations to be made to the district by the PTA grants committee and whereas the district would like to accept the following donations from the PTA grants. Second graders New York historical jobs then now program in the amount of $600. K through five supery assembly in the amount
026of $300. K12 special education sensory snoozing event in the amount of $400. These generous donations are greatly approved in any discussion. >> I would actually like to just comment and thank the PTA one and all of the PTA colleagues. Thank you for all that you do. Um I've been able to read all the different approvals that have been sent through. So kudos to our teachers for the recommendations and applying for the grants and the great things that will come back in our classrooms. and I know how much hard work the PTA does to create the funding to allow these. So, thank you to all of our PTA members and for all of our families that go above and beyond for our students. Thank you. >> Um, approve budget transfers. >> Oh, sorry. Um, approve budget
027transfers that the board of education school district for graduation. Um, all in favor? Any discussion? Any discussion? Okay. All in favor? Approve professional services. That the board of education school district hereby approves A2 exel not for professional services performed in the 2025 2026 school year related to the 2026 2027 rate controll any discussion all in favor approve Professional services resolve that the board of education of the Tucker University School District hereby approves the engagement of Patty McGee LLC to provide professional development into poetry in the universal design for learning and literacy instruction to be paid for southern Westchester in the amount not to exceed $19,200. Do I have a motion? Second question. >> So yes, this actually does we we going through posties. So we'll actually get about 55 56% back in state aid. Um
028that'll come back the following year. So that does get reimbured and then hopefully um we're very excited to be recommending and hopefully the board will approve in a moment services. So she'll be coming in as a professional consultant working with with our teachers on university design for learning and also with a focus on literacy and really uh bringing a lot of those strategies that the codle team worked on last year and then bring it to the next level with with this focus on literacy. So um this is the first portion of proposal and then I will evaluate mid midway through work with us and then phase two if everything all the feedback is done well. She's new for this year. She was she came as um we got a recommendation from her um Dr. distance
029was here had a connection with her and she had actually she worked with several local schools as well in terms of the recommendations of the work that she did um and then additionally we interviewed her met with her looked at the priorities of her proposal that you have and the administration and I felt that she'd be a great fit for continuing the work that was done last year with UB. All in favor approve a transportation service agreement resolved that the board of education school district LLC for transportation services athletic girls varsity soccer regional playoffs game on November 7th at an amount not to exceed $4900. girls varsity soccer New York State Championship game on November 16th, 202 at an amount not to exceed $6,250 and varsity football section championship game on November 14th, 202 not
030to exceed $1,800. Any discussion? So, these are all going for all of our longer Correct. So, the first two are for the girls soccer experiences that were in excess of four or five hours to get to Courtland um to take the coach bus and actually the the varsity football uh championship game is this Friday. And the reason we're using a coach bus, it was actually more cost effective solution than pricing for the yellow buses that we needed. So, um great addition to allow the boys that opportunity to go in and also our cheerleaders will take a different similar uh coach company that we can order. But this was again a cost effective solution. It was believe it or not more effective to do the coach bus and the the other school buses travel distance. So
031that we looked at approve a contract resultion of the of the contract with no removal. with the lowest responsible responder for the 23 24 year person 26 at the same rate as the 24 year and all Authorize an electrical service contract resolve that the board of education of the Tahoe preschool district authorizes the district to piggyback on school district for electrical contract services awarded to neighbor Electric through June 30th 2026 under the same terms and conditions. Quick question. Excuse me. Quick question. What's the reasoning for the change? >> We previously awarded a contract to a contractor off of a data time and materials bill, which is another cooperative we did. um time and materials um service and they were not as responsive as we need them to be. Um we are a small district so
032um and we talking with other purchasing agents and other districts. Um neighbor has done work for us and is available on the um the halibit. So it it we need to make the move because we we need someone that is going to be responsive to us. >> Are there presence comparable to >> all in favor of the motion. Any discussion? And now we have second recognition of the audience. Um, again, I'm just going to read our policy. The board of education allows for public participation at its regular monthly meetings. The second recognition of the audience period is reserved for comments not associated with the current public meeting agenda. Each speaker is permitted one opportunity to speak for up to three minutes. response may be provided later in the meeting during the board comments or by
033the administration at a later date as appropriate. Responses from the board or superintendent may be provided later in the meeting during the board or and superintendent comment section or may be followed up at a later date as the board and the superintendent will not engage in back and forth dialogue during the public comment and question. Anybody? >> Hi, I'm Susan Yuriel. I live in Chester Heights. Um, thank you all for your service. Um, I want to comment on a discussion that took place at the last month meeting. Um, the context of the discussion had to do with contract negotiations, but that's not what my comment is about. My comment is just on the broader subject of spending because it's come to my attention that there are various school districts in the news over the last
034year that have found themselves in financial crisis. And we certainly don't want that to happen here. And it's made me, you know, a little nervous about our vulnerability, every district vulnerability. And in no way, shape, or form do I mean to insinuate any doing here in Tahoe certainly the sparks and the whole finance rate not insinuating anything but I'm sure that in these other districts where they have fallen on hard times they wish they could go back and prevent the crisis that they have to then deal with. So for instance now I have to apologize because these are all complicated situations and I might not have all my facts straight um For instance, Newell right next door to us was going through something for the in the budget planning process for this current school year.
035Um they were faced with a $33 million deficit and of course they're a city, it's a bigger district, not Tahoe, but still they had to figure out how to deal with this. they were facing the prospect of eliminating something like 200 staff positions, like just eliminating um eliminating extracurriculars, whatever, or um doing a super whatever that thing is called of uh you know the um the word I'm called um to approve a tax levy. Um and when I was reading of this in the news last spring, I how do you not just sell your house and go? Like it just seemed very dire to me and I I guess they're managing. But um similarly in Mount Vernon, they had to I think they closed three schools in the Mount Vernon school district this past spring.
036Again, deficits and you know, I might have some of this stuff murky. Um but I was just speaking to somebody who lives in Montlair, New Jersey. They have an emergency vote scheduled this next month. same thing. They have a deficit of many millions of dollars and they have to figure out how to deal with these things. Either student services are cut, positions are cut, or there's a tax increase. And all of those things, all of those negative outcomes affect property values, um, individual taxes, and I think it's just I just feel like we don't talk about these things enough. And so I want to applaud you guys for your diligence to fiscal conservatism. I can't remember if it was Pet or Allison who mentioned that last month and both of you about the importance of
037entering any um financial situation with this in mind. Um and what we all have to do as voters is be informed about who we're entrusting our district to, what their positions are, and you know, and be diligent because it looks like from these other school situations that you know some mismanagement where you know people make short-term decisions without considering long-term implications can get them into deep trouble and um I I know it's hard to make I don't envy you guys you know all five of you need to be fiscally conservative in order to protect our district and um I know you have tough decisions to make, but that really needs to be under, you know, underpinning of everything that you do. So, thank you for that. I know you're in a tough position, and I
038want to remind everybody that you guys are all volunteers and you're doing the best you can with your conscience and um you know, looking out for the whole community. So, thank you for that. Sorry. Nobody else for public comment. No, I just want to wish our football teams this coming Friday the best also for our girls soccer. They really really worked hard. You know, hopefully we'll be very successful this weekend. So, you know, I'm just wishing them all the best. Best of luck to our athletes that are competing the girls soccer team and I appreciate your comments today. Thank you very much. >> Um thank you for your comments. Um and your I just want to say that um our business office did a fantastic job of um working on our budget and making that
039we need our financially healthy um as well as board members and um it is it is an important thing. Um, one of the big problems that did have that they made public known is that they used money that they were given one time to um make teacher salary decisions. Um, did really a great job in the last two years of making sure that we are more transparent. Um, and we are going to better comments. >> So, thank you, Madam President. Um, got to echo on some of those sentiments. I concur completely. I think our job as a district is to make sure that we're recommending sustainability uh so that all any program we have and any services we have are will be continued. Um, you never want to implement something and then not be able
040to next year. So that kind of ties into our strategic plan, how we're going to be looking long term and and the the fiscal health of our district runs parallel with the with the academic success of our students. Uh so we have to make sure that we have very articulate plans and that the the financial health with our facilities of our infrastructure, our academic programs that we have, we are looking down the road. So every decision is is a long-term decision as well as focusing on the immediate needs of our students here today. for different things. So, I appreciate those comments as well. Uh, in addition, just wanted to kind of do a few accolades for things that I didn't mention before, but the the Ragabuffin parade was brought up as a great experience. So,
041to see our our student uh the high school level, the traditions here at Taco, as I go through them the first time, are very uh outstanding. It's great to see our students be celebrated in so many ways and to be part of the the younger students that afternoon and the costumes. That was a great tradition that that was built here. And then this went to the haunted house evening. So the tremendous impact that was in terms of uh just a community event and all of our students enjoying it and families. The line was out the door. It was just so well organized in terms of walking through it and students that such a great time, our seniors that were participating in it and just all all age levels enjoying that activity. So thank you to
042everyone that organized it and did a great job with that. My last comments is really in addition to all the congratulations to our upcoming teams that'll be participating to the beat. But I wanted to thank Mr. Costano. So before even the final whistle blows and we know there's a celebration, he's already jumping into the planning and all the details for these events. It doesn't happen by chance. So spends an enormous amount of time uh making sure that our students have everything taken care of. So I wanted to just applaud his efforts and just uh you know to acknowledge the hard work that he does in making all of these extra journeys through the state tournaments and the different things our students do for them. So kudos to Mr. Costano and the team that's supporting them
043to all the parents for their support student athletes and all of our students here. We are not going to meet our discussions earlier and um thank you all for coming out tonight and for showing your support. Thank you.