001Good evening. I'm going to call the meeting to order. This is the Thursday, May 8th business meeting of the Wanto board of education. We'll begin with a salute to the flagg to the flag of the United States of America. to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Three, communications from the board of education. Communications were received from those listed in the agenda. C. Superintendent report. Great. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Thank you for attending tonight. Hey, my name is John Actimar. I'm the superintendent of schools. Uh just to update you on a a few things tonight. Um uh one is uh at tonight's meeting uh we're going to be approving uh tenure for uh several members of our our teaching staff as well
002as several uh administrators. Uh so we just wanted to recognize them tonight. Uh we had a nice opportunity just about an hour ago in our cafeteria to hold our tenure reception and recognize them. Um and uh we just wanted to to recognize them here. Uh in a couple minutes the board will be voting on that. So uh if you wouldn't mind just kind of standing waving when uh when I call your name. Uh we have uh Dan Monini Wto High School special education. Congratulations Dan. Ashley Chamberlain Wanto Middle School special education teacher. Kerianne Kiara special education BCBA for the district. Lindseay Glasser, Montel, reading and special education. Alexa Delpiano, Forest Lake and and Mandalay Steam. And Allison Santanelo, Forest Lake, grade four [Applause] teacher. And then uh three administrators are receiving tenure as well. Uh
003Dr. Scolari, our executive director for human resources administration. Congratulations. Rachel Ayanuzi, our uh assistant principal at W Elementary School, and Dr. Christopher Widman, our WA High School assistant principal. So, congratulations to all of our tenure recipients. Uh certainly well-earned. Uh we are really excited about uh the what the future holds for for our WTO school district uh with uh with all of those folks we we just recognized. So, congratulations. Um, we also have some retirees tonight on the other end of their uh their career. Uh, we have that I' I'd like to recognize as as well. Um, I believe Lorraine is here. Is Lorraine, I didn't see her. Oh, there she is. I didn't see her on the way in. Um, Lorraine Rosland. Uh, she's a a teacher a l um Lorraine Lorraine has been
004uh working with us for the past nine years. Um, she uh came to us um uh and and she had uh been a a religious education teacher at St. Francis. uh she was very active here in the in the uh Wah PTAs as well, our 612 association and does uh such a a nice job in in working with our our students over at Wan Elementary School each and every day. Uh we are certainly going to miss her. Uh we wish her all the best in the future and congratulations uh to Lorraine on her retirement. Lorraine, if you wouldn't mind coming up, I have a plaque I'd like to present to you. [Applause] I'd also like to recognize Maline Wool. Maline is uh our our guidance office clerical at at Want Middle School. Uh Maline has
005been with us for 22 years. Uh started over at WA High School in the guidance department uh and and does just such a great job. Anybody that's ever been in a middle school guidance office knows that it's not it's a uh it can be a challenging place to be. We have students in in need of us some support and and Meline's there to greet them and and and support the work of all of our counselors. Uh Maline serves as a legal secretary before joining us. Uh so really kind of came with that uh such a a a great skill set, super organized, uh hard worker, uh and and really just uh is is able to uh uh you know, keep that office moving along. Uh and um and you know, just had the opportunity to
006meet her husband. Uh they're both retiring. Uh we just uh wish them all the best as they they retire together. So congratulations to Maline. [Applause] And then uh one more person that's uh camera shy, refused to join us tonight, but I just want to take a minute to recognize her as well. Uh anybody that knows Kathy St. George, she's been a kind of a staple of our PPS office uh for almost 25 years. Uh she um is a clerical in that in that office, has just done an outstanding job. uh super uh detail- oriented, super thorough. Uh she served as uh the leader of our our clerical unit for for a number of years, and I got to know Kathy when I first got here in that capacity. Uh and uh and really just such
007a hard worker, does such a great job. You know, there'll be times when I'm leaving here in the evening, and there's Kathy still in the PPS office working away. Uh she she has that type of dedication. Uh and uh and we just want to wish her the best. Kathy uh wouldn't wouldn't wouldn't wouldn't join us tonight, but I I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment uh to publicly recognize her. So, congratulations to Kathy. [Applause] All right. I also just wanted to uh recognize all of our our teaching staff, teacher appreciation week this week. Um, you know, we we are truly fortunate in our district to have just such an outstanding uh dedicated group of professionals uh that that work so hard every day with our students. Uh and uh and just take
008a a moment tonight at our board meeting to thank them. Uh also um thank our PTAs as well. Uh if uh you you haven't seen a a teacher appreciation week uh spread in some of the uh some of the schools, it's pretty impressive. uh including the uh the the the wicked themed uh teacher appreciation uh uh at at Wantel that I heard all about last night at the PTA meeting. Um truly impressive. Uh we we thank our our PTAs for everything they do in all of our buildings uh to support our our students uh and really providing such a a nice recognition for our teaching staff this week. So, thank you uh to our teachers and thank you to our PTAs. All right, I'm going to invite um Dr. Widman and Dr. Gazone to come
009up. Uh they wanted to speak a little bit about an event that we have uh that we you know was an inaugural event uh uh last uh uh last uh fall in in in September. Uh we're going to have the second annual uh coming up. So they wanted to just say a few words about that. Okay. Thank you, John. Uh, okay. Hi everybody. Welcome. Thanks for uh being here tonight. Uh, short and sweet. Uh, last year we uh ran our inaugural um 911 memorial 5K. And if we could just go to the next slide real fast. Um, part of the reason why we formed this to begin with was we had some goals where we wanted to be able to uh unite our schools and community together for an event that would u help offset
010the cost for bringing our students down to the uh 911 memorial museum down in New in uh New York City. And at the same time, we wanted to be able to uh provide scholarships for graduating seniors and uh provide some uh teaching materials for our elementary and middle school to uh enhance uh teaching of the 911 curriculum. And so um we had a successful inaugural event last year. And as a result of that uh we want to do it again this year, which will be September 14th, Sunday, September 14th. And uh I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Gazone is going to talk a little bit more. Yep. Um yeah, so as you can see, um those were our goals and I just want to give an update on the progress of those goals.
011I think that's really important. Um so we wanted to send kids to the 911 museum. Uh the cost of that before the before the event was about $100 a student. We were able to knock that down to $20 a student. Uh and we were able to take 112 students and 18 staff members this past March to the 911 museum. Uh which was just amazing. Uh we also will be giving out $2,500 in student scholarships in 911 related uh driven criteria uh this coming senior um award season. Uh we also have been able to based on the pro um the success of the event, we were able to reserve $30,000 for memorial uh to be placed on high school campus. It's a fiveyear goal. You know, hopefully we'll get there in in the next couple years.
012Um, we also purchased some developmentally appropriate uh man in the red bandana books for the elementary classes last year. So, as you can see, the event was a success, but really, you know, what are we doing with all that? Those are that's the progress we've made and and there's more to come. Uh, if you go to the next slide, uh, before I just talk about this, I just really want to give nice big shout out to our our big time sponsors. So, uh, Gary Senise Foundation has done a lot of work for our schools. Uh, they've probably done more for WA High School want schools than probably any other school I would say in the country. Uh, by far. uh that continue to be big supporters of the Wanto School District. Um they are a
013gold star sponsor this once again. Uh I also want to thank the Wanto 612. They are a Silverstar sponsor and uh joining for the first time at the Silver Star level is uh Orland and Cohen. Uh they're really supporting uh this this event. So a big thank you to all um our Gold Star and Silver Star sponsors. But there's the timeline of the race day. Uh some pictures from last year, which was amazing if you weren't able to make it. and we're thrilled to share that uh Commissioner Ryder will be our keynote speaker uh at the event on September 14th. So, uh put in your books. Uh we'd love to see everybody there. If you know any sponsors, let us know. All right. Thank you. Great. Thank you both. And I I want to thank
014uh both Nick and Paul for the work they've done on that event. It was such a successful event. Uh really a a great event bringing our community together. Uh, and we're really just the the the trip to uh to the 911 uh museum is such a powerful uh powerful trip. Uh, and it's great that our all of our students in in in in high school have the opportunity to participate in that. All right. Um, and then the next portion of the meeting, uh, we're going to dedicate to our, uh, official budget hearing. So, those of you that are here celebrating tenure or another event, this is a great time to bow out. If you don't want to stick around for the budget hearing, no pressure. you're welcome to stay. Uh but um but we want
015to thank uh those of you who uh are attending uh for that purpose uh to to leave tonight before we we start the budget hearing process. Right. Um we're really excited about the this year's budget. Um we were really able to accomplish a lot um over the course of of uh you know the past several months. Uh putting together a school district budget is always a challenge. It's it's um it's a a process that really starts uh in the fall each year and you can kind of see the timeline that we use to de develop it u you know starting working with budget managers and putting that together and I just have to to thank uh Anthony Sedron to to my right uh and his office for all the work they do and in in
016putting this together. Uh it's such a it's a it's a large task every year uh and they really do such an outstanding job with it. Um we um we're we're happy to announce uh that um you know that we were able to accomplish a lot of the goals that we set out to accomplish. Uh a couple years ago uh we you know we we um really kind of focused on uh bringing class size down at the elementary school. Uh and that's something that you know we're really able to continue to maintain uh here through this budget. um and really continue to offer our outstanding programs, but also look to expand and replace programs that uh that that just need updating and that that we really want to kind of take a look at. Uh and
017we're really able to do that in a in a in a really nice way through uh through this budget process. Um you can see this is where our current budget stands. Uh we're coming in below the tax levy limit of 2.89%. So, the levy uh uh impact to our community uh we had a $67 million levy this year. It's going to a 68 uh.9 million levy uh for next year is the proposed budget. And um you can see the overall budget is $91.7 million budget going to uh $94.7 million budget. Uh, and the other side of the revenues is that I'll I'll talk about are the state aid side which we finally got some final numbers on uh late last night. Um, I won't go through all the academic achievements. Uh, you know, there's there's
018too many to list, but uh, you know, we continue to be proud and we just kind of give a high level view of our commencement level at the high school. Um, you know, and that's a product of of work K to2 uh that takes place across our district. Uh we really continue to have outstanding results. 98% graduation rate. Uh students going to outstanding colleges and universities and um students really challenged themselves with taking high level courses. Right now we're in AP week. Last year we administered uh 700 AP exams in a high school of 850 students. Uh so it really is uh truly impressive. Uh and and um and and this budget is able to continue to support all that great work. Um these are some of the new uh offerings for next year. Uh
019we have um uh we're excited about expanding our win program at at our elementary school. Um that's a program we started several years ago with hopes of continuing to expand it uh up into the upper grade levels. Uh over the past several years, it's it's served our our K2 students. And that's pushing support into each classroom with a reading teacher. Uh which is really invaluable uh for teachers to work and support students directly in their classroom. Uh we've had great success with it. Our reading staff and our general ed staff has done an outstanding job with it and we're excited about expanding that into third grade. In talking to uh to certainly the building leaders, uh they they certainly felt strongly about, you know, continue to expand that support. Uh so we're we're excited that
020we finally can do that for for third grade for for next year. Um we're also excited about uh our our everex expanding special education program. Uh we have uh uh continued expansion of our our life skills program at at at uh the middle school. Um you know a program that we started uh several years ago back at at Mandandalay. Uh that has continued to grow. uh program that we would not be able to uh you know in in the pa in years past uh we would have had students go to out of district placements for that we're now able to keep right here in the Wanto school district which is outstanding. Um and we're going to be building as part of the capital projects uh a a a room at at Wah High School uh
021for that program as well uh for next year. Um and then just some electives um you know our our science research program continues to uh to really uh blossom. We have um uh we'll be in our third year of that program. We're going to have uh over 60 students participating in that program for next year. Started out with a cohort two year uh you know just last school year uh and uh and continues to grow. Uh we just opened our science research lab, a new space that we uh designated for for for that class uh back in February. It came out fantastic. So I thank uh the the building leaders and and and Chris Kak for their their leadership uh with that program. a broadcasting class. Uh that's a new elective they're going to be
022offering. We're going to be working in that that space uh this summer. A couple of uh construction courses as part of our technology department both interior and exterior construction. Uh really exciting offerings and we're going to be creating a space for them as well. And then a cyber security course. Uh we're going to be creating a hopes to create a sequence a three-year sequence for students in cyber security that leads ultimately to an industry standard certification in cyber security. And then a couple of new theater electives as well, page to stage and art of improv. And then um you know, we had some interest in an EMT program. Uh you know, talking to the the local fire department, we know that this the shortages across the board in in terms of really qualified EMTs. Uh
023so we have uh over I believe it's about a dozen students uh next year. They're going to be taking an EMT program in the evenings here uh that we're happy to offer to the uh to the staff as well. So uh to the the students as well. So exciting new programs that that we're looking forward to getting off the ground. Um and continue to support our our UPK program, you know, program that we started back in in the 21-22 school year and started with, you know, started small, four sections. Uh we received a grant from New York State for that program. Uh and we've continued to support that. Uh now we'll have be running with eight sections again. Uh two at Mandalay Elementary School, two at Forest Lake, and four at at Wel. Uh and
024it's really nice to have our students in our buildings as four-year-olds. They become acclimated uh and then we'll uh you know move into uh to a kindergarten there. Uh and and it's been such a a great success. Uh so excited about that. Our only challenge really at this point in time with our UPK program is just space. Uh you know, it's it's getting tight. We we've continued to find uh spaces and and reaclimated some things and but it but it's it's getting tight for space. Um uh we have you know each year a lottery process for that and a small weight list but um but we've been able to really work through that and and and providing a good number of students here in MTO with that as as as four-year-olds. Um and as I
025mentioned class size the elementary level continue to work to bring that down. Uh we're really nice numbers for next year. Class size average overall at Mont Elementary School is about 19.4 about 18 at Forest Lake and about 20.8 at at at Mandalay. um you know much improved from where we were just a few short years ago. And then we'll still monitor kindergarten. You know, we always have that number that that's something that we'll closely watch. You know, each year enrollment can kind of fluctuate. It it typically ticks up a little bit. So, that may be, you know, sections across the board in all all three elementary schools that we'll we'll be monitoring. And then just some quick highlights for capital projects. It's going to be busy uh and continue to be busy over the next
026couple of years. We have a lot of capital improvement projects going on. Thank you to the community for their support uh in uh in 22 of of two of our three propositions for our bond. Uh we a lot of that work is now starting to come to fruition. We did a number of bathrooms across the district over the last summer. Uh we did some uh work in in our middle school gymnasium. Uh we did some roof work at Wel, hallway ceiling replacements across the entire high school. Uh the science classrooms I mentioned, we also did one at Waw Middle School. Uh we also did a new PA system in in every single uh building was in in much need. We had an antiquated system in place uh that was in need of an overhaul. Uh
027and also as part of that uh we're is starting the process of installing a new phone system. Uh we did that for all of our offices this week and we'll be installing over the summer uh new classroom phones for uh for in in in every single classroom across the district as well. Um and then you know number of smalling smaller projects as well. Uh some lighting and and um and paving. Uh we just did some paving work uh this this past uh spring break in front of uh in front of the high school and we'll be doing some flooring replacements at the middle school this summer. Um as part of the budget process this year, we're going to be asking for an expenditure to be approved from by the community out of our capital reserve
028projects uh out of our capital reserve fund. Uh and it's uh that's money that is already in that reserve that that is currently there and we're asking for the voters to approve uh uh and authorize us to to spend that money. Uh and we have four projects that we're asking for approval on. The largest one is a a large roof replacement at Wanto Elementary School. Uh it's a a large section of the original building, that original roof uh that we would like to do this summer. Uh the whole front of the building will need to be scaffolded to do that. uh one of the reasons why we're not unfortunately not able to run our summer wreck program over at Wel this summer. Um in addition uh some ceilings at the high school that's part of
029the HVAC work that we're going to be doing as part of the bond project. Those will be some classroom spaces that need new ceilings as part of that work. Security cameras across uh the district. We're going to be upgrading and replacing some of those as well as the uh the associated switch gear with that. And then some lighting in this room as well. Unfortunately, this room uh you know we one of the propositions was voted down as part of that. This space was one of those uh areas that was part of that potential renovation as well as some athletic projects in our playgrounds. Um so we've been doing pieces here in the auditorium. We did some sound work uh and uh and we're going to be doing some lighting work uh next year as well.
030And then uh you can see the transfer to capital uh that's really our our facilities budget. Uh we have a number of projects and a lot of these are accomplished by our in-house uh staff. Uh we have some really talented folks on staff, electricians, uh plumbers, and uh carpenter. They really do some great work and they'll be doing uh some of some of this work as well that that we have listed here. And a lot of it is to support some of the new programs that we're putting in place uh in terms of our broadcasting space and our construction space and and and so on. Um these are our reserves. We you know, we have a pretty significant reserve plan in place. Uh and and this is really to to to support us in in
031terms of any emergency expenditures and unexpected uh you know uh expenses that we have. Uh and uh and and and these are you know all funded in accordance with our uh with our reserve plan. Um good news financially, you know, really continue to be in a solid place financially in in the district. Uh the latest comprollers report uh in terms of our fiscal stress score gave us no designation uh which you can see over the past three years has been much improved um you know and and something that we've really targeted uh and uh and Anthony and his office they they've really done an outstanding job in working towards that and these are the big drivers you can see in the budget um you know in terms of uh you know where why does our
032budget go up each year and what are the drivers within that. Uh we always like to highlight the significant areas. Uh and the biggest one is is always people, right? We we're an organization that's 75% people. Uh that's 75% of our expenses are are salary and benefits. Uh and that's always a big driver in our budget. We have uh we have negotiated contracts with all of our major bargaining units. And um and these are the associated uh raises and benefits that are that that go with each of those groups. You can see that figure $1.7 million. That's a that's the biggest driver in our budget. Uh some special education programming. I highlighted a little bit of that before. Uh the employer retirement system. Um technology and cyber security. Uh that's also something that we really
033focused on. Uh Penny Curry's office has really, you know, worked at at at really continuing to put uh greater controls in place there. And um and and that all continues to to progress nicely. insurance is an area that continues to impact us uh and and and I think everybody uh in this room uh and and that continues to be a driver as well as well as some additional transportation costs. Um we as I mentioned we just got our final state aid numbers last night. Um our you know the state budget was very late in being adopted this year. Um and you can see that's uh what we anticipate. Um fortunately uh the governor's proposal back in February was really in line with what we actually saw. Um, and you can see we're expecting a, you
034know, modest increase in in foundation aid for next year. That's the biggest portion of our aid stream. Uh, which is uh about $315,000 uh for the the uh the 2526 school year. Um, and as I mentioned, staffing, you know, that that's the biggest driver in our budget, and you can see why. You know, that's uh that's as I said, we're an organization of people. Uh, so summary, uh, we, you know, there will be two propositions that we'll be asking voters to approve. The first proposition is the budget itself and the second proposition is a an expenditure out of the capital reserve fund and that was the $2.1 million that I highlighted in those four projects. Uh and uh once again, you know, in terms of offerings, uh you know, we're excited to continue to support
035all of our programs uh with the addition of some of the new programs that I highlighted and uh doing that all below the tax cap. So, um, with that, I'm going to turn it back over to, uh, oh, just one reminder. Budget vote day is on Tuesday, May May 20th. And once again, the polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Uh, and it'll be take place at each one of our elementary schools. Uh, and with that, I'll turn it back over to uh, Mrs. Cassidy. Oh, and I'm sorry, before I do, um, I just wanted to also um mention uh, one of our trustees is not here tonight, uh, Anthony Greco. We just want to wish him well. He's recovering. had to have a procedure uh this week. Uh so we just
036want to wish him well as as he's recovering tonight. Thank you. We'll continue on with the agenda. D1, approval of minutes. Is there a motion? Second. Second. All in favor? I E E1 financial reports. E2 budget transfers. Is there a motion? Second. Second. All in favor? F1 F personnel F1 approval of personnel items. F2 approval of 2025 election personnel. Is there a motion? Second. All in favor? G G1 textbook central G2 new WTO seafford track center courses G3 use of funds from reserves G4 intergovernmental cooperative bid agreements G5 NASA Bosey's agreement project 31-971096 G6 Bosey's Twilight Alternative Program Agreement and G7 Scope Education Service Agreement. Is there a motion? Second. Second. All in favor? I G8 second resolution G9 County of Nassau inter municipal agreement G10 facilities use agreement warrior sports baseball clinic G11 driver
037education in car instruction program G12 health services agreement G13 related services agreement. G14 budget increase. Is there a motion? Second. All in favor? G15 donations. The board of education accepts a donation from Rachel Moyer and Ryan Gomes from the Greg Moyer defibrillator fund of a Z machine for the WTO athletics department at a value of $2,300. The board of education approves a donation of $3,350 from the Forest Lake Elementary School PTA for the purchase of Gaga Pit flooring for the Forest Lake Elementary School. The board of education approves a donation of $947.50 from the Mandandalay Elementary School PTA for an assembly, Uncle Sam's Comedy Jam by Academic Entertainment, Inc. The board of education approves a donation of $1,250 from the Mandandalay Elementary School PTA for an assembly, the circus guide by So Fun City. The
038board of education approves a donation of $1,469.50 from the Mandandalay Elementary School PTA for an assembly music, sing along, and story time by Daryl Cobb Productions. And the board of education approves a donation from the New York schools insurance reciprocal of $1,000 for the WTO Warrior 911 memorial 5K run. The board of education would like to thank all for their generous donations. G17 transportation contracts, G17 extra classroom activities charter. G18 disposal of obsolete books. G19, destruction of ballots. Is there a motion? Second. All in favor? I H. New business. No one finished. Um I new business approval of committees on special education and preschool education recommendations. I two policy revisions. Is there a motion? Second. All in favor? I I adjournment. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Madam President, make a motion to adjurnn to
039executive session for personnel and security. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I. And we'll move on to and before we just before we do our uh reports, I just wanted to uh one of the the motions the board just made and approving personnel was from for some of our new staff members. Uh so we're excited to just I just wanted to announce some members of our our new teaching staff. Um, Patricia Campo was just appointed as an elementary teacher at Mandalay Elementary School. So, congratulations to her. Uh, Darren Soil, music teacher. Uh, Caitlyn Cavalo, also in music. And Jake Schiffer, also uh, our music educators. So, congratulations to all of them. Uh, Katherine Davidson, one of our ENL teachers, so we're excited. She's part-time teacher, will be moving to full-time for next year.
040Uh, Alexis Arnold in special education. and uh Dana uh Bquitio, I think. I'm hoping I'm saying it right, Dana. Good. Um so, congratulations to Dana who's here with us tonight. So, congratulations. Uh and thank you for joining us. Congratulations. We we'd like to welcome them all to the Wanto family and and uh and and uh we know that they're they're they're going to do great things while they're here. So, congratulations. Okay, now we'll move on to student government. Isabella. Hello everyone. My name is Isabella Kugal and I am the co-president of the student government for the 2024 2025 school year alongside Danny Donahoo who unfortunately could not attend because he is competing in a tennis match. In recognition of autism awareness month this past April, the student government took several initiatives to promote understanding and
041inclusion within our school community. We decorated the school showcase to highlight facts and messages about autism awareness. Additionally, we organized a bake sale with all proceeds being donated to the Nassau SuffK Autism Society, an organization that provides vital support and resources to individuals with autism and their families across Long Island. Moreover, we also deliver daily loudspeaker announcements through the month to educate and inform our peers about autism. Our spring sports teams have had much success so far. The boys track team won divisions, which is an amazing accomplishment. The other sports teams have been doing very great as well. Each team is currently recognizing their senior members who will be graduating soon. We are so proud of the athletes and we can't wait to see how their performance continues. On June 4th, our future business leaders
042association club will be holding their annual spikeball school tournament. The money raised from this event will be donated to a cancer charity that will be chosen soon. Even if you don't plan to participate, please make sure to stop by and enjoy some snacks. These past few weeks have been filled with students who have been studying and taking their AP exams. We'd like to commend them on their dedication as we know this is a very stressful time. Good luck to all of those who are still taking their tests. Thank you for letting me give you a little insight on what is happening in the high school and Danny and I look forward to sharing more with you next month. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, let's start with our PTAs. Forest Lake PTA. Good evening everyone. Matt
043Senzer from Forest Lake PTA. I use my cheat sheet here. Uh we have a lot going on. End of the school year, so it's very busy. We had the Ducks game last Thursday. Uh always an exciting night. We were very thankful it wasn't as cold as last year. Uh we're also celebrating teacher appreciation week. Uh we have a world in the world theme. We bought uh snacks every day for the staff and tomorrow is the big staff lunch. Uh it's also the fifth grade plant sale tomorrow. Hopefully it's not too wet for them out there. Um also the final book fair of the year is on the 16th. Uh, Adventureland on the 21st. We're shining out with Mandalay. Uh, Field Day on June 5th, our Pday installation dinner uh on June 16th at Ramalo, and
044we have the Kona ice truck uh fundraiser for the incoming fifth grade to start their funds for next year. And that's going to be on Tuesday the 24th. Great. Thank you, [Applause] Manderlay. PTA want to LPTA. Oh boy. Okay. Yeah. Tiny. Okay. Hello. I'm Jen Schnitzer 12 elementary PTA. Uh we had our staff appreciation week. Of course. This week we had a wicked theme which was great. Um the committee wound up doing so many different activities for the teachers. One of the things they did to surprise them were postits from the students with thank yous and messages for them which is like yellow rick road which was so awesome. They have one more day of surprises tomorrow. So the teachers are hopefully are going to be excited about that and the staff as well. They
045did also do postits for staff around the building too. So that was great. Uh we do have our ducks uh game family night. Um, on June 5th, we're going to be with the fourth and fifth grade orchestra, fifth grade band, and third, fourth, and fifth grade chorus for a fun evening, and they'll have their performance as well. Uh, we have our keychain fundraiser. There are different keychains. We're going to have a lot of keychain excitement around the building for those who want to participate. Um, they can purchase little keychains for their backpacks and things like that. Uh, we are partnering with programs for all kids for spring sport day. This is next Saturday the 17th from 9 to 12 uh pm 9 am to 12 pm on the turf field across from the school for
046various games sports and fun. Uh and we just had our plant sale this Wednesday and Thursday where this well today and yesterday uh where the students could purchase plants, participate in a seating activity to learn how plants grow and they got to take home their own seeding kit from the PTA. So we hope they'll plant wonderful things. Uh we do still have in our um lobby uh a donation for to help little Miss Wanto for pet food collection and small pet toys. That's going to be going on until the 27th. Um just bear with me one minute. I have only a few more things. Uh we do each month now a donations for a cause uh where we um collect on our giveback site. If people want to donate um they can donate for different
047causes. This month for May it's John Thesum Foundation. Um, for May, we'll be collecting donations for the foundation. Um, and since 1992, the John Thson Children's Foundation helps sick and underprivileged children um, across Long Island in any capacity possible. So, we hope people will consider to making a tax um, deductible contribution to support the foundation on our giveback site as well for PTA. Um, coming up, we have Adventureland as well this Monday the 12th. Um, and one of the last things that I want to speak about is some of our fifth grade activities coming up. We have our end of year celebration on the 24th, which we're very excited about. And moving up, uh, ceremony on the 26th. We'll be providing PT will be providing obviously the refreshments. Um, and courtesy of the PTA, each
048fifth grader will receive a bineer coring up ceremony and we'll be there to um, congratulate them because we will miss them as they're graduating this year. Thank you so much. Take care. Thank you. 6 to 12, SEPTA, PTA Council, Sports Booster Club, Performing Arts Booster Club, and the Wanto Foundation. Now, we're going to begin our public comment if anybody has any questions like to Good evening. Thank you for allowing me to speak once again. I know we were here uh last month. Uh we expressed concerns. Um I had recently had an email between Mr. McMar and I and he said that there was really no updates. I know you guys have been busy. It's a busy time of year, I'm sure. But um once again, I'd like you to know that we are interested. We
049are extremely on the edge of our seats. Again, um how this will impact us. I'm going to spare us the list. I did have another one, but I implore you both or all of you to please let us know um when this discussion is going to be made. and bringing up whether there could be an alternative. I know that Moheis is having their um fundraiser for Harris Lake and would that be an option for the high school rather than signing a contract with um a donation where there's a lot of strings attached and how it could affect the surrounding houses more than just say the school sports teams and school practices, but to have outside people come. So, I'd like to know if that would be an option and who I could contact to help
050in order to do that. So again, um when this decision is made and when you guys uh I don't know whether you've had time to visit it, I don't know what when they gave you this money and you accepted their um donation, whether there was a time frame they gave you. Did they give you a time frame? Um are they calling and asking for answers? Is it just us? I'm kind of we're kind of like in limbo here and I understand you guys are busy and I get it but I would love um just a little more communication and should we keep pestering you or when you guys decide or have made some decisions you'll contact us. All right. Well, thank you and please please do not take this lightly. It's a big deal. It
051really is. Thank you. Okay. I'm one of the neighbors also, Moren O'Donnell, you know. Um, so we were here last month asking about the donation of the soccer club to the lights on the field. Um, so how do we get an answer? Because we were here last month, now we're here asking again. I just don't understand this. Um, you know, there's got to be we would like to sit down with all of you and whoever's donating these lights, find out what exactly is going to be happening because it's going to affect us greatly. So, I know you can't answer, but when can you answer? Is there ever a time that you can answer the questions? You know, I don't I really we don't get it. It's very frustrating. So, please, you know, like I told
052Adam, we're a great neighborhood. You have the best of the best on this block and you're going to destroy this neighborhood because we're all going to wind up leaving because of this. So, because we really don't think it's going to work out well. There's a lot to consider. A lot. Thank you. All right, seeing no one else, we'll uh we'll close the public comment period. Uh just to respond to, you know, the uh questions raised about the lights. Uh as I said, I don't have anything new to report at this time. Um there's been the the board uh back, you know, several months ago had agreed to accept the donation. Uh and now we're really just having discussions to see if that is going to work for both parties involved. Um and that's really why
053I don't have anything new to report. Until we we get a little further along in those discussions, uh I can't really speak to any specifics of what that would look like. Um but that's kind of where we are in the process. And it until we can get to some point with this organization in terms of that agreement, uh it's just premature for me to to speak about it. And that's why I'm not trying to put you off or or or you know, keep you from from getting the answers that you're looking for. Uh I just don't have them yet because I don't know exactly what that would look like. Um but when we do, we we certainly will we'll we'll share that information with you. We're just not there yet. uh you know so um
054so you know hopefully over the course of the next few weeks I'll have more that I can share with you. Yep. I think we're going to close the meeting now. Have a good night everybody. Get home safe. Thank you.