001Good evening and welcome to the business meeting of September 25th, 2025. Um, please stand for the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] >> Um, I'm first going to open it up for public comments on any of the listed agenda items. Since I don't see any comments, we're going to move to the consent agenda number um one, please. Mr. O. >> Yes. >> Okay. Resolved on the recommendation of the superintendent of schools to approve the cons consent agenda as presented to the board at this meeting. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? >> Miss Laka, would you tell us what's on it? Consent agenda consisting of the following minutes from
002the September 11th board meeting. Special education placements amended 2526 substitute listing. Appointment amended for a sub data specialist. Doc pay for a staff member. Unpaid time for a staff member. Additional hours for staff members. Carter Cardinal Hayes school and internal claims order to report for checks and warrants. >> Any questions or comments from the board on this? All in favor? >> Opposed? Abstensions. The resolution passes. >> I'd like to entertain a motion to move item 10 from new business to now. >> So move. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. So, we're going to move down to item number 10 on the agenda, which is the primary K-9 handler memorandum of agreement. Sounds very official. >> Dr. Love. You want to read the resolution? >> Oh, I don't know.
003Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. >> Uh, you want me to read it, too? >> You want to read it, Sam? >> Sure. >> Uh, resolved upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby approves a primary K-9 handler memorandum of agreement between Putnham Valley Central School District and Alex Goffman to serve as the primary handler for the Putnham Valley Central School District's facility therapy K9 for a stipen of $2,000. Be it further resolved, this contract shall remain in effect unless otherwise amended or revoked by a subsequent resolution as per document MG092525. >> Second questions or comments? >> That dog is awesome. That dog was awesome. I love that pup. So, we have Jackie is going to give us some uh some background information before the board votes. So, welcome. Thank you. >> And
004I agree. The dog is awesome. And I want to thank you, Dr. Dr. Lu and the board of education um for giving me this time tonight to just welcome Mason, our facility dog. And if uh Alex Gooffman, his primary handler, would just bring him up here um so we can introduce Mason formally to everyone tonight. We are so thrilled to welcome Mason to our Putinham Valley family thanks to a very generous donation from the Putnham Valley Education Foundation. They deserve a round of applause. Um, and we are so fortunate to have uh both members past and present from the PBF here tonight. And we thank them for their support, their enthusiasm, and their patience. This was a long process. There is an application process to go through um something like this, getting a facility dog
005for a school. Um there's a vetting process of not only the school and our um our environment, our school building and our our staff, but also finding a primary care handler. So Mr. Gooffman and his family have been so kind as to take Mason in as the primary caretakers. That means Mason will come to work every day with Mr. Gooffman. He will have a place in his office as well as in Dr. Podesta's office and our clinical suite where he will uh join groups and um support students. He'll visit uh classrooms like special education classrooms, classrooms for reading. Um so he will just be an integrated part of our school day. Each and every day he comes with u Mr. Gooffman to work and uh then he will go home every night with Mr. Gooffman
006to his family and his two wonderful boys who are already so excited that they have a new friend. Mason was delivered to the house on Tuesday and um everybody couldn't be more excited. Um before we formally appoint Mason as part of our faculty, I just want to not only thank the Gooffman's for their generosity and opening up their home to Mason and also again to the PBEF for their generosity and supporting this financially with that beautiful grant we received. I also want to thank Britney Lash Lashos from Blue Path um who has guided me in every step of this process from application to now today. She's even here with us in our audience. Um she has been supporting Mason and the Gothman's and getting settled and uh she will be visiting our elementary school as
007Mason begins his first few days of work soon. Um right now he's transitioning into the home into his new home and pretty soon he'll be coming to work. Um and that uh Britney will join us then to be able to support him as he transitions. Um I also really want to thank um the support of the entire Putnham Valley community because it really does take a valley to do something like this. We've had the support of the board. We've had the support of Dr. Podesta and Carly Roby who's here tonight. Um we've had the support of our secondary handlers, um people in the building who will be handlers of Mason when they go to different events or different um settings and uh also community members who have stepped up to support Mason in ways that
008we couldn't even imagine when we first started down this road. So, I want to give a shout out to Zabine Nazc, owner of Paw Prince Grooming and Boutique on Oscan Lake Road. She'll provide bath, brush out, nails, cleaners, and trimming if necessary. Uh, you know, that is huge. And then I also want to thank Dr. Paul Moss, North Westchester veterinary. He's a Putin Valley resident and son of former Putton Valley School board member Mary Moss and Denise Brady, um, a vette and office manager of the vet, um, PV resident and a mom of our own, Matt Brady. uh they are offering veterinary services to support the dog as well. So this is so huge and they really deserve a round of applause for supporting. And before we officially appoint Mason, I want to leave everyone
009with this. A 2018 review of over 30 sources focused on therapy dogs found strong evidence for benefits in three areas. enhanced reading and language skills, meaning improved fluency and comprehension when reading aloud to dogs. Um, social, emotional, and humane gains, better emotional stability, empathy, and school attitudes, and improve gross motor skills, faster task completion in preschoolers. Qualitative studies also support showing that therapy dogs reduce anxiety, boost self-esteem, improve behavior, and increase motivation and engagement, particularly in literacy activities. For students with special needs, dogs aid in social skill building, speech therapy, and hyperactivity reduction, sometimes detecting stress via cortisol sense. Specific to facility dogs, a study on their integration in elementary classrooms reported increased academic achievement, reduced anxiety in academic settings and greater school enjoyment. And that had pronounced effects for students with disabilities and kindergarteners.
010And of course, our teachers also benefit from emotional support of having a dog like this. So, this is for everyone in the Putnham Valley School community. I can't say enough thank you to all of the people involved in making this happen tonight and of course to our board for approving this work. So, without further ado, if we can have a motion and Alex will walk around so that Mason can be um appointed as we do with all candidates. >> So, I'm going to jump in real quick before the board votes. I echo Miss Lavine's um thank yous especially to the generosity of our education foundation, all those community members that are stepping up to provide services and certainly the Gooffman family for opening their door to Mason. But the reality is none of this would
011have been possible if it wasn't for the tireless work of Miss Lavine. I remember during her interview here over four years ago, she shared during the interview that she wanted to bring a facility dog into the school. Um, and it was a long process. Uh, and she wouldn't take no for an answer. If you've ever met her, that's not unusual. Um, but she followed through on that as well as all of the other things she promised to accomplish during her interview process. So, um, this is really the culmination of many years of work and would not be uh we would not be here today if it wasn't for um Jackie's dedication and belief in this and what it means for students and what it means for our community and to make this all possible. So,
012I do want to recognize um her efforts as long as all the others who make this all possible. Thank you all. I just want to say I did forget one very important person and I can't believe I forgot this cuz I promised her that I was going to embarrass her. Um Miss Jeannie Dik has been by my side through all of this helping in ways that you can't imagine, making phone calls. She's even reached out to um local grocery stores to see if we can get and Melody too. They've been reaching out and writing grants to see if we can get food delivered um on behalf of grocery stores for Alex and and Mason. So, um I I did not do this in isolation, but I do want to recognize all of the work that
013Genie and I did to get all these community partners involved and to help this happen, too. So, thank you. Thank you, Dr. L, for your kind words. >> I have a question. Um what does the training look like to be a handler, both primary and secondary? >> So, I'll invite Britney to say a few words about that. Go ahead. Hi everybody. Uh my name is Britney. I'm from Blue Path Service Dogs and um I've been training Mason I want to say for the last eight or nine months or so. Um but I also met him when he was a teeny tiny puppy. Um the training for handlers involves coming to a full week of training with us. Um, we have what we call we actually call it parent training because most of our dogs become
014one-on-one service dogs for children with autism. Um, so this coming graduation we actually are really excited cuz we have two facility dogs um and a service dog graduating. So we've invited um Alex and the other handlers to come and join us for that week of training. So, they'll do some intensive training with me and my staff and learn everything that they can possibly know about handling a dog. You're like only years old. >> Um, Mason, >> he's very excited to be here. He really wants to know what's in your bag. Is there is there dog here? Um, yeah. So, we do an intensive training with them. um teach them everything that we know about this dog, everything that we've experienced with him and kind of pass our knowledge along. Um and we also provide lifetime
015support. So we will come out to visit Mason at any time. We will support uh the maintenance of his training to ensure that he is behaving up to our standards um on his day of graduation um and and forward for the rest of his working career. >> And what about the secondary handlers? >> They are also joining us for training. Yeah. So, they're not going to come for the full week. Alex is actually staying um at the hotel with Mason from Monday to Thursday and then coming to the graduation ceremony on Thursday night, whereas the secondary handlers are joining us for like a day at a time. >> Thank you. >> I just want to also thank the Pton Valley Education Foundation for um Mason as well as all of the work that you do
016for our community. So, thank you. >> Echoed. >> Okay. All in favor? I >> I opposed. Dare you. >> Yes, Mason. >> Congratulations. [Applause] >> All these people touching me. I don't understand. >> Thank you for doing this. I know this guy. >> Still on your head. >> Welcome to the family, >> bud. [Music] >> What? So awesome. >> One of the moms was like, "Oh, I know. I know." But like my kid like that >> that's happened to us. >> It has. It's actually funny because there's other things like the dogs train not to interact with you because every kid stops the dog. >> Okay. >> The dog's not done. >> Well, we will not primary but we'll bring the dog to visit in the other buildings. >> Yeah. Yeah. Jackie's got a whole
017plan. >> Got a whole plan. >> Okay. It's hard. It's hard to talk, but we're gonna >> we're going to switch from the dogs to our auditors. So, um we're going to ask our external auditors, Okconor Davies, for our fiscal for the report on their our fiscal year ending in June 2025. So, we'd like to welcome Jeff Chaver from PKF Okconor Davies up to the mic. I know it's a tough act to follow. I'm sorry. I know. >> Maybe we should let you go first before the dog. >> Good evening. Thanks for setting me up there like that. I've never had to go after a dog. >> Don't worry. You know, these cute safety patrollers waiting for you to be done to go next. It's >> a tough act to follow. Things that aren't working.
018I will try to be brief. Um again, my name is Jeff Shaver. I'm a partner with PKF Oconor Davies, independent auditors for the school district. Happy to be here to present the results of the audit for the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2025. I believe everyone's been given um a book. I I'll try to take you through this. Um the audit process started back in the summer. We spent a week here. Our audit managers in the sitting in the in the stands, Carolyn, uh in charge of a team of about four. We spend a week here in addition to some preliminary work that we do. And of course, there's um some followup and wrap up after that. And um bringing us to the conclusion, the report is due to be filed with the state October
01915th. So, we're we're way ahead of schedule. Um, this is actually this your your your school district report was my first of the year. So, you you're you're uh the fastest this year and this is my first board meeting to to do a a final presentation. So, congratulations that you're you know you're kind of you're ahead of the game doing faster than than the average. Um the audit went went well. We received everything that we asked for. Uh we got full uh cooperation from all your business your business official, your district treasurer and all the staff. Um they made it a pleasant audit. The books are in um I would say very good condition. Uh audit adjustments or corrections we had to make to the books were very minimal. Um which makes our job quite
020a bit easier when there's less things we have to to find and fix as we're moving through. So, it does make our our lives a lot easier for your books to be in in good order. Um, we have issued and this is what's uh what the first page after the table of contents is the independent auditor's report. We've issued what's known as an unmodified opinion on the on your financial statements. Um, it's also referred to as a clean opinion and that's the most favorable opinion that you can receive. What that means is the financial statements are fairly presented in all material respects. So we've looked through all the numbers that you see in the book. Some of the numbers I'll talk to you about in more detail and we're comfortable that this is an adequate
021uh presentation in accordance with the United States government accounting standards. There is also a required report on internal controls over financial reporting. We've put that in the back of the book. Sometimes we refer to that as the yellow book report as that's the the book that the the standard is written. It's actually a yellow book or used to be. Um in that report we would be required to tell the reader if we identified any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in your internal controls. Um, I'm happy to report that this is also a clean opinion. So, no material weaknesses in internal controls or significant deficiencies uh were identified. With that said, I'd like to take you through some financial highlights. If you want to follow along, I'm on page 59. This is the general fund schedule
022of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balance, budget, and actual. The first column is your original budget. The final budget is following encompassing any transfers or amendments that were made during the year. Third column is your actual results. Incumbrances are open purchase orders or commitments as of June 30th which will roll into your next year's budget and the variance is the difference between your final budget less your actual results and incumbrances. So you can see from a revenue point of view, the original budget anticipated $58.9 million of revenue to be collected. The actual revenues collected for the year were 61.2 million, some 2.4 million greater than what was anticipated to be collected. There were some what's referred to on the report as charges for services. Within that category is tuition charges to other districts. There
023were some 300,000 greater than budget. um in the use of money in property category. That is where interest income is recorded. That was some 970,000 greater than what was anticipated to be collected. Keep in mind the interest rates have stayed relatively high. The district's been able to earn favorable interest rates all year. Um that that that fact wasn't known during the budget adoption. In addition, some of the surplus interest income has to be allocated back to your reserves. So, it's not prudent to to budget for those types of items. State aid was better than budget by 481,000 and miscellaneous income by 566,000. In terms of the expenditure appropriation side of the budget, the original budget called for $59.3 million of spending. The actual expenditures for the year were 56.993 million. After factoring in open purchase
024orders of 612,000, that left you with a budgetary surplus of 1.9 million or under spending of your budget and that represents about 3% of what you anticipated to spend. So set another way, you you spent 97% of what you anticipated to spend initially. So while it is 1.9 million significant dollar amount when you look at it in terms of percentage you really were fairly close to what you anticipated to spend. There was a budgeted transfer in from the debt service fund of 1.3 million which is below the expenditures and other financing sources and uses because the district had these other surpluses. It decided it didn't need to use that fund balance of from the debt service fund. So the transfer was not made. So that was actually a shortfall in your budget. The net amount
025of all the surpluses I mentioned and the one negative on the transfer in comes to a budgetary surplus of $2.9 million that you did better than your budget. Keep in mind that 2.9 million isn't all actual surplus because when the budget's adopted, there's a fund a use of fund balance in the in the budget, which means set it or the way I like to say it, you're anticipating your fund balance to come down. When you when you appropriate fund balance, use money from your reserves or use money from your unrestricted fund balance. you're anticipating your fund balance to come down assuming you collect all your revenues and spend all your your appropriations. So that number was approximately $1 million that you anticipated to lose of your fund balance. You didn't lose the $1 million. You
026end you ended up generating the 2.9 million I mentioned after adding back the open purchase orders. The difference between those two is your actual surplus for the year. So the actual surplus 2,548,000 net increase to your general fund fund balance. So the ending fund balance for the general fund only is $22.2 million. I'd like to briefly take you through the components of that fund balance and you can see that on page 49. This is the general fund is just the first column on page 49. You'll see at the bottom the number I mentioned $22.2 million. The bulk of your fund balance is in the what we call the restricted category. Um those are those are legal reserves that the board has set up to be to fund for future obligations related to these specific items.
027um you generally cannot use those reserves for anything other than what they're specifically set aside for. You have reserves for property loss and liability 719,000 taxertiari claims 1.8 million employee benefit acred liability or payouts for employees when they retire 1.7 million ERS retirement contributions a total of 3.4 4 million. However, $1 million of that restricted fund balance has been used to balance the 2526 budget. 2,145 for TRS retirement expenditures and future capital projects, $8.9 million that can only be used um pursuant to voter authorization to take that money out to be applied towards a specific capital project. So that's your total restricted fund balance 18,892,000. In the assigned category are those purchase orders I keep on talking about. Those are commitments that will be fulfilled next year. 612,000. And your amounts designated for subsequent year's
028expenditures. That's the amount of your unrestricted fund balance used to balance the 2526 budget. That's $200,000 in the assigned category and 1,48,000 in the restricted category combined. That's 1,248,000 used of your to total 22.2 million to balance your 2526 budget. So when you start the year, your anticipated spend down of your fund balance is that number 1,248 plus those incumbrances. When I come back here next year, that number, that balancing figure next year will be the sum of the 1,248 and the 600. Call it let's call it 1.8 million will be your anticipated take down in the general fund of fund balance. The residual fund balance is referred to as unassigned fund balance. New York State only allows a school district to keep 4% of the next year's budget as unassigned fund balance. and you
029are currently at the maximum allowed under the state law, 4% and that's 2,533,000. That's fund balance that's um allowed to be kept as surplus to be used for whatever needs come up at the discretion of the board. And that is your total fund balance, $22.2 million. There's a lot more in the report. I don't think um anybody really wants me to go too much further. Um, I'd be happy to if if if you'd like, but um I'd like to just open it up for any questions, comments that anybody has. >> Does does the state put a limit on all of the reserves that a district can have? I I know on the uh you know the the general fund there's a limit of 4% as you said but all the different reserves capital projects uh
030the the retirement and things like that is there a limit that the state puts on those in total >> not that I'm aware of. No, there's >> some of them are self-imposed. Like for instance, the capital reserve. >> That's a voter approved reserve. So if the voters approve up to I believe $10 million in your case can to be put in a capital reserve, that's now imposed on you by the voters. You can't go higher than that $10 million. >> Understood. Right. >> So there's there's a maximum there set by the voters. Um generally speaking like most of the reserves need to be supported by um future obligations that are real in nature like tax certiary. Most districts uh in this area they all face the the issue of tax certiaries someone coming in challenging
031their tax assessment asking for tax money back that becomes a bill to the district. This reserve is there to to offset that cost. So you don't have to, you know, you don't have to scramble, so to speak. You could I've seen districts have to issue debt to pay large taxs in the past. So the $1.8 million is there uh when those claims come to bear and there are real claims outstanding filed. It takes years sometimes to settle them. You don't know exactly what they're going to how they're going to land, but the 1.8 is set aside for those claims. The um TRS retirement contribution does have a legal cap. New York State, that's is actually a relatively new reserve. Maybe it's about five or so years old. It can be no more than 10% of
032your teacher salaries for the previous year. >> Okay. >> So, your teacher salaries last year were about 22 million. You can't have any more than 2.2 million in that reserve. >> Got it. >> So, you're close to the maximum there. that covers about not quite one year's worth of invoices. So just so just to give you an idea, the spend on the retirement bill for teachers has been I think last year was actually 2.4. So the 2.1 is not even enough to cushion for one year. Um am I missing any? The only one there's not really a much of a cap on at all in terms of legally is the employee retirement system contribution reserve. I don't know of any statutory caps. It's just what the the the board feels is a prudent amount to
033keep in that reserve. Um, as I said before, a million dollars of that reserve has been earmarked towards 2526. So, you really will have $2.4 million left over. You look at the annual bill, that's how I I would benchmark the reserve against what is your annual spend. your spend is about I want to say I don't want to misstate 750,000. So you know a little more than two years worth of bills. So it's not what I would call um excessive in any way. It's just a nice cushion to offset against future increases. Those rates, those retire ERS retirement rates have been creeping up over the last couple years. Unfortunately, the TRS retirement rates have remained relatively stable. They I think they dropped slightly for 2526. Um but you you don't know what what the future
034will bring. If the stock market starts performing poorly, they will eventually have to increase those rates and that's what those reserves are there for. You tap into those, you know, with those big increases when those big increases come. Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Thanks a lot. >> Thank you. >> Um I'd like to say first of all, thank you to uh Connor Davies for their work, to Grace for all the work that she's done to make us fiscally responsible and fiscally solvent. Um, and I'd like to welcome we had a new um, community member on on the audit committee, Mark Dexter. Um, we really appreciate his insights and his questions because that's we all learn from that. Um, so those are Janette. >> So Barbara just took all my
035notes. >> So I also wanted to thank Jeff and his team. Uh, they're professional. They come in. you don't even really know they're there. They get all the work done. And uh really a huge compliment to Dr. Chan, uh Matthew Sto, our district clerk. They really do a lion share of that work along with the support of their office to make sure that the auditors have all the information they need. So uh it's a tremendous amount of work. We were racing against the the expected birth of a child, which is why we were first. Um you guys were able to get the audit done and complete prior to. So we we we reached we reached our benchmark there. Um, and I just wanted to thank everyone who's involved. The tremendous amount of work is done
036in a very short period of time and I'm glad that all the results came out in the positive. So, thank you. Um, I will turn it over now to Miss Yedder who will speak on behalf of the audit committee. >> Um, just getting what Barbara had just stated. So, thank you for your work on this and Carolyn and Mark for your attending tonight. I appreciate your time. Um, as well as Tom Sawyer who was not able to attend tonight and Guy Cohen who has been on the audit committee for many years who seems to be stepping back. We want to thank him for his service, but we are um glad glad to see that we are in good standings and glad um thank you for your detail that you went through with us um to
037bring us to this point. So, we appreciate your time and effort. Thank you. And Dr. Chan, of course, and your office. So, thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay. Thank you >> to all our safety patrollers. Jeff said make sure you study hard on meth. You too one day can be given an external order report. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Now, I have a feeling that many of you are here for the next presentation. So, we would like to welcome up Dr. Podesta and Miss Roby to give our opening of schools report for our elementary school. Welcome. >> Hi, everyone. So glad to be here tonight. I'm here with Mrs. Roby, my assistant principal, and I'm here with some very special leaders in our school who have been
038sitting so patiently. I'm so proud of them. Um, so if we could just get my presentation up on the screen, that would be What do I have to do? Do I have to do something? >> Harley has to walk it. I don't know. Dan, this here. No, >> I didn't notice right there. I'm sorry. >> There we go. >> Fantastic. I didn't have it memorized. So, thank you so much. Um, so we are here to give our opening of schools report for the elementary school and the theme for our district this year is resilience. And resilience meaning bouncing back, being strong, persevering, showing our strength and learning with every opportunity that we can. Some of our guests recognize the picture that's up there from our opening of schools picnic thanks to our PTA with the
039bubble bus and we have we had our Putham Valley Education Foundation friends there and we just started strong and I am so thankful to say it's been it's been a very very smooth start to a wonderful school year and so like I said we're studying and thinking and focusing on the word resiliency throughout our district this Being resilient allows us to adapt to change, grow from challenges, and solve difficult problems, which we try to do every day. Resiliency leads to confidence, strength, knowledge, and power. And so, we as a student community will be talking about that, but as a staff all the time, overcoming challenges and trying to get better at what we do. So, as I said, we had perfect weather throughout September. We actually saw some rain today, but the weather has been
040amazing for outdoor recess, a wonderful welcome back picnic, our kindergarten bus run, our kinder camp, and so we've just been enjoying the beautiful area that we live in and welcoming our new community members. We also are about to welcome this superstar. And so the students who are here tonight got the first view of Mason. And I can't tell you how excited we are. So excited for Mr. Gooffman. Thank you to the foundation. Thank you to the board of education, Dr. Luft. And as he said, thank you to Jackie Lavine because when she sets her mind on something, it happens. We also want to thank Blue Path. I'm excited to be a secondary handler myself. I'm going for a little day of training. I would have taken the dog, but I have two at home, and
041that's good. I know Jackie I know Jackie would have taken the dog, but she has four at home, so that wasn't going to work. But we're all going to fall in love with Mason, and we're excited to grow with him. All right. So, right now, I'd like to say that the elementary school is so fortunate to have clubs and opportunities available to our elementary students. And we have we have the gym show every year. We have the marathon running club new this year. We have the science maker club where we do the science fair and then even to the tri county science fair. We have an earthhelpers club. We have a pvees musical every year. Last year we started the sign language club. And this year there's even going to be a fishing club. So
042some of you are in the safety patrol club led by the coordinator, Mrs. Melissa Keeler. And if I could have our safety patrollers come up and stand right alongside me, that would be wonderful. Melissa Keeler, would you come up too? Thank you. And I just want to thank the parents who brought your students here. I'd like to thank the students who are here in their safety belts leading the way for us. And I'd like to note that it's a little late, so you have to go home right after this part and then go to bed and get ready for tomorrow. Okay? But I will say that these are people who could come tonight because their schedules allowed it and they are in the fall session of the safety patrollers. Mrs. Keeler will tell us how
043many safety patrollers we have in the fourth grade. This is just people representing the fall session, right? And they're going to be able to introduce themselves soon. But Melissa Keeler, would you come up? She's a teaching assistant and club extraordinaire. She's also a teaching assistant mentor in our building. I don't know where we'd be without her. And she'll tell us a little bit about the safety patrol. >> Thanks. >> So, the safety patrol was originally organized by Mrs. Odell prior to CO. It is run through the AAA organization and it was originally situated for the school districts that didn't have busing. So, children walked to school, crossing guards needed an extra hand or so. So, our safety patrollers would then be out with our safet crossing guards out in the streets. And we're fortunate enough
044in Putinham Valley where we have busing and I like to joke at PVES we have ballet parking. Um, so we do our safety patrol um I'm sorry, our safety patrol post >> post in the building. Thank you. Um, so in the building, they are stationed in every kindergarten classroom and they're stationed at all major intersections of our hallways to help any student who's maybe new to our building or a kindergartener who doesn't know where they're going. They are the first person that they will see, our first responders. Um, each one is assigned a different post that lasts for 2 weeks. Then we have a meeting and we talk about what's working, what's not, and we change up our posts. And then we can talk peer-to-peer about, hey, I, you know, I help Mrs. Sullivan organize
045her folders in the morning or in the afternoon. I help Mrs. Demay put up the chairs, things like that. They're always our caboose of our kindergarten line. Um, cuz kindergarteners are still learning how to get on their buses in an orderly fashion. So, as long as we see our safety patroller, we know we have all of our ducks in a row. And this is actually season 1 of season 6 of our safety patrollers. When I first started, we did do fall, spring, I'm sorry, fall, winter, spring, and summer. Each post lasted 3 months. Um, I started 5 years ago as a coordinator for the safety patrol, and it has grown in popularity. Um, and it's not it's all because of them. They're wonderful. They're great in the classrooms. We work on leadership and how we
046speak to one another and friendly reminders to walk in the halls. Um, and out of 106 fourth graders this year, we have 77 safety patrollers. >> So, every 6 weeks there'll be a shift into seasons and then they go from there. But I really, really thank all of their hard work and dedication to help our youngsters be safe in the building. Thank you. Safety patrol was my favorite thing. And thank you to Melissa's moo Mrs. Melissa Keeler who has 77 students in her club that she's running. Um, so as you know in the elementary school, the fourth graders are our seniors, right? So they are the role models, they're the example setters, they're teaching others how to behave safely and to keep others safe. and we really really appreciate their leadership. So, they're each going
047to be able to say their name and their current post. They know what their post is right now. So, I'm going to start down here and then we can work our way. So, all you have to do is say your name and your post. Okay. >> I am Nash and my post is the front hall. >> Thank you. I'm Charlie Cannon. My post is the third grade stairwell. I'm Anthony Chulo. My um front my um post is at the front hall. >> I'm Ricardo. My post is in the classroom. >> I'm Matilda and my post is at the buses. >> My name's Bella. My post is at the auditorium. My name is Luca Antonette and my post is at the cafeteria stairs. My name is Eliza Barbetszo and my post is also in the classroom.
048>> Wonderful. Thank you so much Carly. So, we're just going to gather very quickly before these kids leave and just take a picture with Mrs. Keeler right here. So, come in front. You really made an effort to be here tonight and I appreciate it so much. I don't know if you came to see the dog or what, but >> Okay, go ahead. [Music] >> Great job. >> Do you guys want to skate for a minute? The parents can you want to let parents take a picture or you guys are good? >> We'll share it. All right. Okay. >> Get us out of here. >> Thank you all. >> Thank you so much everybody. See you tomorrow. >> Thank you. >> And I would like to say again that it was Katie Odell who brought this
049program to our school. We didn't even know a thing about it. So it was before the co year she brought it to the fourth grade. And Mrs. Keeler has been keeping it alive every year and we really appreciate it. >> Outstanding. So this year we also get to welcome our UPK out in our back modular which has been so exciting. So we have two full classrooms of preK students who are joining us through the YMCA. Um they are just fantastic. I get to see them at fire drills usually cuz I'm in the back field and let me tell you they have nice straight quiet lines. It's very impressive. They have really just blended in already. you almost don't know that they're there throughout the day. Their drop off and pickup times have been pretty seamless
050and we look forward to welcoming them to more things such as picture day that's coming up from fire safety lessons, the book fair and many assemblies throughout the year. So, we're really excited to have them and just to be able to integrate them into our building more and more. this summer. I say it every year, I am in awe at how the elementary school does not stop over the summer. It is the busiest school I have ever seen and I just love it. There's there's not a single day that's quiet in the elementary school during the summertime. We're fortunate enough that we were able to house the ESY program this summer. So, we had students in for six weeks of the summer on a daily basis, which is always so fun. There was the summer
051reading challenge where every week students would visit with their reading logs to show the reading that they had done. They get to collect their weekly prize and then they turn in their log at the end for the big trophy if they were able to do it all week all summer. We had our summer boost week which is so fortunate. Not many schools are able to invite students in to kind of uh remember what school is like over the summer and that's really just so helpful for all of them. We were able to have our kinder camp and welcome some young students in to get adjusted to school before it even started. Our kindergarten bus run in orientation is always a blast. We had our kindergarten back to school night again. For parents, that's so special.
052They get to go in, see the classroom, meet the teacher before day one, so they know where their babies are heading. And then we got to welcome our new students to the school and give them a tour and get to meet them and their families before the year gets going, so they feel a little more comfortable as well. And I would just like to say I'm I'm not sure how many years we've been running this kinder camp program where children come in for about three mornings. We're getting to know them for the first time. But I do want to especially thank the board of education for that support. I do think it's been about 10 or 11 years. It's a unique program, but it really does help our students and it actually helps our teachers,
053too. So, thank you. And of course, many of you were able to see the bus run where parents are coming, putting their babies on the bus for the first time, waving goodbye, and trying to hold it together. Um, and actually, it went very, very well this year. So, that was seamless as well. And another beautiful day. Many of you know that we have a really nice new look in our cafeteria. If you take a look at our tables with all the colors, um, we have a new tiger table in the middle that we're very proud of. And I'm not sure who gets to sit there yet. We'll have to find out. And some real first grade cuties with the last name Hernandez up there in the middle. Um, but this is really um a beautiful,
054bright, happy space for lunch for the children. Of course, this multi-purpose room is used by the children's center. It's used by the PTA. So, it gets a lot of activity and you know, we thank our custodians head by Ray Ray Renzo this summer. So much work got done. The floors, the walls, the trim around the doors and the building just looks beautiful. It really does. We have so many great learning opportunities for our students. As you can see here, these whiteboard tables, we were fortunate enough to add quite a few to our building this year. Something so simple really makes a difference with some hands-on learning. Here, the children can write with their dry erase markers right on the table while they're working with their teacher. They don't need any separate materials. And just the
055act of writing on the table is really fun and engaging for them. We have Chromebooks for students. We have multi-ensory magnet tile boards. We have all different flexible seating for different students. Um, and really just so many interactive ways to engage them throughout the dice. We're fortunate to have that opportunity. So, as we look at what we were focusing on uh for challenge areas or growth areas last year, um I will say that we had a very very successful year, but we really looked continuously at scholastic literacy. It was year three looking at our ELA program, looking at our ELA station rotations and centers in the classroom and especially at our small groupoup instruction which is a focus of Scholastic literacy so that students work in small groups with the teacher. The rest of the
056class is working on independent work, reading, computer programs, and there's rotation going on. So the teacher really gets to focus in on the differentiation. this explicit instruction is directly in line with the science of reading and so that was a focus for us and we're proud of the work that we're doing. Heerty began in K through2 and just a year ago you may remember we had students here with Mrs. McCarti demonstrating the Heggerty program focusing on FMIC awareness and I will say that our K through2 teachers are seeing the difference in spelling and decoding using that as an addition to our ELA. The RTI process is very refined in our building. I thank Mrs. Roby. She's always updating the forms, the referral forms, the follow-up forms, and that's response to intervention. looking at how a
057student who's been given some kind of intervention in the classroom may be in AIS, how are they responding to it academically. So that data is very carefully organized. It goes along with the MTSS program and um you know I'm just proud of the work that we do as a faculty looking at students and their growth. The science lab last year became a very popular place with Miss Bros with the teaching aid in there working with the teachers really looking at the new state exams but especially for grades three and four the hands-on investigations. So that was a challenge for us the first year. Last year we hardly talked about it. We just did it and the students are performing and it ties in with the science fair and of course it ties in with the
058entire science 21 curriculum. The library book exchange started last year with Mrs. Medina exposing the children to the language of Spanish. And so we weren't we didn't have Mandarin last year, but there the children all the classes are going on a regular basis for book exchange, looking at literacy, looking at research, looking at the books that we ordered and filled the library with last year, but they're also learning Spanish while they're in there. So, it's uh two for the price of one, right? And just fantastic. And I can't say enough about Mrs. Medina and all that she does. And last year, Mrs. Berdett led the way as an a literacy specialist in our building with the use of the writing revolution, really looking at writing instruction. That work continues this year. We made huge strides
059last year looking at the growth. And we have teachers this year saying, "Wow, what happened last year?" And so when that happens, you know, something is really working. And so we're really excited about that writing instruction. And just to go along with that, our curriculum is so strong in every single area. We have Eureka math, which our students do just so well with every single year. Scholastic literacy, as Dr. Podesta said, that really has that whole group instruction with comprehension and exposure to non-fiction and different cultural texts, as well as those small and explicit instructional groups and rotations. We have the foundations program which is that multi-ensory that really targets the phonics for students and then the heerty that picks up the phmic awareness. We also use wordlywise in our older grades and that's our
060vocabulary program. So they're exposed to higher level vocabulary words and they're learning the different meanings and synonyms and how to apply those words. Science has been going strong with science 21 and our social studies ELA through Boseies has been fantastic. We also have our social emotional lessons where our counselor, Mrs. Kildoff, pushes into every single classroom on a rotating basis to teach those social emotional lessons. And this summer, she was able to meet with me and we were able to connect our monthly theme to the work that she's doing. So, it's all aligned even more. So, not only were students in the building all summer, so were the teachers. And so, we had different committees, but we also had grade levels and departments work throughout the summer. So, we never really said goodbye to the
061faculty because they kept coming back, which was wonderful. We began right away looking, as we always do, at our master schedule. That is a schedule that we're so proud of because it maximizes learning opportunity for students. We really use that eyeblock for interventions. So if a student leaves for reading or speech or occupational therapy support, they are not missing new content in the classroom, but the teacher can use that time to work with other students in small groups or individually. So, this master schedule, we we take into account all of our special education needs, our specialists, lunch and recess, and all of the teacher contract pieces come together to make a schedule that really works for our learning community. Our K12 writing committee met with Mrs. Lavine. We also met as a writing group ourselves
062in the elementary school really looking at that K12 writing rubric which you'll hear more about this year but that work is coming along really well as we focus on writing instruction. We also have the beginning of a literacy curriculum review committee where the state is suggesting not requiring that every school really take a look with a multi-grade level team to look at your literacy teaching and see if there are gaps see what strengths you have see if there's anything missing so we have a wonderful group of teachers who came together we met with a consultant from southern bosei specializing in literacy and we started this work this is big work. It's heavy duty digging into all your materials, documenting what you find and not just filling out a checklist saying we do that. So, it's
063also leading to wonderful discussion discussion of teaching literacy and how well we do with it and how we can continue to improve. Our grade levels meet throughout the summer. They work on their um summer curriculum writing with artifacts that they can show you what they've created. And it whether it be assessments or practice for students or direct teaching for small groups or large groups, they've been doing that. And our departments as well, whether it be art, music, um the clinicians, they meet and they produce their artifacts with their summer work. So, as I said, we met with a consultant for the literacy review committee. We're just getting started with this work. We actually met with our elementary principal group at Boseies today and we're kind of on the cutting edge of doing this work. Um,
064however, there were some schools that had started it. Our consultant was Liz Bry. She offers so much knowledge in this work and so we were lucky to have her come. She'll probably visit us again. It's through Boseies, so she's available. We have a multi-grade team. We're using the reading league framework which you can Google and see what is required when you do a literacy review. And if there are gaps, we try to fill those gaps. And in fact, we make sure we fill those gaps whether it's handwriting, spelling, vocabulary development, all of that. And yes, let's give credit where credit is due. And that is um the amazing faculty that we have. Uh we have I'm so thankful for the positive culture and energy that we have in the building. It's a supportive learning community.
065There's great communication, strong grade level teams, strong department teams that work together and are ready to learn, ready to grow. We have very strong teacher leaders in the building. So the social capital in the building keeps us going. We learn from each other with turnkey trainers and it's good to have fun. Let's see if this Nope. Are my videos not gonna come up? >> Not this one. >> Okay, we'll see if the other I really hope the other ones do. You know what this was? You've seen it before anyway. It's teachers dressed up in big balloon costumes. But it was worth it to take another look. It was so great because if you ask this staff, hey, does anybody want to wear a balloon costume? Does anybody want to, you know, dress up for Halloween
066or, you know, lead a singalong song? you always get people and it's just wonderful. It's so great for the students. Okay. Along with our faculty, we have amazing community connections here in Putham Valley. Um coming up next month, we have our first responders event which an email went out uh today, I believe, for anyone who wants to participate and visit the school. We also will have our fire safety lessons which have been scheduled which is always so fun and the students just love going outside and looking at the fire truck and getting to explore. Our community read is always um a big hit. We have members all throughout the community who come and they get to go visit different classrooms and share in some readalouds. Our springtime planting was fantastic this past year. I have
067to say I cannot believe what the front of our building looks like. If you have not been there lately, please come check it out. The flowers are still going strong. They are beautiful. And that was such a fun time. Our Irish, we had Irish step dancers visit the school last year. Um for 2 years now, we've had wings over water providing dry swim lessons to our students which have been amazing. Um along with additional assemblies and guest readers throughout the year. And our flag day is always so much fun with the school gathered outside by the flag post. And within our community, we really make an effort to connect with our parents because the parents play an enormous role in all of the work that we're doing on a daily basis. So everything from parent
068conferences to our close collaboration with the wonderful PTA and PVEF. We have collaboration with our local library with a woman who came and actually did readalouds in our library groups last year. We've already had our back to school nights which were extremely well attended. Last year we had our ELA parent workshop and we always hold ELA nights. We'll try to have a math night as well. ENL nights for families. We hold a springtime reading academy and I thank the board for that as well because children in grades one and two who could use a little extra boost in the morning for a few weeks in May. We used to call it March Madness um can really make a difference for that extra reading focus. Classroom events where parents come grade level shows and there'll be
069a few more of those than usual this year. So we'll just get ready. and of course the moving up ceremony which people cry, people cheer, and it's just a beautiful celebration. So this year, our building steering committee will be meeting again, but I'm very happy to say with maybe the change in schedule, we're going to do it a little earlier in the afternoon. I now have eight parents signed up to attend. Uh we have teachers from every grade level. We have administrators attending, a board of ed member attending. And so that work will develop with the agenda being developed by the committee and needs that come up. I just want to remind everybody that two years ago, our building steering committee created this uh QR code where you could log on to a welcome document
070and find all of the information from the school to the town to local sports to parks and wreck and special ed questions and calendar questions and lunch menu questions. So, we tried to put everything in there. It was a lot of work, but it was very wellreceived. And so we'll make sure this goes out again, that it's updated for this year, um, and that questions are answered as they come up from our parent community. So, our school year is not without challenges or growth opportunities. There's always more work to do. And so, we don't rest over the summer either because these questions come up. Um, we had a long list all summer of things just to remind our parents about, our teachers about, and just what are some things that will present some challenges while
071we are being resilient all year, right? So, how can we always continue to improve our school community and culture? A big question, are we meeting the needs of all of our students? students who receive academic intervention, students who come to us speaking a different language and from a very different culture at times, people who um students who are in the RTI process, we we continue to meet with them and discuss them. Are we doing all we can for them? And is what we're doing effective? Are we making sure the IEPs and 504s are meeting the needs of those students? And are they shared accurately with staff? So, these are challenges that most schools have. We're not going to say we don't have them. These are real life school questions. Are we connecting strongly with our
072entire parent community? We focused a lot on communication. Is our communication as effective as it could be? Are we using our data to inform instruction? We focus so much on data and growth and progress. Is it directly affecting instruction enough for our students? How can our instruction continue to strengthen that? Are we providing highquality writing revolution instruction at all grade levels? Is it everywhere it should be? Is it being done with fidelity? Do we need more professional development? So these are real challenges. And then the next one, a new one, how are we integrating our new UPK friends? And how can we think of schedule changes? how can we think of inviting them into our volunteer fire department day and our assemblies for our younger students? And that's not a challenge. It's kind of a
073fun thing, but it's it's new to us. And sometimes I'll schedule something at a certain time and it's so new and I'm like, you know what, that time's just not going to work because that is dismissal time for UPK or that is when they're at lunch. So, you know, we're all growing, but we welcome this challenge. Our focus areas for this year then continue to be the writing revolution work K through four literacy review that I've talked about and making sure that we totally understand and are using the science of reading always small groupoup instruction and what we can do with that whether it's a table you can write on or a piece of paper or a laptop but we want to make sure that we're looking at that small group instruction iblock and the
074instruction that's happening in the classroom during eyeblock is extreme extremely important to us. Some children may leave for very specific reasons. The other children in there are getting instruction at that time that is not new. It could be enrichment. It could be reinforcement. It could be review. The science lab planning continues to be a focus. We're get giving support to our younger grades as well, not just three and four. So, we're excited about the hands-on science. You can see the chicks appeared in the um spring. What a hit that was. That's also thanks to the Putnham Valley Education Foundation and Mrs. Bros who took care of those baby chicks. Uh computer-based testing is a focus area. Last year we started with grade four. This year it's grade three and four. And keyboarding for students is
075a focus for us that we're already acting on this year which I'm excited about. Character education and SEAL lessons are always a theme. Carly and I will be meeting with the grade levels once a month. There's a book theme that Carly will talk about and so that is also an opportunity for us to grow and we can always improve the RTI process even though I feel like we could actually almost teach a workshop on it but there's always room to get better. >> What's keyboarding? >> Keyboarding typing. >> Yes. And we you'll get to see a picture. Yes. Here we go. So right now our schedule allows us to provide extra support to the classroom teacher with faculty members who are available to support students with the typing program the children are using. We want
076our children not to be hunting and pecking with their fingers because by third grade they are typing paragraphs on a state test on a keyboard. And so we're trying to provide that support to them so that every you know these children are on they are on phones and and laptops really young way before they come to us. But we want to make sure that now we're not only teaching handwriting, we're actually helping them with their typing skills. So this is uh already started. They once every two weeks they really get time to direct instruction and practice. So this is this will benefit them. For our enrollment this year, if you take a look, our total number is down to 512 where it was 530 last year, but our kindergarten is a nice healthy size. They
077came in at 107 students. So we have five sections. We're very happy about that. Plus our achieve and new horizon students. We have 86 students in first grade. So that's our tiny little grade. And that's four sections. 96 in grade two. Not a large grade grade grade overall either with four sections. We have 113 third graders and 110 fourth graders. Last year we had the six sections of fourth grade who went to move up to fill up that middle school nicely. So um this is where we are this year. Four sections of first and second, five sections of the other grades. And I just want to give a shout out to the teachers and the support staff and all of our teaching assistants and teacher aids that we work with every single day. Um, we
078work with a great team and we love working with them. We have grade level coordinators who help lead the way for their teams. We have monthly professional learning hours and staff members step up to teach us to turnkey information and to help us grow. We have our RTI or response to intervention team where we really look at the needs of students. Data teams meet quarterly to look at how the students are doing progressing and making strides with the instruction that we're providing. The BERT team of course is the building response team. Crisis team. We meet regularly. We practice all our drills. We analyze what we do and go over it again and again. We have our building steering committee that is taking off soon and we'll meet several times throughout this year, but I'm excited
079about the attendance of that committee this year. And of course, the education foundation and the PTA, we need them both and we thank them. Our academic data, by the way, is looking very good. And so this I don't say lightly because there's a lot of work that goes behind this. There's a lot of talk about instruction. There's a lot of talk about resources and yes, there's a lot of talk about the schedule and how we're meeting the needs of our young learners. So, let's take a look at this. This is ELA, English language arts, and this is our elementary school, the percentage of students reaching three and four um as compared to the Boseis, Putnham, Northern Westchester region. So you can see our third and fourth graders compared to our Putinham Northern Westchester region is
080quite strong. We we're looking very good compared to these schools. We're not trying to beat anybody. We're just trying to be the best. Here's our math also looking very strong. You can see how high our kids are doing in third and fourth grade. Third is the purple, fourth is the gold. And the region is a little lower than us, you know, but we're using great instruction, great supports, and we're really using our um Eureka math, which has proven to really help us. We've we've changed our math data over the years drastically. Um, a little different comparison is when we compare to southern Westchester. So, southern Westchester usually data is extremely strong. This is where we are compared on average Putnham Valley on the left, third and fourth grade in ELA and on the right the
081average southern Westchester. Um, we're still looking very, very strong, very positive with the work that we're doing. Do we want those numbers to go even higher? Of course we do. But we're really working and looking and seeing that what we're doing is proving to be successful. Math, same thing. This is compared to Southern Westchester Bosey's districts, Southern Westchester schools. So, um, I'm just proud. I'm proud of the teaching that's going on. I'm proud of the professional development support we get as a building. I'm proud of our teachers who come to our staff meetings and professional learning hours and really take in the information and then make it happen in their classrooms. Um, and that's a lot of skill behind that and a lot of preparation. So, um, this is to celebrate. So, we are okay
082Carly. So part of what's so important and helps with this data is the content across all different areas. So when we have special area teachers such as in PE who are able to integrate different ELA or math um topics and content into their specialized areas, it just makes all the difference. Students recognize that something isn't taught in isolation and it's applied throughout their lives. So throughout um whether they're writing a response when they're in innovation lab and they're utilizing the writing revolution strategies or they're in PE class and they're using something that they've learned in foundations to be able to build these words. It just makes all the difference having them be able to apply things throughout all the different areas. Brand new in our building this year is our first 3D printer which I
083knew very little about but Mrs. Miss Curilli is working with this 3D printer she was able to buy with her art budget this year and she is explaining to the students how this works where they're creating real objects that they're holding in their hands and she was so excited. If you look at the picture down at the right, the 3D printer put hair on the object and the students are going to be making their own little characters um which could easily tie to literacy. it could tie to themselves. Um, but this is brand new to our school and it's going to start with fourth graders. So, those little safety patrollers will be using the 3D printer and learning all about that and then connecting to what happens in innovation lab. So, this is really innovative
084and exciting and I have everything to learn about it. But it's wonderful. Um, our library is alive and well. As I said, Miss Medina, our library aid, really welcomes the children in, speaking in English and Spanish, exposing them to new literature in there, poetry, research materials, and she takes it upon herself to decorate like six different bulletin boards every season. It's a very welcoming place, and that is because of the effort that she puts in. If you look at these pictures, these are creations by students who volunteer their recess time to read books and participate in book conversations and book clubs with Mrs. Medina who decided on her own she's running book clubs during recess. And so then it turns into artwork and creations and you know she's going above and beyond. And it it's
085worth noting the effort she puts into this position um above and beyond what was even asked of her. And I have children coming up to me in the hallways already this year saying when do the book club start. So that's about reading, that's about loving reading and loving being in the library. So that is really wonderful. Um so as we mentioned, we've been focusing on our character education quite a lot. Every month there is a different theme and along with that is um a schoolwide readaloud. So every single student in the school is hearing the same text that connects to the monthly theme that we're then discussing in those community meetings that Dr. Podesta and I hold with the different grade levels. Um along with that students are receiving with their class tiger paws. So
086when they have great behavior and specials in the hallways, teachers will give them a tiger paw. And when a class collects 25, we announce them on the um loudspeaker in the morning and they get celebrated and usually they get to pick a little celebration as the class. We're also continuing to build our culture activities through various assemblies in the morning announcements, classroom lessons, the SEAL lessons that are pushed in those monthly meetings and throughout all our vocabulary. So, here are our monthly themes for our character education. This year, we started off with positive thinking and we go all the way through to June where we are reflective. October, we'll be focusing on friendship. November, gratitude. December being responsible. January having self-control. February focusing on kindness. March determination and perseverance. April problemolving. May being proud. And
087again June being reflective. And again this summer I was able to meet with Mrs. Kildoff. We really combined um different monthly themes with her lessons and the books that are being read throughout the school and um some special days to celebrate with maybe a wear orange or a wear blue for more awareness days throughout the year as well. >> I have another question. >> Yeah. Um our middle years program uses a lot of these like similar words like reflective. Have you ever um thought about incorporating those to make it like a smooth like you know a transition to get into the middle years program? >> Um we haven't fully dived in to that yet. However, um Mrs. Kildoff came from secondary so she has a lot of that background and experience and with what the
088different um competencies that she needs to teach throughout the year. We really focused on connecting those so far and as we continue that's a great area to go. >> Perfect. Great. Thanks. Thank you. >> So I just want to thank Mrs. Sillery in our office who puts up beautiful character education bulletin boards in our cafeteria. So that helps brighten our cafeteria and also teaches with the character ed. >> Okay. >> I will work with Alex is here. >> Where's Alex? Alex is with Mason. >> Okay. Um, you know what? So, last year we had the pleasure of having Tom Chapen come to an assembly. And, um, this was thanks to Cara Hess's dad, Mark Weiss, who really made an effort to bring him to us at no cost. And it was it was unbelievable. And
089so this video, I'll email it to you, but at one point, uh, Mr. Chapen stood up on the stage and started singing This Pretty Planet, and the children in grades K through four, >> led the way with the song. It was so moving. Over 500 children start singing his song, This Pretty Planet. He stopped singing and just played his guitar. It was gorgeous. And that was for, you know, as principal, these are my babies here. And it was kindergarten through fourth grade just singing in their beautiful voices. And Mr. Derlin makes such a difference. And he had taught them that song. And he, you know, he gets them to sing like the angels that they are. So this would have been really nice to listen to, but I'm going to email it to you because
090it was a moment in time. It really was. Okay. And um I also had the helicopter landing from last year's first responder which was also a moment in time and thank you to Dr. Lu for making that happen for us. But the helicopter really landed on the front lawn and you know we also had stations that just spontaneously occurred with first responders who decided to spend extra time in our school and classes were just rotating to different first responder stations, one of them being a therapy dog. There was an ambulance outside who said, "Hey, the kids can visit." And it was just a beautiful day. So, the magic happens and um we are now taking off into a whole new year. Go Tigers. We're we're so proud. And when these magical moments happen, we can't
091forget them because we work hard every day and these students just amaze us. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Just two quick comments and maybe this borders on a wish list, but two things I would love to see happen that your fourth graders have a special devoted strictly to Spanish uh as a a language to bring it down there. I know that would involve hiring extra staff, but we should think about that when budget time comes around. I think that is so important. Spanish is is such a necessary language today in our country and the more people who can communicate bilingual I I think that's an amazing thing and at fourth grade they could grasp it so quickly. Mhm. >> The other thing is uh and I think this is
092possible hearing how our reserves are that we we renovate that that library which was part of the plan for our capital projects but um I I think that needs to to go forward as quickly as it can. I I don't know when it would be done. Schools in session. You don't want to disrupt that. But that that should be on our agenda. Dr. of uh the library is important and um you know I I I walked in there the other day and it it's beautiful but there is so much that could be done with that space you know that big desk area remove that make there there's just so much yeah so those two things I I'm thinking of as budget approaches >> yeah we can certainly look into thank you >> when I think
093about the elementary school in Putnham Valley. My brain sees sees rainbows and sparkles and unicorns >> and bubble buses. Um, and I say that with all of the joy in my heart. Um, not only as a a fellow colleague, but as a mom of three children now, how who have gone and are going through that building. Um, my kid is excited about going to school every day. >> Great. >> I was sharing with Dr. Podessa earlier this year that she wasn't able to make it to kinder camp because she got sick. And wow did mommy hear all about why she was not allowed to get on the bus to go to uh you know the little summer boost camp that they were having for the incoming first graders. And so um thank you. I know
094wholeheartedly how much work you do behind the scenes the both of you that no one ever gets to see. 40 slides that don't even represent probably one day in the elementary school. Um, so thank you so much for the care, the consideration, the thoughtfulness that goes into every decision made. When Dr. Podesta talks about milking the schedule for every minute that it's worth, she really does. Um the portfolio that you all have worked on as far as literacy and what it looks like to experience literacy in the Putinham Valley schools is tremendous. The science of reading is represented. Balance literacy is represented. Making sure that our kids are falling in love with books is represented. I mean it's just gold what you have created. So thank you so very much. >> Thank you. Thank you
095so much. >> Thank you both. It was very informative. I'm really impressed with your um the testing against the PNW and the SNW. Um I just want to give you congratulations for that. It's really it's wonderful. >> There's so much that goes behind that, including your support and the resources and the the teachers and all they've taken on. So, thank you so much. >> You have great stuff, too. >> Yeah. >> So, I just want to echo many of the thoughts that were already shared by the board. It takes tremendous leadership and a tremendous amount of dedication and time to make all of those things possible. And I agree that represents a small fraction of what happens in that building on a daily basis. Um but really a huge um thank you uh to you
096guys, your leadership and certainly every single staff member in that building that comes to school every single day >> uh looking to love and care and um teach children, which is what happens in that building every day. So thank you all. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Uh student reps, what does did this bring back any memories? Did you see any pictures of hallways or stairs? >> 100%. Yeah, it's like days. >> Bend bend the microphone toward toward you. Yeah, >> it's really nice to see because those are good memories. So, >> yeah, >> that's good. >> Did all three of you go through the elementary school? >> Yeah. Okay. >> A Did it make you a little homesick? A >> little. Yeah. >> You're doing good things now, though. >> Yeah. It
097feels like yesterday, honestly. It's like >> goes by so fast. >> It does. It really does. Yeah, >> it's true. >> Well, thank you so much everyone. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Excellent. >> Okay, students, we're going to let you do a report. >> What's been going on? >> So, we're settling into school. It's going good. We're um we're all seniors, so we've been like doing college stuff and meeting with our guidance counselors. So, that's all been a little stressful, but it's good to get out of the way now. And we have homecoming tomorrow. >> You're homecoming. >> Homecoming. >> And yeah, >> and we're getting ready for color wars, which is very exciting. >> Which or when? >> It's October 7th. >> 17th, I think. >> We have like two more weeks to
098get ready, huh? >> Yeah. What color are you? Or red. >> You got the homecoming game this Friday, too, right? >> Tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. See if there's always red. >> No, >> they stay with the same color. >> I thought last year there was a red dragon, too. >> No, they were orange. >> Oh, orange. >> Orange. Close. The red family. >> Yeah. Things are going well in the high school. >> Phones are still good. No phones? >> Oh, yeah. You know, it honestly >> getting more used to it, I guess. >> Yeah. I don't I don't think it's much of a difference, but >> it's good. >> It's just during lunch. Yeah, just during launch really. >> I think smart pass is more of like a >> is more is more of an annoyance
099than like the phone thing. >> But the what? >> Talk about smart pass. >> Do you guys know that? >> It's like the >> that you guys gave it that to us. >> We have to like >> um put on the computer like when we have to use the bathroom or like leave class, right? >> So they like >> Yeah, I heard about that. >> It's and it like times us. >> I don't know if >> Yeah. So it's like an electronic hall pass system as opposed to paper electronic >> let the hall monitors know that the student >> on the offices and you see what kids are out at the same time and how long kids are out for and >> um >> it's a little stalkerish but it's >> Mr. Melo is coming
100do it >> Mr. Melo is coming full prepared to give a present part of his presentation I know he's going to talk about >> it also tells your parents like how long you're out of the to the parents. >> I love that. >> Me, too. >> Really? I wasn't aware of that. >> I'm going to tell you that it's only stalkerish that these things get implemented because of the abuse of the system. So, somebody didn't just think, "Oh, I just want to keep track of people. People needed to be kept track of >> and this is what happened." >> I'm excited to hear about it. >> Well, I think it started with the no more than three people in the bathroom at the same time. It didn't work very well. >> Yeah. And that that
101didn't work out. So, I think this was the next thing. But is the sentiment like be honest, is the sentiment of the high schoolers, specifically the seniors, maybe that it's like a bit much. >> It's a little weird. It's like we we went through like 3 years of like having freedom and like not having that and then it's like we're seniors and now we have to like log when we want to go to the bathroom. So, it's >> Yeah. I weird I have to tell you I'm a little I Yeah, it it it's hitting me a wrong way. >> I I don't like big brother. I'm I'm very anti-government on many levels and this really gets me going. I don't I don't know the sense of it. Um I know that Sasha, you believe that
102it's it's good for the the kids, but um there's got to be trust established as well. And uh it it bothers me that it goes directly to the parents to everybody in the school. I mean, I would not want people to know if I have to go to the bathroom. >> That's none of their business. >> You know, this type of thing really hits me wrong. I I have to tell you, >> we're going to have to check cuz I did ask that specific question to Mr. Melo and he was pretty adamant that it does not. >> Now, some of them have parents in the building. >> I think they can like sign up for like notifications. >> You're able to like sign up. >> They got an email to sign up. Yeah. For like
103to get notifications. >> I feel like you're only going to get notified if you're like in the bath like an extensive amount of time. Like it's not going to be just like, "Oh, I had a long >> bathroom trip today." Like if you had a long bathroom, >> there are medical issues that that could send a person to the bathroom three or four times. >> And I'm sure there would be an exception to that because Button Valley is really good at making exceptions for those types of things. But what I'm wondering is >> there's no consequences for being out too long. It's just a matter of tracking. >> They they can stop your pass. >> They cannot they cannot approve it. >> You You get limited amount of passes. >> You only get four passes
104a day >> and we have 80 minutes. >> We do have this come from all of a sudden we didn't have >> the high school has been looking at a presentation next time. >> The high school's been looking at it for years and it's being used in many high schools. It is being used in many high schools and that doesn't mean see this presentation. But what >> so a wondering I have >> going to try to help you guys out right now. A wondering that I have is whether or not it could be used for students that it really needs to be used for as opposed to the masses. >> Yes. If students are not um >> what >> responsible with their time sim similar to what we have as our cell phone policy if
105students are not responsible with their cell phone >> they get there's a series of consequences that help them to learn how to be responsible like >> so >> I'm going to ask the district to consider looking at that only because and here is my philosophy. Yes, as a mom I want to know everything about where my kid is. Yes, I do. I stalk power school like it's nobody's business. But what I would also say is that our students, especially our seniors, are getting ready to go out into the real world where there are no passes. They don't have to ask permission to go anywhere. And I think that the more we can teach them about responsibility and give them a little bit of freedom to work with, the better off they will be. I don't
106know if the problem was saturated throughout the school of the abuse of time. Um, but I wonder if we could just look at it. Yeah. I got to tell you, when you use mass punishment for everybody, especially the innocent, that that just it's it's >> You don't think it's mass punishment? >> No. No, it is. It is when when everybody who has been following the rules has to be smacked in the head because there's no punishment there. It's not punishment. >> No, I I'm really uncomfortable with this. I have to tell you, I I do not like it. >> And uh I will let Mr. Melo know that when he does his presentation. Well, let's listen first before No, I'm just saying >> the whole senior the the whole student body is is uh ignoring
107the past process. I never heard that. It's never come up in the four years I've been sitting here. It's never been a concern. And now all of a sudden we're going to big brother eyes uh everywhere where these kids go. >> I'm uncomfortable with that. I I really am. I'm sorry. >> I I think it's being looked at. Correct me if I'm wrong, Dr. Loft. >> Do it to those who deserve it. >> A system of accountability to make sure that kids are where they need to be, >> not leaving the bathrooms. >> There's got to be another side and reason. I >> I know very little about it. It certainly was not my idea and it's not something I brought in. It's something that the high school faculty and administration has been exploring for
108years. I know that they've talked to other schools that have it extremely effectively. they identified an issue and they found this to be a solution for the issue in which they've identified. But we really have to at least provide them the opportunity to share absolutely >> what it is, how it works, why they got it, what they're benefiting from it, and what are some of the shortfalls and ultimately it would be a high school decision as to what they do with it in the future. It's certainly not coming from the district level. It's not something we're doing at all. It's >> not coming from the board, but it's something where I think we have to at least afford them the opportunity to explain >> what it is and why they're using it. >> Right. >>
109I would say that if the students do um have strong feelings about it that students are welcome at our board me our board meetings and that if a lot of people feel that way that when Mr. Melo does come up for his presentation, we'd be happy to hear from multiple people. Um you know, teachers, students, principles, administration, anybody who is you know, partaking in this. I'd love to hear what they have to say. >> Yeah, that that that's good. Sure. >> This is also a really wonderful reason why the three of you being here is so important because we need to hear what's happening from your vantage point. Um, it is really important to us and I like we want you to know that. So, thank you so much for sharing. >> Yeah. >> Okay.
110Dr. Love, did they steal your thunder? >> I was not going to talk about the electronic call. They just added thunder to >> No, they warned me when I met with them before the first meeting. I got I got an earful about it. So, I was well aware that it was coming. >> Okay, good. >> Um, and I warned me that it was coming, too. So, he's he's aware as well. Uh, all right. So, was at a district administrative team. We had our meeting and we reviewed what our proposed district goal is. So, I will um just read it right now. Obviously, the theme is going to be around resiliency, which is the third of our four core values. The draft goal that I hope the board will pass through resolution next meeting is the
111district will cultivate resilience in both students and staff by creating supportive environments that value perseverance, adaptability, and continuous growth. By fostering a culture of resilience, our district will ensure that all members of our learning community are prepared to navigate adversity, embrace new opportunities, thrive academically, professionally, and personally. So, that was the goal we came up as a district team. Uh each building and department then spent some time beginning to work on their own building level or department level goals aligned with that district goal. And um if there's any certainly I'll share with the board if there's any questions or comments or concerns or something a word we would like to see changed I'd be happy to bring that back to the team but that will be our proposed goal for this school year. >> Okay.
112>> Um some quick updates. So obviously we heard from we welcomed Mason, we heard from our elementary school and from our audit committee members this evening. So, thank you for all of them putting the hard work in. We had mentioned before our homecoming football game is scheduled for this Friday. Uh, we hope we have some special guest appearances. We spoke a little bit about the first responder appreciation events. So, our first responder football game is scheduled for October 10th. That's when our color guard from the volunteer fire department shows up. We recognize all of the first responders who either serve or live within the Button Valley community. So, I hope many in the community will come out. we're going to spare the embarrassment of walking down the driveway and standing on the field. I feel
113like that has become a deterrent. People don't like that attention. So instead, we are just going to ask them to sit in the bleachers, stand to be recognized, and when we read our um our thank you message to them. So, uh hopefully we'll get the word out there. I know Dr. for desk already said something about her community read in the elementary school scheduled for the 29th and October 28th is going to be our first responder apparatus event here at the high school middle school campus. We've already reached out to the Westchester County police, the sheriff's department, the state police, fire department, ambulance corps, among others to try to get them to bring some of their cool stuff. Maybe we will get some K9 dogs since that seems to be the theme of the evening.
114And uh it's always a great opportunity for the kids to come out. And I think it's really the same community members every year that make this all possible uh for organizing it and and getting the support we need. Last year, as Dr. Bessa had mentioned, we had the Westchester County police helicopter landed the elementary school. It was probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Um 500 students saw a plane flying 10,000 ft overhead and they were like, "There it is." I'm like, "No." And then all of a sudden a helicopter came screaming in about 8 ft above the trees. Then they realized what was really coming in. Um so it was the teachers typical elementary school teachers were all in panic like what could possibly go wrong? Um it's going to hit a
115wire. It's kind like this you driving a car. Is this guy driving a helicopter? Like he doesn't have any fear any concerns. He knows exactly what he's doing. So of course it landed on literally the two lines we made for the skids. It landed perfectly um right on those. and then the students came down. What you're not seeing is they're handing them uh many of them like wrote cards in their classrooms. So, they're handing them thank you cards that they barely fit in the helicopter by the time they left. They were all piled up in the back. Uh so, it was a really cool experience and um we want to do something similar. Actually, we're looking to maybe expand our aviation horizons. So, we're going to see if we could find some other cool stuff
116people let me borrow for today. And all right, so for uh the next board meeting on October 9th, I will be holding a listening hour in the high school um library beforehand. So that's really an opportunity for community members to come out. They bring in their own topics. We're there. We're available. We're ready to talk about whatever the community would like to talk about. I want to recognize those who celebrated the Shashana holiday earlier this week. I was able to attend Putnham Valley Town Day on Saturday, squeezed between two football games. So um I was there. It was actually the weather was beautiful. I couldn't believe how many people were there. So, it was a great opportunity to see lots of friendly faces. Uh interact with the kids, spend some money on um stuff I
117don't need, and to support good causes and um really just get a chance to be part of the town, the culture. Our middle school back to school nights are were also had this week or last week. some upcoming events. We spoke about the homecoming game. High school has their back to school land on October 8th. Uh the middle school has a Washington DC interest trip on October 7th. For anybody would occur an eighth grader, I attended um I got to visit Washington DC as an eighth grader attending Putnham Valley Middle School. It was actually to this day one of the coolest, most experiential trips I've ever been on. I still remember almost every aspect of it and it was something I would recommend all students take advantage of having this opportunity. Not every school does
118this. Not every school offers it. More and more are coming back. But is really a great opportunity for anyone who can um do it. And we do have um grants or some funding available through a partnership with education foundation to help subsidize the cost of that trip for those who need it. The high school has their IB information evening scheduled on October 21st. That actually is right before a board meeting. So it begins at 6 o'clock. Upstairs, trunk or treat for the education foundation is scheduled on October 26th. Schools are closed again next week, October 2nd for Yang Kapoor. And I had mentioned earlier, our next board meeting is scheduled for October 9th. >> That's it. Thank you. >> Okay. The only thing I'd add is the there is a PTA meeting on October 1st.
119>> That's correct. >> And it's at the middle school at 6:30. >> So, >> really? I didn't know that. >> It's on our council. >> Okay. Great. >> There's a lot going on. >> All right. Let's move to new business. Um, the first item, please. >> Okay. Resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby accepts the resignation of Kimberly Zern, a lunch monitor at the Puthton Valley Middle School effective September 11th, 2025 as per document K092525 attached to the agenda and official minutes of this meeting. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? >> All in favor? >> I opposed extensions. The resolution passes. Number two, please. Resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby accepts the resignation of bus driver Anthony Andreani from the
120district effective August 26, 2025 as per document double A 092525 attached to the agenda and official minutes of this meeting. >> Second >> questions or comments? All in favor? >> I opposed extensions. The resolution passes. Number three, please. Resolved and the board resolved. The board of education hereby accept the resignation of Melody Loraca, confidential secretary to superintendent and district clerk effective September 26, 2025 for document number ML92525 attached to the agenda and official minutes of this meeting. >> Second questions or comments. I just want to say while our time was short-lived, um Melody was definitely um a force within the district office, she's already made changes that will benefit us for many years to come and she was always supportive, helpful, and a real um fantastic colleague to me. So, thank you. >> And I
121heard she plans a really good party. >> Um thank you. >> All in favor? >> I opposed extensions. The resolution passes. Number four, please. >> Resolved upon recommend recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby approves a return date of September 22nd, 2025 for Nidia Romero Machado bus driver from an unpaid leave of absence commencing on April 8th, 2025. Be it further resolved, the probationary period is extended to March 11th, 2026 to adhere to civil service regulations. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? It's always good to hear we're hiring as well as losing at the same time. Keeps us kind of even. Um, all in favor? >> Opposed? Extensions. The resolution passes. >> Um, number five, please. resolved on the recommendation of the superintendent of schools to appoint Moren Berina as acting
122confidential secretary to the superintendent district clerk effective September 29th, 2025 at the predium rate of $461 uh 54. >> Second >> questions or comments? Um, I just want to uh ask about when we are planning to put up this position or um what the plan is for Mrs. Bolina. >> So, our plan right now is to um post a position this fall and hopefully find someone who can begin um around the winter time depending upon the candidate pool and who's out there and who we could find. If that search is not successful, then we would look to repost again in the spring when we typically would see a much larger pool of candidates available uh with a July start date. So, we're going to try early um and kind of reserve the right to to
123wait until the spring if necessary. >> And will uh Moren be working every day or >> So, she's going to work any day that I need her to. That that was the the promise that she had made to me. Would would uh Moren be willing to um work full-time per DM for the whole year? In other words, not only when you need her, but she's uh that's a position of uh you know uh it's a powerful position in the district and and it's one that should be uh there every day, I think. you know, and and Morin's wealth of knowledge certainly helps uh all the office uh staff, you know, to do their jobs. >> So, again, she's promised me that she'll be there any day that I need her to be there. If there's
124work that needs to get done, that she'll make sure it gets done. >> That she is she is well, I mean, I can't speak for her. Um I mean, right now she's being hired. If she works, she gets paid. If she doesn't work, she doesn't get paid. >> Understand? >> Um she is willing to stay on through the duration of the school year. She could say that. Um, as for her willingness to commit to working 5 days a week for the remainder of the school year, that I that would be a conversation I'd have to have. I can't speak for >> my concern is that that it's a position of such importance. It really is truly uh not only for you, for the district, but for our board. That's the liaison to everything that gets
125done. And uh I I am concerned and I feel so badly Mel M me Melody that your circumstances are causing you to leave and I understand it and you know God bless and great luck but uh we we need somebody there full time Dr. Lu I really believe that >> I I would just say that I I think that we're in a a good safety net right now with the arrangement that Dr. Love has made with Moren. I think we also need to be very fiscally responsible about this. >> Yes. >> Because bringing on a retired employee is is, you know, it's it's impactful to the budget. It could be impactful to the budget. So, I just think we need to have strike a balance between the work that the district and the board need
126her to do versus um you know, just being here 5 days because we're used to having someone 5 days. Um, and I think that on a per DM rate that allows us to do that. So, I'm I'm really good with where we are right now. Thank you for um making those moves so quickly to ensure that we had someone in place in this transition. Obviously, Moren knows the district probably better than anybody here. Um, and so that's that is great, but I'm glad to see that we are going to post. We we have to know that the pool is going to be very slim right now. and it it might not be a fruitful search at this point, but knowing that we have a plan for this year and a search coming in in the
127spring again if needed is is a good plan. >> We could also post I'm sorry, >> we could also find a fantastic candidate. Now, you know, I mean, it's good to post. We had a couple of other candidates during the interview process that that work you know we considered uh you know they had great skills and and a great willingness to work here in Putham Valley. As long as we post it now in the fall for you know somebody to take over perhaps at mid year you know in January February I I would be fine with you know your plan Dr. Luck. My concern is as we get close to budget time, man, there is so much going on and the the board elections and everything else and and every tea has to be crossed
128and every eye has to be dotted and we need somebody there that uh you know is is aware of that and it can't fall to you. You do enough in this district truly that it should not fall on your shoulders whatever needs to be done. >> Thank you. I just want to clarify one thing. And the PDM rate is based upon what was currently budgeted for this school year. >> So in no way could it exceed what was already budgeted. In fact, the PDM nature of it would lead itself to always be less than what was budgeted for that position. >> Very good. Thank you. >> So it can't go over what we had budgeted >> and plus being retired there's no health insurance or any other cost associated. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Okay.
129All in favor? >> I opposed extensions. The resolution passes. Number six, please. >> Resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby accepts a donation of the following books in compact discs with a value of $242.72 from Tim Barnes to benefit students of Putnham Valley Middle School. >> Second >> questions or comments? >> We just wanted to thank Mr. Barnes for his generosity and providing these materials to the school. >> Any good books? Stop by. Any good CDs? Do we even have a CD player? >> Uh, all in favor? >> I opposed abstensions. The resolution passes. Number seven, please. >> Resolved on the recommendation of the superintendent of schools to approve the agreement with AG Specialty Insurance LLC to provide student accident for the 2025 2026 school year as per
130document number AG92525. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? >> All in favor? I >> opposed extensions. The resolution passes. Number eight, please. >> Whereas the Putnham Valley Central School District is in receipt of RP-554 corrected tax rule applications for the 2025 26 f fiscal year and whereas the corrections will result in revisions to the tax collection amount for for the property. Now therefore, be it resolved that the board of education approve the corrected taxable applications as per document number CTR092525. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? All in favor? >> I opposed abstensions. The resolution passes. Number nine, please. Resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby approves the athletic team merger agreement for the girls swimming program for the 2025-26 school year as per document SM O SM92525 as
131attached to the official minutes of this meeting. >> Second questions or comments. >> Who who are we merging with Dr. >> for swimming? I think it's Mayapac and Caramel. Good. >> Put Valley Caramel and May. >> Okay, that's great. Thank you. >> All in favor? I oppose. Extensions. The resolution passes. Number 10, please. We did number 10 earlier. >> Number 11. >> Okay. Very good. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby approves the terms of a supplemental memorandum of agreement uh dated September 25th, 2025 between the district and the civil service employees association as presented to the board at this meeting as per document CSEA092525. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? >> I I I think this agreement is great. I I applaud it. Thank
132you. >> All in favor? I >> opposed. Extensions. Resolution passes. Number 12, please. >> Resolved on the recommendation of the superintendent of schools to approve the 2025 2026 district clubs and adviserss as per document number CLA092525 attached to the agenda and official minutes of this meeting. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? >> I did not see a list of the clubs in the executive. It's in >> Oh, it's in there. Oh, okay. I missed it this morning. >> It wasn't in there earlier. Oh, it is now. All right. Oh. >> Uh, all in favor? >> I >> opposed extensions. The resolution passes. Number 13, please. >> Uh, resolved upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby accepts the internal audit report regarding accounts payable as per document A092525. >> Second. >>
133Questions or comments? >> All in favor? >> I opposed. Extensions. Resolution passes. Number 14, please. >> Resolve to accept the district's management response and corrective action plan in response to the corrective action plan of set forth as set forth by the internal auditor as per document AA92525 attached to the agenda and official minutes of this meeting. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? I commend again Dr. uh Chen and her >> yes >> quick response to any suggestions or corrective actions that could be taken in order to keep Penam Valley >> in you know where we're supposed to be. >> So thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Ch. >> Um all in favor I opposed abstensions. The resolution passes. Number 15, please. resolved to accept the fiscal year ending June 2025 external audit report of financial
134statements including extra classroom activity funds completed by PFK O'Conor Davies independent auditors for the school district as per document XC092525 document FS092525 and document AUD092525 attached to the agenda and official minutes of this meeting >> documents questions or comments? All in favor? Opposed? Abstensions. The resolution passes. >> Okay. Uh upcoming topics. Um so we have middle school at the next >> Yep. So October 9th is our next meeting and it'll be our middle school presentation and then the final one will be the 21st. It's a Tuesday meeting and that'll be our our electronic call pass meeting. >> Okay. sponsored by Pnner Valley High School. Mr. >> Mill, >> um I'd like to open it up for public comments on any topic. >> I'm just confirm to state your name please before you start. Thank you.
135Okay. Uh, good evening members of the board and to the students. Congratulations. My name is Pamela and I'm a mother of a student in this district. We've been residents of Putinham Valley for over a year. In that short time, my son has endured things no child should ever experience that go far beyond bullying. He has been a target of hate crime, racism, physical threats, and even physical violence. One group of students even said, "You bring the the rope, I'll bring the shovel, and you bring the tape." Suggesting they will bury him alive. These are no jokes. These are threats and they are dangerous. Then on September 11th, he suffered a severe concussion after being assaulted by another student in an unprovoked attack. The emotional and physical toll on him has been devastating. Since that incident,
136he's been suffering from constant headaches, dizziness, nausea, insomnia, and anxiety. He has been he hasn't been able to attend a full day of school. He's been falling behind academically and socially he's isolated. He doesn't feel safe going to school. And then this Monday, his very first day back, despite the promises of having a monitor shadow him, he was attacked again by the same student with no monitor around. [Music] He had not even been in school for 2 hours before this child laid his hands on him. This is no longer just a concern. This is a pattern. Is an ongoing failure to protect my child and others. In fact, many of the mothers sitting here today and some that couldn't make it have had their own children targeted by the same student. This is a widespread
137issue that has been allowed to continue unchecked. My child is no troublemaker. He's a helper, a leader, a community key kid. He's in the Boy Scouts. He plays in multiple Putham Valley Sports Leagues. He's a part of the Joe Palomo Soccer Academy last spring in this very room. He received a science fair award in physics. His project, Making My Baby Chicks Hover. I don't know if you remember, but he had everyone laughing when he described debating with his dad whether to hover their cats or their baby chicks. This boy, that's the boy this district is failing to protect. And so I asked again, what more needs to happen before something changes? was the threshold for action. There are students in this district with clear patterns of violence behavior and they need professional intervention. These are
138often signs of deeper issues. But without help, that pain gets taken out on other children like my son. We cannot forget that in this town, many homes have guns. If we don't address this now, the next escalation could be a tragedy that no one can undo. The district must implement a formal system to one, identify students with repeated violence or threatening behavior. Provide them with counseling, behavioral intervention, and support. Protect the students being harmed in the meantime. Let's not wait for something worse. Let's not look back and say, "We saw the signs, but we did nothing." As a mother, I live in constant fear. Will my child come home safe today? I can't even promise him he's safe at school. We moved to Putham Valley for a better life. Now I wonder if I made
139the wrong decision. I am asking for your help. Not just for my child, but for all of our children. for the safety of this community, for the future of this district. Please help. >> What What grade is your child in? >> He's in fifth grade. >> Fifth grade. >> Yes. >> So, thank you coming to speak to us. Um, obviously I've communicated with you, as I know you've communicated with the middle school administration and as I wrote in my email today, the student safety, students staff safety is our highest priority and um, I was very sorry to hear about the incident that took place earlier in this year and as we do with all incidents, we certainly are following up accordingly, investigating. There's consequences as always. Um, all of those things that you had mentioned
140are things that I'm very proud to say we have in place regarding counseling, regarding both in district and out of district counseling support that we offer families. Um, working closely with our police department. We have an entire protocol for threat assessments, whether a child is a danger to themselves or danger to others. So, all of those things are happening simultaneously within our schools. Um, I know that a safety plan was put in place and changes have been made to procedures and really the district's doing everything possible to make sure that your son feels safe while he's in school here, is safe while he's in school here because we want him to come back and we want him to um enjoy his time here in Putham Valley School District, which I am sure um we will
141be able to to get him back and to get to that place. So, I'm very sorry regarding what had happened earlier in the year, but I am I have a great level of confidence that um we were able to welcome him back and to ensure that he is safe throughout his time here. >> Thank you. Um I just want to ask so is there cuz again I'm not sure is there a system for let's say for example there is a particular child who keeps fighting or doing things to other children. Is there like a flag? Let's say let's pull him out. Let's talk with him. Is there something like that? >> Yes, absolutely. So, they get referred to our clinicians. So, the clinical staff, whether it be a psychologist or a social worker, work with
142those students. They work with the families. They get the families in touch with outside counseling or other services if it rises to the level beyond what the district can provide, whether they need more therapeutic or more personal uh counseling. We actually have counseling services that are offered through the county in our buildings. That was something a partnership we have with Cove Care that it previously if you lived in Pton Valley these services were available for you but you had to drive your child to Carmel to receive them and it's not close. So we actually opened up our buildings. They have a counselor through cocare that comes here and be able to provide outside counseling for our Putin Valley students within a Putham Valley location. So those are some of the beginning levels and it goes
143all the way through to we have students that are in therapeutic settings that we students that are we're not able to meet or accommodate their needs here in a traditional public school setting. We pay tuition for those students to attend school elsewhere where their needs can be met um so they can be successful in in their own academics. So we certainly we we cover every aspect of supporting children from a very basic sit down and and tell me what's going on to therapeutic residential settings if that's what the stu if that's what students require. >> Do you need the parents approval for those particular children or can you just pull them like what's the threshold like how many times does this kid has to do something to be pulled and say let's talk. So, I
144don't have a magic number. The parent question is interesting. Um, ultimately, we have we need parent permission, but there's things that we can do um to um encourage parents to to move in that direction. I mean, I don't want to get into all the law or the things that we do, but um we've certainly had parents that were unwilling and then um eventually we work with them and get them to come around cuz they understand it's not these placements are sometimes seen as punishments and it's the exact opposite, right? The district's not looking to spend $100,000 in a therapeutic setting for one student because we're punishing that kid. We're looking to spend upwards of $100,000 to place a student in a school where that student can be successful, where that student can get the support
145they need um across everything so they can be successful. So it's not it's not meant to be a punishment. It's meant to be we're willing to invest in your child to provide them what they need to be successful. >> Correct. So there is no number of how many times this child can do something, >> right? Everything we follow is progressive discipline. So if the same child displays the same behaviors, the consequences continue to get more severe. Ultimately, they come to what's called a superintendent's hearing. The maximum time a principal can suspend a student from school is 5 days. Any suspension longer than 5 days goes to a superintendent's hearing, which is really like a court case. Um it's poorly named superintendent's hearing. I'm not even in there. Uh the district has attorneys in there. There's
146a hearing officer that's in there. The family can bring attorneys in there. And it's really sort of dealt it's handled like a trial and the hearing officer would ultimately make the decision regarding what the acceptable length of that suspension is. >> Got it. >> That's the next step. >> Thank you. >> I just wanted to say thank you for um talking about your story. I'm really sorry that your son is going through these things. It's horrible as a parent and I hope that our district does something to make you feel safe. >> Thank you. [Music] >> Hi, my name is Wendy Denalo. I was not planning to speak, but I feel very compelled to speak. Um, having known Pamela and her son since they moved here, since literally the minute they moved here. Um, and
147I can tell you what kind of a child he is because I personally coached him in baseball last year. I'm imploring the district to please look into this situation more deeply. There is a history of violence. My own child was a victim of it outside of school where I realized there was nothing the school could do. This child told students in the school he was pushing my child down in order to hurt him. I understood the school could do nothing last year, so it wasn't reported because it was at a wreck event. Parents are questioning whether or not their children should partake in activities where this child will be, including myself. And you know, I'm very involved here and I love this district and my children are very happy. But there are children who are
148scared, not only Pamela's son, but other children. So, I'm just asking you to please look into this situation more deeply. I do not know the details of how behavior follows from elementary school to middle school, but I can assure you there is a history and you should be made aware of it so that you have a full picture of the safety. What happens to Pamela's son is unacceptable and no child should have to go through the suffering and no family should have to go through the suffering that the Rafi family is going through right now. So, I appreciate you listening. Um, Pamela, I'm so proud of you for sharing your story. Um, and you know, I thank you for listening to me. Um, and you know, I look forward to a a positive resolution for
149um, Pamela's son to feel safe again and all the children quite frankly. Thank you. >> Thank you, Lindy. [Music] >> So, I I just I really try hard when I'm here to wear my board hat, but sometimes it's a little bit hard to separate from being a mom and also being a school administrator and a former teacher. Um there is always a hierarchy of needs um that we address as schools. We have to it's part of what we do. We have something called tier one services. It's based off of med a medical model. Everybody gets tier one support. Everybody gets the same type of tier one support. For students who show that they need more support, they move into that access to tier 2 where they can get support on top of what everybody else
150gets. And then our most um fragile students that need the most support get tier three. And so it's this triangle that's built upon a foundation of supports both for what we call the ABCs in education, attendance, behavior, and classroom performance. That being said, sometimes the triangle doesn't fit the mold for all students. And when that's the case, we have to do what's called wraparound services and figure out how to help that particular child that may be having a situation themselves and that situation may be bleeding out into other things in that that child's world. We have an obligation as a school district to help all of the children involved, including the child at the center of that situation and all those around. What I would just ask the district to do is again to look
151into whether or not our MTSS supports are effective in this particular instance. Um I would also say sometimes when we're affected by one person, it feels like it's everyone and I want to be careful to make sure that that's not the narrative because that's not Putinham Valley. Um Putnham Valley is a very very positive place. We just heard a beautiful presentation from the elementary school about all of the wonderful things that are happening. That being said, it does not make this situation any lighter than what it is. But I I would say we need to take a deeper look to see what's happening. Um the fact that this child came back to school and did not have the experience that both family and child were hoping for and were told they were going to have
152is it's it's a problem. And I say that with all the respect in the world for this district. I love this district. I have kids in every school in this district. Um and I can tell you from personal experience as a school administrator, sometimes things just don't go the way that you plan them. But we do everything in our power to make sure that they do. And so, um I would ask if we could have an update as a board as to what's happening with the situation. Um I would also say just sometimes as a parent you don't get to know all the pieces because there's privacy laws that we have to abide by. And so sometimes it can feel like nothing is happening when something is actually happening. And I can absolutely vouch that
153the people in this district that run this district ensure that the things that need to happen happen. Sometimes they just can't share what it is because of privacy laws. Um but uh I want to thank the administration for looking into it. I am sure that there is already work being done around this situation as Dr. L mentioned, but I would ask that we continue to to dive a little bit deeper to ensure that all students affected um are getting the support that they need. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> My heart goes out to you. I mean that. Very disturbing to hear what you said tonight. And uh this is a good man right here. He is solid and I am certain that a resolution will be found. >> No doubt. >> Okay. Um so
154we were going to talk about the NISBA's proposed resolutions. Um I did hear from >> Barbara. Before we do, I just want to give the students an opportunity to leave if they want to because this is not an exciting portion. You're welcome to stay, but it is getting late. >> It's up to you. >> That's going to be a really long conversation. >> You're welcome to stay, but we will we will not be offended. >> Thank you, >> parents. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, guys. Thank you. >> Thank you. You all Thank you, >> ladies. Thank you. Whatever Jackie said worked >> this evening. >> See you. >> I said whatever Jackie said something said something worked. >> Take care. >> Thank you. Good night ladies. Have a good night. >> Good night.
155>> This one. >> Okay. Um >> so the first eight >> I I didn't see any comments from anybody about any of them. >> Um, >> give me one second. >> Uh, questions or comments. Um, 9 10 11 um, the NISBA supports the state to safely incorporate AI into curriculum and district operations. Um, NISBA could not uh Westbutt could not make a determination of whether they uh supported or did not >> mic. I can't hear. I'm sorry. I can't really hear you. >> Sorry. >> Oh, that's >> number 11. >> Yeah. >> Which is AI. >> Yeah. >> Um, Ms. uh Westpot could not make a recommendation. Um, they were divided in into how uh whether people wanted to support that or not. I know that they said the debate over the need for guidance
156and data privacy guard rails for AI versus fears that legislation can be inflexible and hard to change. Um, so I just I need kind of like advice as to how to vote when I'm representing us. >> I have feelings. >> Before we do that one, how about number eight? >> Yeah, I wanted to go back to number eight. Sorry. Number eight was >> I also have number four. Okay. So, why don't we go in order? I know that Barbara, we couldn't hear you when you said the the one through eight piece. Why don't you do number four? >> Number four. Let's go back. Sorry. >> Okay. So, my question for number four, um they support um so it says NISMA support incorporating pre kindergarten funding into the school aid formulas used for K12 education. Um
157I don't know how I feel about it. I think that pre it's an extra burden on the taxpayers. um to bring prek into the districts and I'm pretty sure that's what that means. Um we've never required it as a state. Um I think it's pretty interesting for them to support it and support more classrooms and adding this to um a tax burden. I'd be interested in hearing about the support um that prek is that having your child go to prek um has a definitive like makes a definitive improvement or change on kindergarten students. Um >> well if they incorporate it into the school aid formula it would be money from the state which means the entire state is paying for that not just us individually which would be a minimal cost. So I I favor
158this because I think prek is is really important especially in this day and age. So if they incorporate it into this the formula the state aid and do it the right way >> equitably and enough to cover the cost. I I I support that. Again we would not feel that much of a burden because it would spread throughout the entire state of New York. Whereas if it was a district initiation, I would I would say no because it would add a great deal to the tax levy. >> Would this resolution mean that we would like if it were to pass that we would no longer need to partner with something some someone like the YMCA for what we have now? >> I think probably >> that's and it would be for all kids and it
159would be for all. Is that how that would work? >> I mean I'm reading between the lines. I don't I don't know exactly what the intention is. Certainly >> what they do right now is the prek funding is a separate line item on our state aid run. The fear there is >> it's there one year you could build a program and it could disappear the next. Exactly. >> And now now the district would be stuck either making the decision to disband a prek program you have now offered or taking that cost >> on on yourselves. That's long been the fear. What this resolution would do would be to prevent that that from happening. It would no longer be a standalone budget line item. It would be embedded within our state aid, which is based upon
160the enrollment of our kids and all the other factors that are determined. Okay? So it would it would make it part of the yearly funding, >> right, >> that would always be there as opposed to a standalone item that in a bad budget year could easily get chopped and leave districts facing either a huge expense or eliminating a meaningful program. >> And if if the prek students were to get the same amount that like a general education student gets, that would be more than what we're currently getting for prek, right? If they do it the right way, >> if they did it through foundation ag partner with the Y and they would be our students for all for from four years old. Is that >> and we would have teachers would be our program. That's
161what I'm trying to figure out. >> But remember that our the state aid actually covers a a small portion of what our district budget is. probably. >> So even if they fully the state fully funded prek like they do K students, the community would still have to pick up a lion share of that expense because they pay a line share of the expense for all our >> Okay. >> Right. Our state aid is >> 50. >> Grace, give me a number for state aid. >> State peril. >> What is our total state aid typically? 12 million. >> Oh total >> I think just sort of the order. Yeah, I know it's in the books. 16 million. Maybe that's it. >> Out of a $60 million budget. So, the rest of it comes from local share.
162>> Yeah. >> So, while it would kind of codify the fact you would get some money for prek, it wouldn't be just it wouldn't be enough to cover prek for all students. >> So, to have to limit it again. Yeah. And if they didn't change the number of hours that prek prek program runs and you had to run bus loops separate >> or even have to allow >> prek kids on a bus which they're not allowed now. >> Right. >> Like it could significantly change that. >> Right. Right. I don't read this as prek for all and I read this as districts taking on Oh, thank you very much. 166 16,557,000 was our state last year. Um, so out of our $60 million budget. So, um, I don't read it as universal prek for all.
163I don't read it as communities have to pick it up. I don't read it as the you you have to bring it inhouse versus partnering with someone. I just read this as the the state's already providing the money and this would embed it within a yearly allotment as opposed to it being a a standalone aotment that could disappear in one year >> and that would be the only difference >> to me that's as I read this that's the only difference I see. So we would can continue as we are >> just it would be we'd have more security to expect those funds year after year. >> We have more money. >> Maybe not more money but at least stability >> and it's not going away. >> It's not going away. >> Right. Right. Right. Right.
164Exactly. >> Thank you for that clarification. I definitely would agree then. Okay. >> With supporting you too. >> Okay. >> That was my my best interpretation. >> No, I appreciate it. Thank you. I had just questions about it. Just >> some of these are very like awkward and broad. >> Absolutely. Uh, and some of them are incredibly specific. >> Yes. Some of them are 25 is going to call me and be like, "You screwed that up. >> You count it all wrong." >> Um, so what did you want to do? Eight. >> Number eight. >> Okay. >> So, number eight says, uh, that they are advocating for the number of lockdown drills to be released from four to two each year. >> Uh, yeah. No. So, >> I agree. No. Based on what we experienced
165last year in Putinham Valley alone, I would say absolutely not. I understand the reasoning for it. I understand that there is angst around students participating in lockdowns. What I also understand is in the midst of a real emergency, your brain reverts to what your body knows how to do and what it's practiced doing. And so, we would not want a tragedy to be on our hands um because we didn't practice how to respond enough. Um that's why we do drills. Um, and I am harshly against that. >> Agree. >> Muscle memory. >> I agree. >> Keep it up forward. >> As we support >> and the new law that requires schools to inform parents of drill 7 days prior will help to minimize the anxiety that this opposing, >> huh? >> We oppose it. We're
166saying no. >> Oppose the reduction from four to two. >> No. No. No. Sorry. >> Sorry. Okay. Some of them read we oppose. Some of them read very hard. You have to read them very carefully. Yeah, >> it's very >> I I do want to reiterate though to the community that there is a new law in place that says that school districts have to inform families about any drill 7 days prior to the drill within that 7-day period. So, um, that alone could help to bring down the anxiety if families and the school are both talking with the children about what those drills look like and, you know, in an age appropriate way why we do them. >> I I don't know how much anxiety it really produces. I I'll tell you, talk about anxiety.
167I mean, I'm talking ancient days, but when I was in school, they had the um the the nuclear drills, you know, the the the fog >> under the desk. under the desk. And man, that that siren would go off and you didn't know where the missiles were going to hit us. It was frightening as hell. >> The Cold War. Yeah. I mean, we never knew. >> I I think it's important. I agree. We vote no on that. >> Okay. >> All right. What's the next one you want? >> Number 11. I >> I say yes to that. >> Me, too. >> I think it's important. >> I need to oppose. I >> I worry about the state. I think it should be up to the districts >> telling us how to >> go back >>
168how to do it. That's all I I feel like >> I just feel like the state makes it really hard for us sometimes >> safely in >> I feel like the state makes it Io I would oppose it. I feel like the state makes things really hard for us sometimes and having a state level directive to safely incorporate these very broad terms is really >> it's too broad those words safely incorporate >> right it it doesn't say school you in curriculum yes but district operations what they're saying is that if AI could be adapted to budgeting and things like that uh even scheduling I >> but the state is going to incorporate it not the district it says support the state to safely incorporate >> AI and into curriculum and district operations it doesn't say
169NISB supports the school to safely incorporate it state the nearest school association I could go either way they generally objected to anything that is a state mandate that's unfunded and >> yeah that's true >> you know we've said no you know >> I think that the way that I'm reading this and that could be wrong, but the way I'm reading this is for the state to hold districts accountable to have some sort of protocol policy in place about the safe usage of AI, which I think is very important. We already have a protocol. Thank you, Jackie. Um, but >> if that's what it means, >> you know, I don't know if that's what it means, but that's the way I read it. I I think it's important to that we should embrace AI because it's
170it's going to be all over and our kids can only benefit going forward. But I agree with you, Barbara, about the state coming in and unfunded fun unfunded mandates, right? That piece. >> Well, and it's like the cell phone. It's not that we object or we think it's bad, but we had a policy that was working and we >> and the state said that wasn't good enough. You know, we had to change it. So, um I just I don't know. It doesn't say even the state state ed department. It just says the state and I that >> it's very broad. Yeah. >> Go either way. And that that that that >> So, we are opposing. >> Well, I would oppose. >> I'll oppose. I only It's so new. >> Nobody really knows what they're dealing
171with here. And the reality is we're already ahead of the game as a district >> and it's changing rapidly. I agree. But >> yeah, that's true. >> Once the state makes a law or a rule, it makes it really hard to sometimes makes it easier for us. >> Yep. >> Um >> Okay. >> I just wanted to say that I support number 13 with whole milk. >> Number 13. What? >> Whole milk to be counted as one of the food. Like I'm staying out of the milk. I >> don't care about milk at this point. >> I don't think that's the perview of a board. I agree with I that's what >> I thought it was interesting. >> Wait, but you skipped mine. I think 12 is interesting. I would oppose 12. >> Locust Valley,
172Masipiqua. Let's see. >> Oyster Bay, like all those Long Island towns. There's Oh, >> it's very interesting to watch it at the >> Yeah. >> the state. I bet it >> um 14. Sam, you >> wait. Did we talk um 12? Number 12. >> Yeah, recess is not >> 12 tax credits for educational vouchers that benefit private or parial schools. >> Florida does this. >> Florida gives educational vouchers to people who want to choose to go to private schools. I agree. >> I think that it holds our public schools accountable for being public schools. Otherwise, they can go elsewhere. our our domain is the public school system and uh I I personally I do everything to support that. I the parochial and private that's somebody's else's business. I totally support this. Um uh you know
173>> I don't have a strong feeling. I just >> if other people it would seriously impact the public education system because it would take money away. >> The schools would have to be good >> and and it's not good. Well, the schools would have to be good, good enough that kids don't go to private school. >> What this will do is make the schools poor. >> But I don't think people choose a private school because their their schools aren't good. >> Yes, they do. >> They absolutely >> Why do you think people choose priv, but not here? >> My parents chose private schools because they believe that I would be getting religious education during school time. >> Some of the city areas, but >> nothing to do is better or worse than public school. I
174mean, most people go to private I went to private school cuz my district >> problem is >> my parents believe my district was that district. >> I wholeheartedly agree with you. I do believe that having open forum for charter schools, public school, private school, >> yeah, >> uh allows the accountability for everybody to go up. That being said, sometimes >> working where I work, sometimes you come to the realization that there are things that are not within your control >> when it comes to student performance. And so you can't just say this is a great school because it's a great school. Like it's it's not the way it works. So that is a very slippery slope. >> Yeah. Um >> I agree. I think it's just it's >> especially in New York when we have
175so many different kind of communities and demographics and things like that. >> Yeah. Public school is for every child. Every child. And it's the parents choice to send them to pro or private. But >> so you don't think they if they send them to parochial or private, they should get tuition tax credits. >> Too bad. That's your choice. You want to send a kid to private or proial school? That's your choice. You're not going to take money from this system to plate that system. It makes no sense. And as board members, we are here to protect the integrity of the public school students and their education. >> What a parent wants to do with their money is their business. You want to go to Walmart or you want to go to Costco, I don't care.
176But you're not going to take money from this central institution and give it to somebody else because you're depriving those kids who can't afford to go there their decent education and that becomes an a fairness issue. Every kid should have the top-notch education they can get and public schools provide that. If a parent feels I got the money to send my kid to private or parochial schools, >> but every patient every parent would have the money to send their kids to public to private schools if they got to tax credits. >> Totally opposed the voucher system. I I I person I'm strong on that. >> I just I think it's very interesting. I don't think it I I don't know. I'm not sure how I feel. >> Area is nowhere's near Florida yet or or
177Texas for that matter. But I I I think >> I mean just to be a proponent for public schools in New York, do we want to compare public schools in New York to public schools in Florida and Texas? >> Yeah, you can. You can't. And that's the difference if I lived in Florida and Texas. >> So part of the strength of New York public schools is the fact that we don't offer things like this. So we're not defunding public education. >> That's right. Yeah. >> In order to fund private and proial education, which then just takes away from >> public education, >> gives credits to the halves and takes away from the have nots, >> right? >> I see both sides. If you guys want to support it, I'm with it. I definitely see both
178sides. >> Okay. Recess. >> Yeah. Recess is not educational time. I'm sorry. >> But >> I'm sorry. It should >> We need to be careful with this. We live in New York. Recess is not possible for like half of the year. >> Exactly. >> I'm just saying like we can't say we're going to ask for recess to be a >> thing that we have to do when half the year we might not be able to do it. >> It's it's make believe. >> We should definitely not count it as instructional time. Like we're not get letting the kids out a half hour earlier just cuz they went to recess to play. >> I I think this is for districts. >> That's what that means that we want to send the kids home earlier because they
179had recess. I think this type of thinking is for districts that are looking to get kids instructional hours without any accountability. >> Correct. You know, >> this this amendment has nothing to do with recognizing the importance of >> recess. Yeah. Let kids be kids. >> This resolution has everything to do with trying to capture an extra 30 minutes. >> Correct. >> Of state reportable instructional time. >> Yep. Yeah, without having to without having to provide instruction. >> Contractual confines can sometimes be >> a challenge. Yeah, let's strongly oppose that one. >> Okay. Um 15. >> Oh, um I was going to ask um I I I actually sent a thing to Melissa Straa. um she couldn't be here this evening but um about substantial increases in state reimbursement for out of district special ed placements
180to reflect current costs. I because I think now at least my understanding is they don't really reflect >> No, no, they don't. >> Yeah, I support this strongly. >> So I support that. >> Me too. >> Yeah, >> I agree. >> We want the money. >> We we support on 15. Okay. Um >> 16 the promotion of legal notices. So Janette wrote to um Dr. Chen and asked her how much do we spend on legal notices? >> We spend about we budget about 11 12,000 a year. >> Wow. >> To advertise into newspapers. What is that? Four times a year. I was kind of for this >> where >> I mean I wrote down in my notes >> transparency is really important. >> Mhm. >> but there could be better ways. Yeah. >> And it's
181not I mean that is a you know very small part of our budget but is it useful? >> I think it's important. Is it useful to get a bunch of people here? I think it's important to be >> subscribe to Puthton County News Recorder. >> Anyone? >> What? Pent news recorder. Do you subscribe to it? >> No, >> absolutely. >> But I'm also not 80. >> So >> like who who subscribes to a newspaper? >> Older people do. >> I think >> my mom probably will. I mean she gets the newspaper >> the legal not uh notice publication requirements. We're under those anyway, right, Dr. Chen? I mean we have to notify people. >> We have to notify trying to reform that. >> Well, that's that's what I'm saying. I disagree with that. I I
182am not in favor of reform of current legal notice. >> I'm not favored of it either. >> Yeah, >> I think it's important to use multiffactorial ways. >> Well, let's think about this. We had an entire commit last year with respect to communicating with the community. So, it probably be a little bit counterproductive to support this. >> Yeah, we do it >> knowing that we need to communicate with our community. >> Yeah. in as many ways as possible, but the community also needs to understand that there is a price tag to that. >> Okay. >> Fine. >> I mean, what's $11,000 in a $68 million budget, >> right? So, we're required on four occasions during the seven weeks preceding the date of the annual meeting or election in two newspaper having general circulation or one
183newspaper of general circulation. Um, if there's only one, >> we do that anyway. So >> yes, >> we can cut it down to >> I think that's what they say, right? Cut it down to two >> or no, they're just saying >> they want to promote reform. >> I'm always subject to any of these resolutions that are supported by just one school district. You wonder what's going on. What's going on in in the Orchard Park School Board? You know, >> I have work. >> Maybe they don't notify the people at all. And I don't know. >> I don't know. Maybe I don't have a new 17. >> Okay, >> let's move on. >> What What do you want for the next one? >> Anybody have a trouble? 17 opposing 17. >> What? I had trouble
184reading this. What is this grammar or what is a hold harmless? >> Hold harmless means that if the >> Let me see how to put this. I mean, NISSBA supports limiting a district. >> Like if if we got so much state aid, they can't drop us down and give us less next year, >> right? >> Oh, it's okay. It's okay. >> So, districts that have been >> what this means >> getting a lot of state aid really want this because they don't want their state aid >> to be even. >> Do you understand what I mean? >> This is an upstate thing. I mean, Antiora, >> which one are we looking at again? >> I mean, 17 and 18 are introduced by the Aunta school board. So, you you got to >> I do like
18518. I do think that we should support I mean, I work the area that I work in is very rural and we have a lot of problems with tons of different tons of things in rural Orange and Sussex counties. And I think having a budget threshold that they can't go below, I think would be good for those districts. Not that it matters to us, but >> right, >> I feel like a budget threshold would be >> I don't know. >> Nice. >> I'm neutral on both of those. >> I can listen to the discussion and decide. Make a choice. Yeah. Yeah. Make a choice. That sounds great. I go that to you. So >> what >> summarized >> this is limiting how >> what are you talking about? >> This is this this one we
186were just talking about 17. Yeah. >> Uh it's limiting how quickly schools can lose money from the state >> instead of taking away large amounts of funding all at once. They would prefer cuts to happen gradually so that schools have time to adjust. >> I like that. So >> yeah. >> Do you put an S to like that or an O to like >> I don't know. what it makes you support or oppose >> it makes sense rather than just pull the rug out and say, "Well, you've been overpaid, so we're gonna, you know, because you've built programs and you have cost expenditures and you don't want that." So, >> so it seems like the concern is that the state will take money without warning and will also make you pay for things without warning.
187>> They've done that, >> like the cell phone policy. >> They they've done that. >> So, this is slowing them down. >> I like it. Me too. >> Thank listen to the ordinance. >> Okay. 19. Any trouble? >> 20. >> No, I'm good with those. >> I have 22. >> 22. >> I support legislative and regulatory changes to add financial literacy into the statewide K through2 curriculum. >> Yep. Me, too. >> Yes. To financial literacy. >> Yes. Yes. >> Why would they not support it? >> Oh, it's interesting. >> Do you want legislation that requires that? >> Yes, me too. >> Yes, I do. >> I think it is a huge part of what kids are. >> It is, but it's already in the portrait of the graduate and the things that we have to
188do over the next three years to build towards the portrait of a graduate. So, it's already in there. So then why so if somebody wants >> why do we want >> more legislation on that? >> Maybe they people don't think it's enforceable because it's just in the portrait of a student. Maybe they think we need legislation. >> They're talking about >> again >> 12 >> the I don't think the legislature is the place to decide what what we should be teaching. >> That's >> Come on, Sam. You complain about the legislature all the time. >> Come on. >> You know what I like about it though is that >> money state funding to support additional state funding. Yes, I also support that. >> No, it Well, again, slippery slope because when the state says they're
189going to give you funding, you know what is their idea of funding? >> No. Say no. >> Jackie, what do you think? >> Just say no. >> Come on. You're the curriculum. >> Yeah, you are the curriculum lady. What do you think? >> Just say no. Just >> while I >> I don't think I have ever Oh, there it is. Um, while I do support funding for any kind of implementation of new curriculum, which is not currently promised in the New York Inspires plan, they do want us to implement, but they have not said how or with what funding. >> Um, you do never know what that means in terms of funding. You know, when we think about the pre-K grant and things like that, sometimes they expect us to do a lot with very
190little. So, >> yep. Don't you feel in the portrait of a graduate there's a lot of a lot of that? I mean I I think financial literacy is part of that. >> It is. Yes. The New York Inspires plan includes implementing financial literacy and also a climate literacy program but does not speak to how exactly we're supposed to do that with what funding. And um so I am skeptical whenever they say they will offer funding for something. I would love to know what that funding looks like, >> but that could just mean that you mention it in a social studies class, right? >> Uh well, not if it becomes a mandated curriculum. I'm sure that would come with actual requirements and standard. >> In order for it to become a mandated curriculum, we would need
191to support it. >> Say again. >> In order for it to be a mandated curriculum, >> it already is. It's already approved by the state. >> Well, it's the New York Inspires Plan is still being adopted um in fall. It's still in its public comment um period. So it's not yet fully >> said we'll support then you know the portrait of a graduate I and provide funding for that I could support that this >> well some money is better than no money and I think that's the point of this resolution is that they know this is coming down the pike and they would rather get some money than no money. >> Yeah. But they'll direct it. They I I agree with what Barbara said earlier that the legislature >> will have their hands in hating
192the curriculum. >> That worries me. >> Okay, I'll put not decided. We'll decide as I'm listening. >> Yeah, >> I would that's a one where I would also listen to the conversation, >> right? >> Yeah, I agree. >> Um, >> team literacy. >> And then what's the last one? >> I definitely think literacy program >> to choose to authorize medical directors. >> Yeah. to evaluate diagnosed kids. >> I fully support this. >> Which one? 23 medical 23. >> Oh, absolutely not. >> Medical medical staff. It's medical staff. It has to be medical. It has to be a doctor or a certified. >> I don't think our schools should be responsible for medical anything. >> Not that they are responsible that they have the resource of available to families. But can't >> but then we'll be
193responsible for evaluating, diagnosing and treating and prescribing medications. >> Any of that has to happen with parent consent no matter what. What it's saying is that and maybe I'm wrong but what it's saying is that it would be available to families like a community schools model where schools would be able to say hey doctor on this day you're going to be in the office. If parents want to make appointments with you you're here in the school. I don't >> but as the institution supporting that medical intervention the school will be held liable for any errors that may occur. >> I agreed. I feel like the state >> I I honestly I oppose it. >> I I mean if you look at the schools that are proposing it, they're very rural schools. >> Yeah, >> that's
194the thing. They probably don't have the >> You got it right. Okay. >> Well, can school districts now decide to do that? >> Not prescribed. have somebody in >> I don't think >> you need to have a specific doctor. >> My answer would be yes. There is plenty of schools across New York State that have community schools and they have >> dentists and doctors and open door like in Austin Open Door came in and ran a clinic in in there all the time. So I don't I'm I'm confused as to what the difference between this resolution is and what already exists. >> I feel like a school medical director does not sound good. I I think by you know making it uh a requirement of law the the liability the onus would be then upon
195the district. >> I think they're only saying that it supports those legislation to allow districts to choose to authorize. >> Nobody's required. >> I could go either way on that. I guess >> it's it's not a requirement. It's just if you want to do it. >> It takes more than a page to explain their rationale. >> I know. I saw that this is a very long >> I don't I don't know enough about it. >> Here's the problem right here in this >> one two three four fourth paragraph it says at the same time in rural New York there's immense shortage of pediatricians leaving a significant number of students without primary care physician or or a medical home. Yeah, I mean I guess having the option to bring that to the district would ameliate some
196needs that are happening for children >> if there are those people that I don't understand why why this >> I'm assuming whoever's resolution is is going to explain what the difference between what's available now and what this covers is >> I'm wishy-washy on this one like Sam >> okay all right the ones not recommended >> I have a lot of these circled Okay, go ahead. >> Why on earth would NISPA oppose any policies or regulatory changes to curriculum or standards that does not pro promote academic excellence, high expectations, and merit-based opportunities for all students? >> Which one are you reading? >> 28. >> Yeah, I had a big question mark on that one, too. >> Wait, do we oppose to oppose >> children? That's what I'm saying. oppose any policies or regulatory changes to not
197promote academic well I think that this is about opinion >> like the the state let's say you let's use financial literacy for an example let's say the state demands financial literacy to be in the curriculum and there are three school districts that completely and totally don't agree with that I think that's what they're saying is that their definition of excellence might be different >> than what the states is therefore they don't the state to have the power to be able to make those decisions. Yet, the state tells us what we have to teach anyway. So, >> but it's policies or regulatory changes. It doesn't say anything about the state. What I'm afraid of with this what what I'm afraid of with number 28 is that uh >> it it will make it very difficult for
198those kids who just want to want the trades, not college, do not want to be prepped for college to uh get caught in in this this >> smart vortex. >> That worries me. >> Okay? >> Because not all kids are are academically inclined. They they want to work with their hands. If they want to do the trades, God bless them, they'll make more money. >> But even if they're in the trades, that's academic like, right? No. >> But it depends how you define it. >> Yeah. Exactly. Um, >> uh, this may also have to do with the political landscape that we find ourselves in and people wanting to hold on to certain things that other people may now be willing to let go of. Um, that might be what this has to do with this,
199>> right? If you look at the the bank of school districts, >> they typically represent the I would be willing if you go back and look the last 5 years, the similar resolution has probably been opposed by the same school districts that >> are are making very much a political statement. >> Oh, and not an educational one. >> I I I oppose. Yeah, I I agree with Nice and nice on this item. What about the regions? >> I'm against the regions. I never like them. >> Where are you? >> But I can we go to number 26? >> Yeah. >> Oh, go to 26. Yeah, >> 26. The vaccines >> at >> uh I disagree with Nice on that. I I think this should be supported. I don't know how we can deny uh the
200the Christian scientists, the Jehovah Witnesses, the uh Hindu uh religious population deny them their right to decide what is appropriate religiously for their children. They are not saying anything other than uh families with sincerely held religious beliefs. >> They anybody claim to have a sincerely Well, that the family would determine that. Again, this is overreach, I think, by the state. >> I just want to be clear, when this was in place, anybody could Google, print a form, and hand it in and be considered religiously exempt. >> If you're really religiously, >> it was it went be without control, checks, or balances. It was essentially anybody who didn't want to get vaccinated could print a form and hand it in, >> which is why the state got rid of it. This is the part that I
201struggle with. No one No one has the right to tell an adult what to put into their child. >> I agree. >> Not the public school system. >> I agree with you. >> If they want to be around other >> people, they do. >> No. >> Yes. >> No one. >> So, I'm just saying I hardly I'm I'm with Sam on this one. I >> We have lived through a pandemic. >> Yeah. like I'm not going to go there. I'm not going to go there. All I'm saying is that the school in my opinion does not have the right to say you can't come here because you're not willing to inject yourself with something that >> eradicated a disease in the 80s. >> In some cases, in some cases, >> no, >> I'm I'm going
202to just leave it at that. We have lived through a pandemic and I think a lot of people have a very different sentiment about this than they did before. I think this is one we would agree to disagree on. >> And yeah, that's good. >> Okay, >> it's in your hands. >> Barbara can Barbara, >> there you go. >> Um, okay. So, we did 2830. Um Sam, you'll also want to talk about community. >> Yeah, I always felt the school board position is really special because we we do it out of the love for education, out of the love for our kids and stipens will alter that landscape. I I really believe that stipens whether by tax deductions, you know, the exemptions or anything like that. >> I would love to be paid but I
203understand. >> Yeah. I mean, we do a lot. Look at the time right now. Oh my god, it's almost 10:00. But >> I know we have We're going to wrap. >> And we have an executive session. So, yes, I would love to be paid for my time. >> We still need that. I don't think we need that executive session anymore. Do we? >> I thought we solidified our >> I think we need executive session. I absolutely agree that we'll be fast. >> I I'm not going to do anything on this one. I mean, which one? >> I'd rather have to be paid to get the tax exemption because the tax exemption is only for three to six to nine years. So, but >> no, I think we should oppose. >> Yeah, that that one that
204just >> should be recognized by think that was necessary. >> Sam, you also had a question about 34. >> Wait, no. I had a question about reg. >> Yeah, >> but but go ahead stop. So, >> no, no. you I this one says NISSBA supports legislation to eliminate regions and that >> um WPBA opposes it. That means that they want to keep the regions. >> Yeah. And and I disagree with that. >> I don't know enough information about it. So I wanted to hear what other people had to say. >> The regent's been a a stumbling block for a lot of kids when they mandated that you had to pass so many. It was very difficult for kids to do that. It's it's tough especially for those kids whose eyes are on uh you know
205other areas other than college. They they want to go out and go to Boseies at the tech center get a skill uh you know do an apprenticeship and and make a lot of money. I always thought the regions was just Albany giving work to people that they like to devise these tests. Even when I was a kid I thought they were ridiculous. Uh I like the idea that every student succeeds act is that these exams would be made for every kid and you know even those kids who may not be academically inclined could still do well and be proud of themselves and happy with themselves. Regions always had a way of demeaning an individual. You know kids would talk about well what did you get on the regions? Uh I got a 60s. got a
20667 where you failed it. Nah, I I I never like that. >> But you don't have to obliterate the regions to make that happen. You just have to have alternate pathways to graduation. >> Well, but it's if they eliminate the regions, you don't have alternate pathways. You only have >> Well, but there there needs to be a standard of some sort. >> There needs to be a pathway >> whether it's the regions or something else. >> In my opinion, all things assessment should be something like a portfolio. >> I agree with that growth. I I don't have a >> I don't even know what that would look like. So, God help me for saying that. But >> that's how you really show what a child has learned. It's not a one-time assessment. We all know
207that. But at the same time, you our kids need to learn that even in trade school, they're going to have to take a test and pass it to be able to do what they want to do. And so, for the sheer fact of getting used to that test taking piece of moving into the things that you want to do, >> they can't graduate now without taking regions. >> That is true. That is true. But there there are levels of exams in life that have to be taken. And I just think that we can't just not have anything. >> I I just think I I I think regent exams are are are antiquated. I mean, Dr. When are they the state was talking about phasing them out when when was that to happen? >> So the
208disclaimer is here. The state's not not talking about phasing them out in terms of getting rid of them. They're talking about phasing them out in lie of other measures. >> Yeah. Right. which could be used to um >> so there's going to be the same. >> See, that's what I favor. >> Great. Correct. So, the regions will remain an option, but it won't be the only option. >> Right. >> All right. >> But this says that they support legislation to eliminate regions. I I think you have to oppose that if you want multiple pathways and I don't want the legislature to decide. Again, that puts it in a political realm which is not >> uh you know I my own personal opinion. >> Well, as long as uh you know this the state is already
209on that track to provide alternate pathways, I don't have a problem with it then. >> Okay. Um >> what's next? >> 34. Sam, you want >> Yeah. >> mandatory recess for all students? >> Yeah, I think that's important. um any type of uh mandatory implementation of uh recess. >> But don't what does that mean? >> What it means is that you have to provide a time. >> No, >> it doesn't. >> What happens? >> Mean it's under the supervision of a certified physical education teacher. >> Yeah. >> Okay. My question is what happens if somebody has like they can no longer get recess detention you know like if what do you I mean when I learned about punishment in schools it's what do you take away >> no re recess is important just for the
210kids growth the socialization >> no but I think most schools have it so I'm just wondering if like if you implement that they have to have a recess if you can still use >> you know lunch and learns or um like my son has lunch and learns >> I don't That's a good question. >> Clubs instead of going to recess, >> I think >> or like using it as a punishment like you were poorly behaved at recess yesterday, you don't get recess tomorrow. >> It says here, Go ahead. Go ahead. >> Is it going to turn into the 30 minutes that we read earlier? >> Well, yeah. Exactly. It says here that the purpose of this is about play, building interpersonal skills. >> Exactly. So if they define, again, we need a definition of recess.
211If they define recess as going outside for 30 minutes, that's going to be a problem in New York. It's going to be a problem in upstate New York. Totally. That's what I'm saying. >> So we have to just be really careful with what that is. >> I mean, I support recess. I love recess. >> Categories of recess. >> Yes. >> If it's to say that kids need a brain break to be able to socialize with one another, I'm all for it, but >> just not on their phones. >> Not on their phones. They're on their emails instead now. >> All right. >> That's right. >> Trying to get the bathroom passes. >> 35, 36, or 37. The bylaw amendments. >> No, I didn't have any problem with them. >> Okay. >> None of them. No.
212>> Done. >> No. >> All right. >> Okay. I'd like a motion to adjourn the business meeting, but >> to move to Exactly. >> We're going to move to executive session and no business will be conducted after. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Thank you, Mark.