Putnam Valley Board of Education Meeting - April 10, 2025

001Good evening and welcome to the work session business meeting of April 10th, 2025. And I'm so excited to see so many people in the audience. Um, please stand for the pledge. I pledge alce 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. Okay, first on our agenda is the recognition of our PV elementary school student science fair projects and their high school student mentors. I have to say before they start, I have never been as impressed by student work as I was by the projects that you guys presented tonight. They were excellent. You used the scientific method. You had a you started with a hypothesis. You explained your thinking, you answered questions, introduced your the the

002whole thing was excellent done. And the fourth grade should be proud and their adviserss. And their adviserss did a great job. Great topics. Great topics. All of them. All right, good evening everyone. Good evening, guys. First of all, I apologize. I know I didn't get to everyone's presentation, so I'll have Miss Baraso arrive. I mean, scheduled private showings for any of the ones that I missed. So, I'm sure we can make that happen. I know. He was very upset with me. I didn't All of a sudden, I turned around, everyone was gone. I'm like, "Where are they going? The meeting's starting." Um, but I do have to say this is actually one of my favorite events we do the entire year and just knowing how much work goes into these projects, all of the students

003who start their projects and especially those that are moving forward to regional competition. I know you guys have continued to refine everything that you're doing and speak so eloquently about your presentation. Some of you without even looking at the poster were able to uh explain exactly what it was going on. Uh, I know we're often looking for high school physics teachers. So, some of you I've already offered the job to. Um, I know more about nuclear physics than most high school seniors. Um, you know, for as a fourth grader. So, um, again, congratulations to all of you. It's wonderful to see all your families here and have everyone have the opportunity to, um, see your hard work and which I know is only made possible thanks to your adviserss. So, I want to invite up

004Miss Bros and Miss Bruno. And we'll also have the opportunity to invite up some of your high school mentors who helped you guys throughout this process as well cuz we want to recognize them. Uh although I don't know how many of them are here right now, but we'll we'll say their names anyway. Um so, you guys want to do say the names? You want me to Okay. All right. You going to hand it up? Dr. Yes. You going to say each of the students names? Yes. If they could just tell us the title of their project also because I think people would be amazed at the variety and the focus of their work. Sounds good. Thank you. That means you guys got to talk too. I'll take the mic down to make it easier for

005you. All right. So, in no particular order, our first uh presentation was James Delico and Elena Fernandez. You guys want to tell us a little bit about what your project was about? So, our project was about the aerodynamics of rockets. We we shot three rockets and we modified the rockets. So, we had drag that we shaved the top of the rocket to so the air could the air could come around and they could go farther. And our control rocket, we had we had Elena's dad um jump on it so the weight so so the weight could go on the pusher so the um rocket could go farther. And our last one is our weight. We put metal washers on the bottom to see if the rocket could go farther or less. And we found out

006that the drag was um the farthest and the the weight was the least. Great job. You guys can you guys can stay up here cuz we're going to take a picture at everyone. All right. So, our next group was Sophia Wolf and Alessia Russo. [Applause] Who wants to talk? Our our project was about what type of dance burns the most calories. Um we did five styles of dance. Hip-hop, tumbling, lyrical, jazz, and ballet. um ba for we each did we did ballet but ballet we didn't have enough participants for ballet so we took out ballet and hip-hop burnt the most calories but when we did do ballet ballet burnt the most calories thank you I was very surprised that ballet burned the most calories but I'm also not an avid ballet person. So, all right.

007Our next group is Jayen Vele and Briana [Applause] Giorgio. So, for my project, I was mummifying three fish. Um the species was red snapper and the um condiment we were using was um salt, sugar and baking soda. We used um three containers, three fishes and salt, sugar, baking soda. We did it for eight weeks and the best one that worked was baking soda cuz it dried out the fish the most. and and we'd like to thank their parents for letting them use the basement for the fish experiment. And uh that fish goes home with that's not a permanent fixture in the school district. All right, our next team is Emily Run and Valentina. [Applause] So, we did our science project on puffer fish and we wanted to figure out how they puffed up and we

008figured out that they suck in water to tell how they puff up. Thank you. Thank you. I learned that some puffer fish don't puff and dolphins like puffer fish to eat them. Um, all right. Our next is Amir Rafi. Uh, so I did a project on making my chick hover, but at first I was going to do my cat, but then my dad was like, "What do you think? Are you a That thing's going to take like thousand balloons." Yep. That was disaster. Since my baby chicks were lighter, I used that instead of a cat and I knew this was going to be a comedy show. His chicks are now in therapy. Hey, I'm sure your parents appreciate the fact this is being live streamed to the whole world. Make sure they sign that waiver.

009Our next team, Michael Denofo and Austin Flick, whose presentation I didn't get to, so they're going to have to do it again another time. So, our presentation was about the science of pitching and how the different grips affected a baseball's performance. So, we found out that the four seam fast ball, one of the most common grips, was the fastest with the least amount of movement. The two seam fast ball um was was less fast and had the most movement. And the change up was the slowest and had um and had less movement. And then so yeah, you don't want to be the baseball team that follow that goes up against them now as future pitching coaches for the New York Yankees. All right, our next presentation was Francis Rush. [Applause] Would you like to sing

010something from the Jungle Book? Will you hear? No, tell us about your So, my project was the double cone incline. It's um it's a in some um rails on an incline and it's something that rolls uphill in gravity and I wanted to see how far it would go. And so, yeah. Thank you, sir. [Applause] I have a feeling our next two presenters know each other. Reese Tossado and Evan Tosado. [Applause] Our project was about animation and we did two types of animation, handdrawn and stop motion. We actually had two questions about how the amount of frames per second would affect the smoothness of the animation and how many frames in the animation would affect the smoothness of the animation. Well, we found out that uh the smoothness of the animation actually varies between different ones,

011but mostly uh 30 frames per second is the smoothest for that one. And 30 frames in total would be the smoothest, too. Impressive [Applause] Yousef [Applause] Bayunas. My project is called Salt Wars and it's about salt crystals. So, my biggest salt crystals were made from magnesium sulfate, which had what I called like the ideal crystals. So for halli or pink Himalayan rock well even though they make the like those big crystals in the mountains somehow it made you like little crystals on the side. Next is Jacob again. [Music] [Applause] As a former physics teacher, Jacob taught me a few things this evening, which was pretty impressive. So, my project was on nuclear fision, and I demonstrated that by putting mouse traps in a bin, and they all had ping pong balls on them, and the

012mouse traps were set. So, I dropped a ping pong ball onto the mouse traps, and then that caused all the mouse traps to start going crazy. [Applause] Next is Autumn El Tre. So my project was about how will salt change the freezing point of ice cream. So I made two different batches of ice cream, one with salt and ice and one without salt and ice. And I timed how long it took to freeze. So the um one with ice and salt was faster. It took around 10 minutes. And the one without salt took around 20 minutes. Yeah, [Applause] definitely. Next is Evelyn Jackson. [Applause] My project is called plant power and it's about um which which type of plant or vegetable makes the best writing ink makes the best ink to write on seed paper.

013[Applause] Thank you. And Kelsey Finel [Music] who I found out works with my sister-in-law at Gymnastics City. So, my project was on which gymnastics event increases your heart rate the most. I did vault, bars, beam, and floor. And I did each event two times to and floor increased your heart rate the most. So, anyone who's looking to take up gymnastics, floor exercise burns the most calories if you're interested or greatest heart rate. Uh, so I do want to thank our high school mentors. Uh, I think maybe some are here. So, if you are here, please come up and be recognized. I'll say byunas. [Music] [Applause] Thank you. So, Isabella [Music] Qui, Adeline, Lys, [Applause] Gang, Tina, Nadrew, Juliet, [Music] Ragnari, McKinley [Music] Sherf, Richard Steiner, and Julia Tooff. So, thank you all. Would you like

014this? [Music] just to say we're super proud of all of your kids. They do an amazing job. They're here for a reason. It's always about the journey for us and they put in the time and the effort and we're really proud of you and you should be really proud of yourself. Hey, you're going to rock Dry County. No worries. All right. You guys want to come up here and take a picture so your parents can take a picture? You line up in the front. That's good. That's good. Fantastic. Are we standing up? Squish. Squish. Squish. Everyone squish. Squish. Turn yourwards around. There you go. [Laughter] Just find your car and look at Wait, one more. One more. One more. [Applause] Couple more years. We'll give you a minute. I know some parents have to leave.

015We wish you'd stay, but we understand that you have to leave. Thank you. Thank you so much. So amazing. Best board meeting ever. This and the Hagerty board meetings are my favorite this year. The ones with the kids. That's what it's about. That is what it's about. [Music] It is very exciting, Mr. Melo. You see what you got coming towards you? I know. Very exciting. Very exciting. I don't know if I'll be around. It's not that long. Only another four years and they'll be in the high school. You'll still be here. Hint hint. Great job everybody. Hi everybody. Thank you. In front of the tiger in the hall is another great photo op place. So I'd like to open it up for public comment on any of the listed agenda items. Good evening. My name

016is Joe Ferraro. I've got two things. Uh number one, what you just saw is the reason why you vote yes on everything for the school. What you just saw, that's really important. And number two, there's been multiple um presentations already of the budget that uh discussed that preschool was not part of the budget that that was coming back from the state that aid. But I see on the agenda that there is a contract for um preschool and you don't have to answer it now. You can do it when you actually do the resolution. Whatever you want to do, it's your choice. Your meeting. Um I just wonder if you could address if that's what we're talking about and if that's changing the state ed model and then what the impact would be on the the

017Department of Education and how that money does does or do not funnel from the federal government to state to the districts. Yeah. Thank you. So this year, like the previous three years, I believe the district has issued an RFP, so a response for proposal for a community-based organization to partner with us to offer pre-K services. The holdup has always been um what's essentially a a low per pupil expenditure that the state has allocated for school districts outside of New York City. Um, so $5,400 a student is all we get back from that state through that state funding. And uh we've been unable until this year to find a willing partner that is willing to do the provide the service as outlined by the state in their regs uh for that amount of money. And we're

018thankful that uh this year we actually had a willing partner. The YMCA of Westchester, Northern Westchester uh responded and is willing to do the work for that amount. They're actually well uh known in the region. They run prek services in many districts in our area. Um so many of the surrounding school districts uh in our region are using them to run their prek services. So for the first time in several years, we have a willing partner that's willing to do the work and not cost their taxpayers any money. The way it works is we get a per pupil expenditure back from the state. So that offsets the expense of the YMCA of running the program. So it says is net zero. It's not even part of our general fund budget cuz it's essentially grant funded.

019So um the expenditures will be offset by the revenue dollar for dollar and has no impact on our operating budget. So we need to meet with them and have our kickoff meeting and figure out the logistics and the space and how many classrooms and ultimately it'll be a lottery. So there'll be an application process. Anybody who's interested has a four-year-old uh next year will be able able to enter the lottery. Uh so it's totally at random. The students that are selected to participate in that program will be invited in and it'll be free of charge because the state offsets that cost. There's always a a worry of funding. We haven't heard anything about the funding going away. Doesn't mean that in the future it won't, but the model in which we have, unfortunately, if the

020funding goes away, the program would likely go away. Um it's not a program that's subsidized by the district. So it's not that something that we would necessarily have to continue to the we would have to start funding internally um if it if the federal funding were to go away. So uh we're excited to offer it for the first year and uh we know that the partner has lots of experience in this. So um hopefully many inner valley will take advantage and at least apply for the lottery. Where will it be housed the program? So the intention is to house the program in the modular building behind the elementary school. I thought so. Good. Good. So that'll be we're not sure whether it will run one or two classes. What part of that might depend upon

021the turnout or the number of applicants we receive. Um but certainly that space has the ability to run two classrooms. Uh assuming that the Y can staff those same two classrooms. That's outstanding. Is that the space where Miss Bruno currently does her steam? Yep. So it's currently in a space where the innovation lab is. So if we do run through classrooms, we would find her her a new space within the the building itself. So she would still end up with a dedicated space. We would just have to uh re uh just redesate a existing classroom space within that building. Okay. You lost a couple of big classes there. And the district will not be providing transportation, correct? No, there's no. So the the way it works is they're not allowed to charge for before or

022after care. So many families that we have to work out the logistics of the day, but typically it would run from 9:00 to 2:00, 9:30 to 2:30. We want to figure out the logistics so it doesn't conflict with arrival and dismissal of the elementary school because that's just a headache for parents. Uh but parents will drop off and pick up and if they need before or after care, they could look at one of our community based uh daycare centers to provide that either before or after. uh the the pre-k day. It's good news. And registration for that will go through the district. Yes. So for those interested uh we'll do the application process. If they're selected, they'll come in for the registration process. Got it. And we'll go we'll do that way. So we actually

023have a call set up tomorrow with the neighboring district and we're looking to plan a visit to another program that's run by the Y to get a sense as to how it all operates. but we're really trying to work quickly to get this process underway and get students selected ready to go by the end of June. And then um just communicating with the community about how parents apply and because it's a new thing like what what would what might that look like? So we're talking about embedding it into our budget newsletter which goes out to all of the households. So that's our our largest reach. And then on top of that, just to utilize the electronic newsletters, social media, any avenue we can to make sure the word gets out to the community. Amazing. That's

024wonderful. Anything else? Never forget anything? You know, this is uh fantastic news for the district. you you might want to contact Eric Gross and see if we can't get a print up in the PCNR and maybe do uh one of those Eric Gross interviews, Dr. Luff, about this program because typically Eric calls me and ask me to What's that? I said typically Eric calls me first. Um yes, I'm sure we can we can get something together. We always do something leading up to the budget anyway, so we can just make it part of that. Good. Uh inside Putin Valley Schools. Great. Okay. Um, no other public comments. Um, I'd like to move to the consent agenda. Okay. Resolve to approve the consent agenda items 2 through 10 as presented to the board at this meeting.

025Second. Questions or comments. The consent agenda includes approval of minutes, approval of an updated substitute listing, additional and unpaid hours for staff, various staff members, approval of the cseps placements, authorizing the superintendent of schools to enter into salary letters of agreement for the upcoming school year, approving entry into contracts with uh Katona for health and welfare, Manhattanville for teaching assistance, and Treb Audio, which provides AV installation and maintenance needs. We're accepting a donation of $75 from the Deanna Bell family for the John Kleininger scholarship account. We're amending the civil service status of a staff member who's going from provisional to a probationary appointment after successful completion of the necessary examination. Adopting and we're adopting the 2526 board of education meeting dates. Thank you. Any questions or comments? All in favor? I opposed. Abstensions. The resolution

026passes. We don't have a student representative tonight. Um, so Dr. Luff, they can't steal your thunder. You're on. All right. So, good evening again. I did want to quickly address I know there was an incident here at the high school which I know our administration and the PM County Sheriff's Office quickly investigated. um it ended up being uh no real threat made to anyone or to the school district. But I do want to just sort of recognize how quickly misinformation can spread and what ended up being unfounded quickly spread throughout various channels um and really caused a great deal of concern and some chaos in uh what was really a bad game of telephone uh to summarize everything that had happened. But I did want to recognize the efforts of our administrators and the partnership

027we have with the sheriff's department to quickly uh dispel any of the fears or rumors that were out there and quickly spreading throughout the community. Um I know several communications went out and we did our best to keep parents informed as we ourselves were trying to determine what was founded versus not. Um right before this meeting we had our financial subcommittee meeting as well as our communications subcommittee meeting. Those are spin-offs of the larger district facilities planning committee and we talked a lot about how to get accurate and timely information out to our community. uh finding a balance between both reactive uh communications in terms of dispelling the misinformation that's out in the community as well as proactive communications. How we can um get out in front and ensure that people have accurate information before

028casting a ballot on May 20th. And that'll be both for our budget, our bond, the library, as well as board trustees. We had our superintendent conference day. I want to congratulate Jackie who did a tremendous job organizing the day. I think it's the most positive feedback we have ever received um from our staff regarding a whole group assembly who had gathered together um and really the feedback was terrific to the point where I think we will look to bring the speaker back um again to do some follow-up work with our staff. Uh we had our IB verification visit to the middle school. So, we had two visitors who come in. Um, just a point of reference, the last time the high school had their reertification, the two visitors came from Quebec and the US Virgin

029Islands. Uh, for the middle school, they came from Brooklyn and Rochester. So, I don't know how we ended up with two people from New York, but uh, it was helpful that they knew the region. Uh, they knew the area. In fact, one of them, uh, taught Mali St. Thomas in 10th grade English, which I found ironic. Uh so Molly was a teacher who was with us last year. So it the feedback was extraordinarily positive. I do want to congratulate uh efforts of Jackie, of Travis and Jamie, and especially the efforts of our coordinators Mary Kay and Stephanie at the middle school. They did a fantastic job. I know that the visitors were impressed throughout the process. Um really getting a sense as to the amount of work that's gone in to uh building the program

030up and the commitment that the district has uh to sustain that program moving forward. So I want to thank everyone. I know board members, administrators, parents, students, everyone was involved in that visitation process. So thank everyone for their participation. the high school. Julia Deichel was selected to represent our school of section 1 New York State Public High School Athletic Association Student Leadership Conference in Albany on April 3rd. I know our students hosted a wellness fair here at the wellness center and I got a chance to stop in to our physics class this afternoon to hear an astronaut talk about his experience uh in the in the International Space Station. I learned that he was scheduled to be there for 6 months. Uh but after a faulty cooling leak, he ended up spending a full year

031on the International Space Station. Not to judge uh physics teachers or um physics majors because I am one. Um but this guy was very articulate, very well spoken, related to the students. I was really impressed in his ability to um gain the attention of high school students and maintain it and uh really keep them engaged throughout the process. So, there was a ton of questions and I thought it was a really cool experience for our students. So, I'd like to thank Miss Graham for making that possible for our students. In a little bit, I'm going to give an update uh on the high school class of 2025 graduation ceremony. So, Mr. Melo is here this evening to help answer any questions and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute. Our middle

032school had their School of Rock performances. I had the opportunity to attend one of the dress rehearsals. Uh it was awesome. Um if you've seen the movie School of Rock, it literally follows the story line verbatim. If you've never seen the story, you were probably very confused. Um but I was very impressed. I love seeing students that seem so out of their element to me. um whether they be musicians or athletes or academics that to see them up on stage and acting and just seeing a whole new side of them is something that I greatly appreciate. Our elementary school held their third grade recorder concert uh which I unfortunately missed but I heard it was outstanding and a huge compliment to Ben uh in his work in his first year here in Pton Valley. Um,

033we are nearing the completion of some hiring. So, we're looking to hire our next supervisor of special education as Melissa Estraa moves up to the director's role. And we still have uh open positions for account clerk and middle school computer specialist if anyone out there is interested. And some upcoming events. We have our budget and capital project. More Q&As's coming up. The PTA is hosting a Q&A on April 23rd and the Putnham Valley Education Foundation is hosting a Q&A coffee and the Putnham Valley Library on April 30th. And we spoke a little bit about the Universal PreK bid opening. And just a reminder, next week is spring recess from Monday, April 14th through Monday, April 21st. And one upcoming event, we have another board meeting before this, but I do want to remind everyone of

034the upcoming theater works performance of Legally Blonde, especially the Saturday community potluck before the show, as well as the senior citizen uh production put on on Thursday, April 24th at 3:30 p.m. Free to all seniors in the community. Thank you. Me again. you again. Tired of listening to myself. All right, this is not so much a presentation as there's a couple pictures. Um, but I know there's been a lot of conversation out in the community regarding the upcoming graduation. I want to be I clear say there was talks about a survey and asking everyone where they would like to have the graduation. I just want to be clear that if I voted on a survey I would pick the turf because that's where I would want to have the graduation too. Now unfortunately that's not

035a realistic um option for this class. But we have spent a considerable amount of time talking with students, parents, staff, administrators, our technology department, custodians, grounds crew, among others, receiving feedback regarding how we can best acknowledge the class of 2025. Some of the many items we considered throughout those meetings uh were considering date changes, changing the location, uh changing how we run the processional in and out of the graduation, the landscape for pictures, athletic conflicts, scope of the work that needs to be accomplished, including replacement of the track, which is something that could not be done over the winter. construction timeline, handicap accessibility, our ability to live feed this both indoor and out to the internet, inclement weather plans as well as seating capacity. One thing that came through time and time again was that

036the preference was to host this outdoors and they wanted an outdoor option. The turf no longer being an option, um the students when Mr. Melo met with the students. They quickly shot down many of the options we had presented. In terms of changing locations, they had no interest in changing the date. They had no interest in um cutting out a piece of the turf and moving the turf. They had no interest in. Uh most of their conversations focused around not doing the things that their parents wanted them to do, which we found ironic. Um but really they wanted to be together and they wanted an opportunity uh to be acknowledged and to celebrate together and that's what really mattered most to them. Um but certainly the preference was to have it outside. So that really

037started a conversation regarding the feasibility of using the baseball field and that ultimately becoming the best option. You could excuse my lack of graphic artistics artistic skills here. So what this is is just simply a screenshot of Google Earth and this shows the outfield of the baseball field where we would propose putting down the same plastic flooring that we utilize on the turf. We would also create some sort of plastic walkway so the students could walk uh during the processional out to the seating area without high heels sinking into the grass. On the bottom of the hill, we would look to have parent bleachers. So we would ensure we had seating for at least two parents for each of our graduates at the bottom of the hill. So approximately 140 graduates. So we would have

038make sure we had at least 280 seats there. Those bleachers would be rented. So we would rent them from a company who would come install them, set them up, and then take them down after completion of the event. Um unfortunately if it rains, that's a significant expense that the district's going to expend uh and not utilize. on the top of the hills and other flat area we would be able to um put additional bleachers up there. So, we're still exploring the ability to utilize bleachers we have on site, possibly utilizing bleachers that are available at the town park just to create sort of an overflow area on top of the hill. Obviously, this uh angle here is meant to show it's a pretty steep hill on the way down. While we don't expect anyone to

039sit on the hill, nobody's expected to bring a a beach chair or a blanket and sit on the hill, it's still an option. If someone decided to, they would be able to sit on the hill and be on unobstructed uh from either the parent bleachers or the bleachers on top of the hill. Um so just another angle showing um it really is a kind of natural viewscape for parents and for the bleachers to be able to clearly see the whole student seating area. So regardless of where the student was seated, parents would have the ability to clearly see them, which was something that I know came up time and time again was parents wanted to be able to view their their children whether they were in the front row or the back row. And the

040last angle really shows it's actually a very picturesque um landscape out there in terms of you could see the you'll see the sunset from there, you'll see the hills from there. Um I'm teasing I'm going to auction off Missa's luxury suite. Uh, Miss Eeka's office has the most beautiful view on campus. It overlooks that exact area. So, if anybody wants to chip in for luxury suite, I'm sure we can come up with some more dwarves or something. You can watch right out the window. It' be perfect. Um, uh, but again, this is another angle of showing uh really what the landscape can look like for the outdoor graduation. So, we think that this is our best solution for an outdoor proposal. So, we would go with this as our primary option. Um, obviously weather as

041always is a concern. More so with this setup than even on the turf. Substantial rain the day before or days before could uh significantly impact our ability to have this. But if it's a beautiful sunny day, we would obviously do everything in our power to um hold this inside. I mean to hold this out outside. If the weather does force us inside like has happened the last two years, uh the pack is still available on that day because this is our original graduation scheduled date. So the pack would be an option. Unfortunately, the pack would be the option as it has been in the past where the students all seated on the stage. There wouldn't be no risers um for the inside option if we're forced inside because really the district would be making a

042significant investment to the outdoor graduation space between the plastic flooring for the students, the chair rentals as well as the bleacher rentals. Um did I leave anything out? Sounds great. Sounds great. Dr. left the students would uh get to the student seating via the gym as they always did and just cut right to the student seating. So, we haven't worked out Come on up. Uh we haven't worked out the full details for it, but I know that Mr. Melo has uh some ideas regarding the processional. Yeah. Um we're going to try and use parachutes this year and just kind of drop them all in. We think that'll be a much more exciting uh effect. Um, especially if we have fireworks going off in the background, too. Uh, but no, I think, you know, one of

043the things that the parents talked about is they love that procession down the hill towards the turf. And because we have the stairs there, one of the things that we're throwing around is that the students would kind of go through the front of the building, walk around the building, and then come down the stairs. Down the stairs. Okay. Yeah. So, um, yeah, the stairs, you know, down the exterior stairs, right? No, I know what you you mean. Yeah. So they wouldn't come out of the In the past we used to, you know, do the photographs and stuff and bring them out the gym up the stairs and then around you would have them come out the front down the stairs then to the Exactly. So they can still see this procession coming down towards where

044the graduation is. Um I think that's you know one we could always have them just come out of the wellness center. Um but I think if we talk about parents wanting to see a procession, we definitely have a way that we can do that. Okay, good. Thank you. One other thing I'll throw in there. Uh I don't want to jinx anything, but why is there no positive jinxes? It's always a negative jinx. There's no positive jinxes. That really bothers me. Um but anyway, if we did have to move it indoors, we are whenever we've had to move it indoors in the past, it's been like a last minute let's go indoors. And there really hasn't been any thought put into okay, when it's over, what happens next? So, we've been spending a lot of time

045trying to craft an idea of how the end of the ceremony wraps up. Um, where we'd bring everybody to like the wellness center. We could have things set up in the wellness center for photographs and things like that. And we could also set up stuff outside if it ended up being nicer out like in the courtyard and things like that. So, we're we're planning more for the end of the ceremony. In the past, it's been like everyone's over, right? And you have a thousand people in the main hall, uh, all moving, you know, one inch an hour to try and get out of that space. So, there's more thought going into if it had to be moved indoors, you know, how we make that more special for all those families. Keep our fingers crossed that

046the weather is good than at that time. I've had three kids graduate. Two of them been indoors. So, I know my percentage is terrible. So, I just want to clarify there's more. You had mentioned two tickets per parents downstairs or down the bottom bleachers, but there's more. They will receive more than two tickets. I just want to make sure that's clear. Yeah, we we can still issue the same six tickets that we've always issued. Okay. Um always when it's been outdoors, uh you know, anybody can show up. It's just that outdoors on the bleachers, if it's on the turf, we can accommodate six tickets per family on the bleachers. other family friends can show up and stand all around. The similar situation will happen here where, you know, we'll have, you know, the parents being

047able to sit on the bleachers. Um, we'll have other bleachers up top, but I think anybody could come in. We'll try and use some of that um fencing that the baseball uses for the uh for the like the home run fence for a baseball. We'll try and use that to kind of like section off the field where the students are going to be. Um, but that will allow more people to show up and be a part of the the ceremony and it'll be handicap accessible somewhere. Yeah. I mean, all of that is handicap accessible as it is right now. even if you know somebody need to come into the high school, take the elevator down to the first floor and head out, you know, on the black top to the bleachers or if they were

048to show up, um we could always still bring them down and around by the turf field um and down that uh uh black top walkway to that area as well. So, we have two different ways to get anybody that's handicapped to the bottom of the hill. U and it's obvious it's easy to get people to the top of the hill. Yeah. Mr. Melo, um, do the students know about this plan? So, like when I met with the students, they were the ones that really were like, you know, what about this? What about this? You know, what about Lakeland High School? What about, you know, uh, what about the town park? What about the baseball field? And, you know, it really was from them that we started to focus more on the baseball field. So, uh,

049do all the students know about it? No. Um, but it was definitely something that was talked about with a whole group of students. uh they tend to be very active on social media. I don't know if you know that. Um but uh texting, group chat, social media, they tend to be, you know, pretty active there. Uh I didn't know I didn't want to sit there and say like this is what we're doing. When I don't make the final decision, the board of ed makes the final decision. Um but as soon as that decision's made, um we'll run with it. I think they'd be very excited about it. The bottom line is that it satisfies uh you know the needs that I've read on on uh you know uh social media and that is it's here.

050It's on the same date. It's outside and the seating and the procession will be all intact and the parents are on risers. That was a big concern. They want to be able to look down and see their their children. So this satisfies everything. We're simply moving from the turf to the next field over here. Same date, same location. So, I I think it's outstanding. And I have to say what I love about this plan is that uh from my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong, the idea of the baseball field came from the kids. Yeah. This is their day. Yeah. And I'm so excited that that you know, it came from them. They they had voice in the decision um and in the ideas um and I to your point, I do think that the

051other population we need to care about are those families that have been looking forward to this day since the moment their child was born. And it does check most of the boxes. So, I think this is a really great solution. Thank you so much for taking the time to figure this out. I think this is a great great solution. Really, I know Aiden Cassidy is not here tonight, but I mean Aiden was like he was just awesome. Yeah. Talking about, you know, to to us to the other students, uh, you know, really like a motivating factor behind moving to, you know, the the baseball field and and utilizing that space as as a graduation space. Um but yeah, I got to say it was it was you know it was like what do students what

052do you want to do you know I'll go anywhere where wherever you want to go and have the graduation I I'll go do it you know and um you know they were the ones that kind of brainstorming and you know settled on like the baseball field they talked about the town park uh but logistically it's a little bit more difficult at the town park this um you know definitely not as difficult right because when we talk about sound I know Mr. Mahoney could talk about like setting up cameras and everything uh for a live stream. If it's here, it's so much easier than if he had to, you know, Yeah. take everything. Really long wire. They also went to school here, so it's nice that we can do it on the campus. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.

053Attended. Yep. It's great. Thank you. Well, I'd like I'd like the seniors to know there was a parent that spoke and I think it really touched Aiden about, you know, one of your legacies that you can leave to Putnham Valley is the grace of recognizing that to have it on the turf field would impact next year's sports and athletes and and sometimes we don't always get exactly what we want, but sometimes That's also a gift. So, I'm glad. Thank you. That I like one thing I've learned over the years of, you know, working in education, kids are really resilient, you know, and they make the the the best out of everything. One of the suggestions that came up was like a senior sunrise, a sun senior sunset uh for the seniors where you know they

054could put their gowns on and when the turf was still there and they and I mentioned that to the the seniors and the groans they out of their mind like none of them really wanted to take part in the it's just so parents can take pictures you know. So I thought found that was like really interesting. we'll do it, you know, we'll do whatever you we can do a senior sunset if you know that's what the students want to do. But, um, I I love listening to the students. I think they're they're really intelligent people. They're motivated and they're willing to work and look at, you know, for solutions that will work for everybody. So, I I commend them. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Great solution. I think

055one of the themes that came up when Mr. Mr. Malamemed with his students was that um they were not interested in in displacing their junior fellow students off the you know what I mean? They they understood if we pushed the project back the impact it would have on the juniors and that was something they were not interested in, right? they they didn't want that to be their legacy of causing others to lose an opportunity to play home games for fall sports and things like that. So, the students really get it and they're quick to realize they don't want their graduation ceremony to then have a negative impact on someone else. They were also very quick. They were not interested in moving it into May, which was the other object there. They run the risk of

056conflicting with athletics. um the notion of having a classmate unable or forced to choose between a sectional baseball game and graduation. Um the fact that Mr. Melo explained to them that they were still expected to come to school for the next few weeks, that they didn't want to graduate and then have to come back to class. They had no interest. There's a lot of truth to that at all. So um they ultimately made the decision that it was best to stick with the date and that's what started the conversations around alternative locations and other place uh we can hold it on campus and that's when the really the baseball field conversation started to take off. So Mr. Melo and I have really been running with that and that's at this point what I plan to

057recommend to the board. It doesn't require a date change. We have heard from families who have family members flying in or traveling in. So the thought of changing the date for them was catastrophic. Um so it obviously this is the date that's been out there. It's the date that's been planned for. We know that the fallback plan of the pack is available. As Mr. said we could certainly make that better uh if we are forced indoors but outdoor on campus was the resounding um ask and this is the way we think we can best accomplish that both of those things hosting it on school grounds and providing an outdoor location. Yeah, just something to think about uh to that end of family members flying in. The the you know the worst news could be oh

058I have all of this family flying in. I had tickets for them but now we're moving it into the pack because of rain and these people who flew in now cannot come or I have to give them my ticket as a parent. So um just I know that we had some sort of overflow room in the past. Um, and so just, you know, the one ask would be to make it as amazing as possible with that scenario for those people who might be flying in as well. You know, nobody's turned away from graduation. Um, those six tickets uh all six people can't fit in the pack, but we always provide overflow in the cafeteria. It's live streamed right in there as well as live streamed out to YouTube. So, uh, no family members are turned

059away. And then anybody who's in the building with the new processional, uh, idea of going to the wellness center, then that creates a space where, again, all six ticket holders could um, meet with the graduate following the ceremony and that large space. So, I think that we we have that covered on both for the ceremony as well as uh, following the ceremony. And that's something that to Matt's point never really existed before. one inch per hour might be a little generous for moving that hallway. Uh but we've already come up and again this was uh to give them credit. This was really a conversation with a group of parents who came in. We spent a lot of time talking about what happens afterwards if it's in the pack and that's where that idea came from.

060Great. So we think regardless probably all future indoor graduations will now feature that processional out to the wellness center. Um so it'll benefit whatever classes that next to graduate indoors. That's great. Yeah, that's good. You know, provides the community an opportunity to see the wellness center because majority of them Absolutely. So, for sure. Um, so and there's no date change, so there's really no vote on behalf of the board that has to take place. So, assuming that there's no opposition, we can give Mr. Melo the go-ahhead to absolutely share with this group of seniors. And again, if they have feedback or other ways in which they think we can improve this setting, we will certainly uh be receptive to hearing that. I know one of the things that we spoke about today is making sure

061that the processional passes the parent bleachers. So, while they'll come down the stairs and down the sidewalk, they'll uh maybe come down to the middle of the parent bleachers and then straight down into the student seating area. So they're not cutting the corner and not walking past the bleachers, but instead processing right in front of the bleachers and then down to the dividing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll continue to refine the details. It's important you had mentioned Matt or or you Dr. L the pathway. It will be provided, you know, so kids don't sink and Yeah. So we'll extend this plastic flooring straight up to where the parent bleachers are. Great. Um, and that'll provide a a walk safe walkway for all students to get to the student seating area. I I still don't recommend

062high heels. I don't I would recommend it on the turf, but that doesn't mean people won't go that route, Yeah. the plastic flooring itself has little divots in it, so high heels are still not encouraged. Sounds good. Wedges are great. Wedges are encouraged. Whatever wedges. Excellent. Sneakers are better. All right. Any other questions, comments about graduation recommendations? Thank you for Yeah, really trying for innovating. Retrying and relooking and keeping an open mind because I think that that's we promised from the beginning to be open and receptive to feedback from parents, from students, from community members. And this is after receiving all of that feedback, this is the best option that we were able to come up with. And we think that parents will be happy with it. We think we think our students will be

063happy with it. And I think it'll be a memorable day for everyone. Yeah. Once this occurs, archive the whole idea so that in the future when we replace it 10, 15 years in the future, maybe this will be the new standard. Maybe it'll be so good that this is where they want graduation. Could very well. I have to tell you, the thought actually crossed my mind because when I saw that view from uh Miss Becca's office, I was quite impressed actually. So you want the luxury seat. I I might pay for that actually to pay it forward for you know I can tell you one thing it'll be you have a great view up here it's beautiful I can promise one thing this student seating area will probably be 20 to 30° cooler than it

064would be out on the truth to that yes and I and I just want to say that I think that this is a beautiful uh example of how you know a challenge can really benefit fit us in the future and and we can come up with innovative ideas that now is going to embed all of our graduations going forward. So, um very exciting. Uh just one other quick comment. I do want to note that these pictures are obviously what's available on Google Earth. Uh so you can see our lovely football field lines uh in this picture as well as the outline of the baseball fence. Uh as I know it's a spill has shared before his buildings and ground staff spent nearly a month preparing for graduation. So now a majority of their efforts will

065be placed on this location on this field. There'll obviously be no striping. This is probably the best time of year for this field in terms of late spring. Grass will all be grown in. Um there'll be no lines. There'll be no uh brown spots. There'll be no dead spots. So I know that our buildings and ground staff will take exceptional care of um this area of the campus leading up to graduation to make it as pristine as possible for the actual ceremony. So, I don't want anyone to look at the picture and think that there's going to be they're going to graduate on the 20 yard line. I guess that would happen on the turf anyway, but uh or that big bald spot will be there. Not that there's anything wrong with bald spots, but

066they will see the solar panels. They will not see the solar panels from this angle. See, look. No solar panels. Looking away. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, while I'm here, well, I'm lost. Take care, Matt. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, I do want to Oops. So, also on our agenda, I broke it. Go back to what? This is so strange. Like I never used a computer before. I got it, Dan. I got it. He is ready. I saw you ready to pounce. You sure? Oh, do you? [Laughter] use Google Slides. Agreed. I second that. That was broken. Does not beautiful blue. There it is. That just took a minute. All right. Uh so I'll invite up Dr. Chen to talk a little bit about uh the upcoming budget. Um

067I have said not to do our entire presentation because that would be the third time in which we're seeing this presentation. Uh but just to really it's just that mode's not going to work. Um just to talk through answer any questions. I know our line by line budget is now available online. So, uh, if there's any questions about that, obviously we have well over a month before the budget vote. So, uh, Dr. Chen be willing to answer any questions that any community members or board members have regarding that line by line budget, but um, this is sort of just a quick opportunity to answer any questions. We won't go through every slide, but if you have anything that you want to highlight, uh, Grace would be willing to do that. So, I'll turn it over

068to her and we'll get started. Thank you. It's hard to do any presentation after the fourth grade. Um, this slide and the video of me speaking about it in the last two times is online. So, I'm really not going to go over this. Um, what I'd like to do is tell you a little bit about the process of how I created the budget. Uh, so that you're familiar with what goes into this. I'm going to do this very high level and then towards the end I'm going to talk a little bit more about the specifics of what I had to do here in Putham Valley for this budget. Um, basically in my entire career I presented in a way that I started from the Excel and when I what I did is it's one big

069worksheet but there's a lot of tabs on the bottom. Basically, you start with going to the payroll department and asking her to move everyone to the next step and any column and things that they are uh due contractually. Then I take all those salaries and then I have to look at non-contractual uh salaries and I have to add all that in. I do have a tab called all units which the superintendent and I can go in at any time filter and see exactly who is paid by name in every particular code. Then that's all consolidated and then I have to bring it into what I call the input sheet. Uh before I get to the input sheet, we have individual meetings with all the department heads which they will give to us their um intended

070wish list for the budget. And even though it's just one number on a line, um I produce a binder for the superintendent and for myself and the treasurer to follow year by year. What we do is we ask them to let me have all the backup that comes to that one number so that if the board or any one in the public wants to understand what's in that code, I turn the page and it's right there like there's the total with all the backup. Additionally, I use that for next year when they uh department may ask me for money and I might go back to that and say, "I thought I gave you this." And then if they tell me it's not enough, then it helps me budget for the following year. And then I

071produce what you call the presentation, which is what you see um the line by line. Now, I actually had to type in everything. This is my first year doing it here for Putinham Valley. So then in the earlier tabs I start with the tax cap because all those numbers will filter into um me balancing the budget between the revenue and the expenses. So when I'm finished with the whole budget the bottom line is one number and it goes on the top of a revenue sheet and on that revenue sheet I have to make sure that I have enough revenues from different pockets in order to balance the budget. So most of my spreadsheets uh fall into each other. So if I make one change somewhere it will accumulate and fix everything to the end. I

072do check everything though. Uh I just wanted to tell you when I came to Putin Valley um the budget obviously is done very differently than the way I'm presenting it was also excellent. It's just a different way of presenting it. I like the way I'm doing it because in my entire career I did it this way. So it's easier for me when the superintendent asked me where did this number come from? I know exactly how I put it into the budget. So I had to separate first the non-contractual salaries, the contractual salaries and I had to separate the anything that's non salary related. When I looked at everything, I decided to consolidate. I asked for permission first and I was allowed to consolidate some codes. Here are some of the reasons that I was consolidating

073and changing codes. So, first I just want to explain to you that the state provides a standardized expenditure code for reporting everything on the ST3 and the ST3 is how we end up getting our state aid money. So, generally the first four digits are what we call the function code. The next three digits are what we call the object codes. The next two digits are the location and the last four is district determined. For our district, anything that ends in a 9900 on that line by line means it's a contractual salary that we're paying. So, we might pay other salaries to people that they're doing extra work, stipens, that's not contractual. And I had to look at the list of that pile and try to consolidate them again so that it that we have less

074lines in the budget. Um, one of the re some of the reasons I reclassified is that salaries uh for the staff are paid on their object code and that will determine if they are ERS or TRS retirement system and some of them were incorrect the way I saw them. So I put everybody where they belong instead of making any adjustments later. So from the onset they are now in their correct retirement system. um teachers classified according to the way ST3 is asking me to report it to them. So by grade level they want to know teachers from K to three, four by itself, grade 5 to six, 7 and 8 and then 9 to 12. So I reclassified it so that all the expenses on the line by line are presented that way so that

075we could easily filter all those numbers into the ST3. Uh another area that I changed is the special education. The function codes are specifically reclassified because these amounts are used in a formula to calculate the maintenance of effort and that helps determine the state aid. So now we have a line where the director of the PPS the people personnel services and the supervisor of special ed are coded to a special ed line because the special ed gets additional state aid. Transportation code is another area where I reclassify mainly because I want sort of group all transportation in the in one area. So when we go to ST3 we don't lose track of any of them. Previously there was a athletics transportation line that was coded to athletics. So I recoded to bring it down to

076transportation so we get enough aid from the transportation. I also streamlined by abolishing and consolidating similar expenses for the purpose that they used the money for and this was help this will help reduce the amount of budget transfer that we would need in the future. Um I isolated expense driven codes like textbook code, library code, software code and computer code. we get a certain amount of money per student and as long as we spend that we will get that co that amount of state aid. So previously it was hidden among other expenses. Now I've isolated so that the business office can monitor these expenses and make sure it's completely spent out by the end of the year. Uh streamlining codes makes it obvious also when you're missing something. For example, if there's something that the

077high school has an expense and the middle school and suddenly I'll see, oh no, there's nothing for elementary school. And you'll see it on the line by line. It looks very methodical that way. I pre report the high school, then the middle school, and then the elementary school. And um this is the first year that I did this reclassification. Uh it it was very hard because I had to do a whole mapping series to make sure that I don't lose any of the codes. And at the end of the day, all the codes have to still equal the bottom line budget. But I'll be happy to provide anybody information if they pick anything that they want to see that because I have to go back to my mapping code and see how many lines went

078into that in order to reclassify it. For that reason, this year you will see some var higher variances in some code lines and you may see zero from last year and then this year you see a number. It's really because I reclassified it from where it was reported in the last year. And the only other thing I need to um tell you about which is that this state did not come out with their uh budget for us yet. So they're late and because of that we're still living with the January numbers that I got. Um we're not sure. Uh they're supposed to go back into session on Tuesday. But whenever we get our final numbers, the legislative budget, we will look at the budget as a whole. Again, we will have to make whatever adjustments

079that we need between the revenue lines in order to make sure that our budget still uh revenue still equals the expenses. Quick question, Dr. Chan. Yes. if the the state is very late, which they they're known to do, you know, the past years, getting the budget settled sometimes beginning of June. Um we we vote on the budget, it passes. Uh but the state doesn't give us what we thought they would. They give us less. How do we make up that difference? Do we do a ban or or how would it work? No. So, we do have um reserves that I could use the unallocated reserves which I use some of it now in order to balance the budget. But if we find that we need more money because the state didn't give us enough, then

080that's the first place I would go to. Okay. So, the reserves would be there as a backup for that. That's important to know. Thank you. That's essentially why those reserves are there. The unexpected were to happen, you need to have somewhere to reach in and grab the money to balance your budget. So that's one of the reasons why those unrestricted reserves uh why we're allowed to maintain those. Back in the early 90s, I lived through uh I was over at the middle school at the time and Cuomo, Governor, the original Governor Cuomo, not not the past the one who passed away. Was it Mario? Mario Cuomo decided to give us give the district half of the money allocated and never gave us the second half. Well, his son tried the same move five years ago

081where they threatened to withhold the second half of our state aid payments halfway through the year after the district had already allocated those funds to be spent. We we actually I mean a lot of people went to part-time for that year because we, you know, the reserves were negligible. That was way back in the 90s. As Dr. Love said, the line by line is already posted. I'm not going to go through the 11 pages of it, but I did highlight a little bit just to see if I could let you know some things that the reasons why the percentages went up so high. Um, one in particular, I had an inservice teaching summer work and these descriptions have been changed to match what the state gives us. You're not you don't have to use those

082descriptions, but I like using them because I know exactly what that code represents because I have been using the state descriptions most of my career. Um I had re reclassified that's um that's non-contractual codes. I reclassified it and it turns out that it's sticking out now that last year there was nothing but there really was something. It was just hidden in other lines. And then now this year there's 89,000 and but but there's a reason for that. And if anyone wants to know specifically where it was, I'll go back to my mapping and find it. I'm not creating anything that wasn't already there. Just reclassifying what line is being presented. Okay. Um there is that we we did have some new hires that we put into the budget. So you might see some budget-to-budget increase

083on those lines. Um, again I'm talking about the special education director of PPS and the supervisor of the special education. It was never used um that code for the 2250 which is special education and I put their salaries in there. Um Grace, can I ask a question? Yes. Um why is it that on page five um the grade bands for the teaching regular school under the instructional portion of the budget? Why is it that the grade bands are delineated K to three and then four and then 5 6 7 8 9 12? Is there a specific reason why those grade bands are are designated in those groupings? Well, the ST3 asks us to report the teachers salaries by those categories by those grade bands. Yes. Very interesting. And so I'm trying to keep it streamlined

084because when we put all those numbers in, we actually take them expense from the budget and now it'll go directly to those lines. It makes it much easier for the treasurer to fill out the ST3 and get it in on time. Thank you. And Dr. understand when you have a position for example the health teacher in the high school that also teaches may also teach at the middle school how do you divide that up? So if there is actually a division then I would divide it up by the location of that teacher. So I might see somebody when I go to my all units tab being paid in two separate codes because part of their salary is for the middle school and part is is for the high school. Right. Mhm. And and that's delineated

085by the the amount of time that they're in each building. Um well, I usually just ask the uh payroll person because she's the one who's paying them. Okay. It's broken up by FT. So the number of classes they they teach in each building. So 66 point4. Yeah. Exactly. Okay. And sometimes you might have floaters and then I would just put it in a district-wide code. Um, I know that the special education went up. Um, this be there's a line in there that I it really was a number that was given to me by Melissa and her secretary because they know more of what's happening next year in special education. So, when we had the meeting with with them and they gave me their numbers, they have backups to why these numbers are higher than they

086were last year. Um, so again on page seven on the top we have a new ENL position so that you'll see an increase uh on the budget to budget. Next year I think we're going to be buying two buses. So, I had to put money in equipment code because uh this year when Dave came to me and asked for a bus uh I I immediately looked at the 2425 budget and there was no 200 code which is the only code you can use to buy equipment. So, I have to put that in next year. So, there was nothing in equipment code line and there's something in his line this year because he plans to buy two buses. I think they're 83,000 each. Yeah. Not electric. No, not that. No, it's not electric. I don't think

087we have the infrastructure yet. We're never going to go electric. You might see a little bit of increase in the athletics. I know that we're adding flag football, so that that changes some of those numbers. Um $100,000. Yeah, I saw the athletics. Okay. Um the other thing is on the last page and then I'm finished and then Dr. Love can tell say something on the last page when I went into the debt service like uh for instance the bond anticipation note for the principal part and the interest part have um have gone away. So you won't see a number there. The other thing is that you'll notice that when we're paying bonds off over the years, we pay more interest in the beginning and less principal and then it starts to reverse reverse. So now

088you'll see, and you might ask me, why is there so much principle on the bond? Because it's a whole schedule that the fiscal advisor produces for us to pay off the bonds. So you'll see that flip coming up. Thank and and I'm finished. Thank you. All right. Thanks, Grace. Thank you, Grace. Yeah. Thank you. I just Hold on. Hold on. I have a question. Okay. Uh Joe had asked about the federal funding. So I just want to uh if you could go over that which the fund the federal funding we may receive. What is impact if any is going to occur? The federal funding you mean for the prek? No, for um title title funds. Yeah. Well, we we're not sure what's going to happen yet, but um I I believe you had asked us

089how much money that was, and we had to just list what that possibility is. Um I think it's about 100,000ish. Yeah. But when when I do the budget, especially a year like this year, not knowing what's going to happen to those federal funding, I put all the salaries of those people in the budget so that we can make sure that we can continue and pay those uh people to let those programs go on. Okay. Thank you. And um in the presentation, can you just point again to prek just so we could see? Oh, yes. While Grace pulls that up, that's another reason why we need to have a padding and a cushion of reserves because if um title funds don't come in now that those positions are being placed into the general fund to ensure

090that they are there so that we can make sure our students have the services they need. Salaries are the biggest part of our budget, right? And so that's it's really important to have that that cushion there just in case things like this with the federal government, what's happening right now happen. So kudos to the district for having that available. So the uh one, two, three, fourth column that shows that it's a less of the full day prek. The the money there is 410,400 according to the executive budget. Okay. Thank you. So I do want to commend Dr. Jen on I looked back to last year um and the line by line budget was just about 20 pages. I know there was a tremendous amount of work that went into uh this year's line by line

091budget and really the intentions are as follows. One, we want to make it easy to use. Um so it's very quick and easy to understand and and navigate through this process. That being said, if I were to go back to last year's budget and pull up one single budget line, she could tell me where it was consolidated to and where that number now lives, no matter how big or small that number was. Uh, so I know she has a crosswalk for everything from last year's budget, the old model to the new one. Now, obviously, you see deviations in budget codes that because of all these changes that were made. Um but after next year then it'll be seamless because you'll continue to see uh everything corded in the same way. So certainly uh streamline and

092ease of use. The next is transparency and accuracy. All right. We want to make sure that money is budgeted and allocated in the line in which is expended and that's uh so for transparency purposes so the community understands exactly what money is going where. uh the less budget transfers we do, the more transparent we are. Um so we're not taking money from one code and moving it to another. Uh everybody understands and knows where things are budgeted and where they should be spent. And the last piece is maximizing our state aid. We get differing levels of state aid for um things like transportation and special education costs. So to ensure that uh everything is budgeted accordingly, maximizes the amount of aid the district receives back from New York State. And I think that Grace was

093able to accomplish all of those things this first year and that this model will serve us well as we continue to move forward future years. Thank you, Dr. Thank you, Grace. Really great job. I love it. I mean, it's so easy to understand. It is so easy to understand. I love it. some of the things which I think you can expect to get some questions about like the verbiage that I asked you. Um some things aren't completely easy to understand but I would say for the most part this is like it's it's just it's fantastic. I love it. Yeah loves it. I wanted to just ask a question uh so that the community knows the process for budgeting. Budgeting starts usually December January. Looking at those numbers, I um I'd like some clarity on the

094process that we used to be able to look at last year's budget, what was allocated and what was actually spent and how that informs the decisions for the coming year's budget. Um there are significant changes here. You already mentioned because we moved money into code so that it could be clearer and more transparent for our community, which I think is fantastic. Um, but also looking at codes that perhaps had too much money allocated and then were moved into a different code perhaps because there was not enough money allocated. Like what does that process look like? Just so that the community knows during the meetings that we have with the individual departments, they first come to me with their wish list and then before I cut or add to it, I would look at the audited

095statements from when we just finished the budget from 2324. And then I would make sure sometimes I I do I wasn't here so I don't know what happened. And I would go to them and ask them what happened, why did you spend this? And then with their explanation, I write notes on the side and it's like, okay, well, next year you don't want to budget so much in this code cuz you said you moved it so that you can do something else. I definitely look at three years at the same time when I'm budgeting. Okay? Because you have to know that just cuz something didn't happen in the past doesn't mean it's not going to happen in the future. And I work with the clerical staff very closely and they they're excellent. They for example

096the IB went back three years to say okay where are all your IB expenses and what do I expect it to be next year and even uh Jackie and Dr. Luff and I decided that for the future when we have things that affect the whole district we're going to list all of the costs and then we would divide it to three columns like who's paying for it. Is this the district? Is this the high school? Is this the middle school? And then we would have all those backups and then I would put it on the budget line. And again, when you ask me as a as a board member or the taxpayer, how did I get this budget line? All I have to do is turn the page from my binder and I know where

097it is. It's just an easier way to follow. I mean, I love electronics, but sometimes you need some hard copies. Agreed. Agreed. And the just the last time that we were here, um, you had mentioned a significant list of savings that the district had engaged in. um really creative and innovative ways to be frugal with our with our spending. Um is there a way that we can get that list out to our community? Is that something we're working on? Yeah. Uh Dave Grace and myself had started working on the list. Um really looking to finalize the numbers that we're using. So many of them are estimates. Uh it's hard to know exactly what something would have cost had we done something. So, we're trying to find out a way to uh we started looking at

098creating an infographic and then uh we need to be able to sort of defend and justify each of those numbers. So, that's the work that's ongoing. Certainly, we can make a bulleted list of all of those initiatives. Uh we can attach that to the presentation and post it online uh as a first step and then we'll look at more creative ways to share that information in the future. Great. Thank you. If people have questions about the line by line, they should contact Grace. Yes, definitely give your information contact to the district clerk and your question and I will look it up and and respond to you. Perfect. We should warn you that in our subcommittee meetings before this uh we coined just ask grace. So if you see any social media comments that say #

099ask grace ask. So you may have more questions coming your way. Actually, I think that if anyone asks questions, we'll put it online for everyone to see so people don't have to ask the same question again. We can create an FAQ document based on the questions that they asked Grace. And I think that that sounds like a little bit of an email. Just ask grace at putnhamschools.org. But the line item uh budget is extremely important. I I love that, you know, we we put the approved budget from the previous year so that people could compare uh you know, the increases right down the line and and that's very important for transparency. Uh appreciate it's online right now and and that's that's a great thing. Thank you. Yes. And if anyone goes to our PVC pvcsd.org

100or over on the right side is the 2526 budget election information and within that link is all this information that we've presented and presentations and the line by line. So that's where all the detail is and in the same location every previous year's budget with the same level of detail including the line by line budget right is included for as many years as you want to go back. Yeah, I think they call that transparency. See, it goes back to 2010. So, okay. Any other questions for Grace? Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you, Dr. Chen. Um, okay. Dave, we're going to move to new business. Resolved by the Putnham Valley Board of Education to adopt a tenative budget for the 202526 school year in the amount of 63,331,741. Second. Questions or comments?

101All in favor? I opposed abstensions. The resolution passes. Number two, please. I love that I get to do this. Resolve to accept the universal pre kindergarten UPK program bid RFP number 20252504 for 202526 from the YMCA of Central and Northern Westchester as per document number 172-25 attached to the agenda and official minutes of this meeting. Second questions or comments? So, just to point out, this is uh very recently hot off the press. So, we have our kickoff meeting we're scheduling and lots of information will be coming available uh in the next few weeks. So, to make sure everyone's aware of this opportunity that now exists, so stay tuned. Yeah. And I was when I was reading over the um the YMCA contract contract um I was I was impressed that they they said that their

102especially that their early literacy was guided by the curriculum that was provided by the district. So it will be a seamless transition for those students. And I think that's I think that's really important. It's not like a separate standalone. This is over here and then the rest of the elementary school. I like that connection. I was wondering whether I know they're getting art and music but not with our teachers. Correct. They'll get it in their classroom. Correct. So it's a standalone program. The all of the programming will take place within that classroom. Okay. And ironically, the program they utilize for ELA is Scholastic. So that'll be a very smooth transition for our students from preK into K. Nice. They also incorporate foundations and heard into the program as well. Oh, perfect. Great. Love it. That's

103excellent. Amazing. I was wondering whether Margaret was going to have to drag these people along. That's good. Yeah. Just a plug to make sure we um communicate with local daycare centers about this so that they can share this with the families that they serve if they're Putin Valley students. Yeah. Uh all in favor? I I Are you in favor? Yeah. I I opposed. Sorry. I abstensioned. Resolution passes. Okay. I'd like to open it up for public comment on any topic. Sorry, I should have said this before on the prek. Um I I I want um the board when in in reaching out to local daycarees uh or what they consider prek that we are sensitive to the fact that now we are possibly taking clients away from them. That is true. Um so and some

104of them are people who live here in town and it's their own business here in town. um that you know we need to be aware that you know it could be create a hardship for some of our our our local uh preks and uh so I just want you know while it's great to celebrate it at the same time you know I I remember it's that delicate balance of um what's good and I know it's going to be a lottery so hopefully um you know the way the lottery will work will be as fair as it possibly can But at the same time, we got to be cognizant of those issues. Mhm. That that's a good point, Joe. Dr. Luck, what what is the maximum enrollment that we we can handle? One in each class

105as a contract. Yeah. So, the first of all, I want to recognize Joe's comments, and that's something that we've had conversations with our local businesses about, and it's never been our intention to take a business from them. Uh, it's always been our intentions to partner with them. Um, and unfortunately, the finances simply don't make sense, and I understand why it doesn't make sense for them. Uh, it's I wish there was no lottery. I wish I can um advertise this to the kids that are not currently in prek services because that's who really needs it. Um so I would love to reach into the homes of four-year-olds who are not going to prek and not take any business away from our local partners because those are the kids who most need the service. Um, so I'm

106hopeful that at least many of those families who maybe can't afford traditional prek take advantage of this free opportunity um, and enter the lottery and then hopefully get selected so that we're not uh, depriving our community- based organizations from the students that they're already serving. So I'm very cognizant of that. I know they are. We've had these conversations, but the money is made available. We also have parents that say this money is made available for you. What are you doing with it? So, um I think we're trying to find as close of a balance as we can. Uh so to answer the question right now, the true answer is if you take $410,000 divided by $5,400 a student, which I didn't do in front of me, but I think it's 70 kids, 64 kids, something

107like that would be the maximum number of students. We have no intention or capacity to serve that number right now. The maximum number of students we would consider uh and this would be following our conversation with the Y would be two classrooms of students. We very well may start with one uh so one classroom 18 to 20 kids uh would likely be where we start depending upon the number of applications we receive as well as the wise ability to uh service and to get another classroom up and running. Uh the maximum number of classrooms we would consider uh in the very near future would be two classrooms. So approximately if both classrooms were filled would be a maximum of 40 40. That would be it. Okay. Thank you. You had mentioned before about um they

108can't do afterare. So, I think something that would be really amazing is to try and partner with our community um and see how we can help support them to create um a relationship to get these like after school students if people need before and after and before know before and afterare um which I know you mentioned before but I think that's a great way to involve and not take away business. Right. So, this program again would run in the middle of the day. It's not great hours for working parents. So many of those working parents would still rely on our community- based organizations for pre and postare and um so the hopefully those local businesses would continue to be able to provide that and they would be able to charge parents for that service as

109well outside of the prek day. But this would allow some parents to go back to work. you know some parents who couldn't afford all day prek a lot of you know it's a big expenditure if they have this lottery and then they have to pay for the before and afterare I mean more more parents can join the workforce you don't have so many right I think the hope is that the pool of students attending a daycare or early prek center and our prek program from the district would get larger as opposed to displacing current students into another program, right? Like the goal is to reach more students and not take away business from local daycarees. The goal is to get more kids access to the programming available within our community, which includes our daycare centers.

110So, um I just want to make that that clear from my part, from my comment before. I don't ever want one of our daycare providers to think that, you know, we are, you know, excited to uh take students from their programming. No, the idea here is to be able to reach, uh to Dr. to L's point, maybe families that um were not able to financially have the means to be able to uh provide daycare for their children and go back to work. Um and now maybe this will help with that. So, and we're looking into how we can service um families where English might not be their primary language, as well as looking into possible partnerships with the county to provide special education services within these UPK uh facilities. So, I know we have some

111uh questions out there to determine whether or not that would be feasible and it would help us provide some early intervention services for our CPS-C students as well as some of our um classified students coming into that is a really important part. Um, I I know that we are all so passion pass passionate about making sure that our CPS-CE kids get what they need and it is really hard to do that when they are not in our system and when they are in our system it is so much easier to be able to get them what they need. Um, there's just not enough providers out there um right now. So that is a really promising aspect of this particular agreement and I think that that um we should talk about it more often so that

112parents know that that's one of one of the uh perks for this. Okay. Any other comments? Have you had um your um building level meeting? Yes. So um I I was going to mention this but Dr. Loft did. I'm not going to harp on it too long, but I I do want to say that the steering committee meeting at the middle school recently with the IB um I'm sorry, what their what are their names? IB adviserss or uh uh professionals that came in. Um was enlightening. Uh there were uh quite a few of us there actually. I was really pleased with the parent turnout and the things that the parents had to say about their child's middle school experience as children have been going through a school that is, you know, lobbying to become an

113IB school um was just tremendous. Um, everyone on that committee was excited to talk about the work happening at our middle school. And let's face it, middle school is not easy anywhere for anybody. and those of you who teach middle school and lead middle school, more power to you. Thank you so much for all you do. Um it really it was an enlightening experience to hear um the experiences of others and that their children are really thriving at the middle school. Um and the IB uh the people from the IB program were very pleased to know that in previous years um people like myself who were on the steering committee had a hand in creating some of the guiding documents that are used for the program um such as their uh academic honesty policy um

114integrity policy, excuse me. Um and so that was a really uh wonderful experience. Yeah. Yep. And we also have the community reads day coming up at the at the elementary school on May 19th. Super exciting. We had a great turnout last year. We're hoping that we have a great turnout this year. It's always so much fun. It is. Um I want to give a kudos to the middle school play. Um I don't know anybody gave that yet. It was amazing. It was I mean some of these kids memorized like 400 lines. Um and it was just really incredible. um the caliber that they were able to act at all everything that they were able to um memorize all of the stage changes. Um it was really incredible that it was I mean it was very

115long. It was like three and a half hours and these kids knew they knew their lines. These kids knew when when to move their props, when to the lights were going off and where to move them. And it it was just like really impressive that they could do it for so long. you know, like some of these kids are 11. Yeah. Yeah. Really amazing. Or 10. It was really great. I agree. Amazing. And the um I I loved that the high school students were also there to support the middle school students. It was so lovely to see that um that they're coming back and, you know, kind of paying it forward. That was really really nice to see as well. There were a lot of kids that worked behind the scenes in that show. There

116had to be at least like 40 kids on that stage when they brought out all the kids who do the spotlight and who do the sound and who do the, you know, all the lighting and and the prop changes and the costume changes and all of the things that go along with making that show come to life. It was just fantastic. And I love that we highlight them, too, because they're not the ones on stage. So, great. There were like 30 scene changes. I mean, those kids behind the scenes were working really hard. They did a great job. Yeah. Janette, Barbara, and my myself were able to go to the dress rehearsal of the recorder concert, which fantastic. I the enthusiasm and the joy on these young people's face is is just so moving. Every

117time I go, it it's it's like, you know, your heart gets bigger and and then you absorb it. I I thought it was really cool. You know, they're learning. They're learning and and you have to understand that. But the enthusiasm, it just carries you. And but I also love Mr. Derland's, you know, he uses, okay, these teachers, students, you're going stage left, you're going st like he's using the terminology of concert performance of concert performance and talking to the second graders who were the audience about concert performance. Um, and you know, the second graders clapped appropriately. they if they were clapping along with the music, it was actually in tune with the music. Um, and they were excited and then always singing the school song just was just they were so funny. Any It was

118great. I love that he did a little bit of everything. You know, he did some of the popular tunes and and he had them do the traditional and I also thought it was wonderful. I don't I'm I don't remember how they did it in the past to be honest, but that he highlighted each class first. Yes. And then brought them all together. Um and just come on, Eye of the Recorder. Like that's got to be an epic thing going forward. Like we got to do that every year. It was so great. And the colors. I heard a lot of good feedback about kids wearing color. Yeah. Eye of the tiger. I love that song. Eye of the Recorder. Eye of the Recorder. Eye of the Recorder. I know. Yeah. It was it was very fun.

119Very sweet. Um I want to thank again Miss Ross, Miss Bro for your um work on the science major. I I enjoyed it when it was at the elementary school and seeing all the kids and and just being able to talk to each one of them today. It was a treat. So um thank you for that. Enjoy it. Thank you. I love the variety from mummified fish to nuclear to that was my neighbor. It was just amazing to see. One thing I was impressed with when Barbara asked him to say something about their presentation. They didn't hesitate. They got up. They were very professional. Right. They didn't Yeah. think about it. They just said it. So, it was great. You could tell they really enjoyed their project. So, thank you for the guidance behind that.

120Mike Seven. Yeah, they got ran on that mic. Absolutely. More on and off. And they didn't start they didn't necessarily even start with my name is right like they were they were doing it in an adlib kind of you know way. So that was great. Good. Okay. Um upcoming meeting topics and presentations. So we have an exciting next meeting as well. Our April 22nd meeting which is Tuesday uh coincides with the Bosey's budget and trustee vote. uh we'll have our tenure and retiree reception prior to the meeting and then have the opportunity to recognize our retirees and confer tenure upon our newer teachers. So that should be a well attended meeting on April 22nd. Our next meeting after that is May 6th, our final budget hearing and then maybe the most important day of all,

121Tuesday, May 20th, our bond budget trustee and library votes. So I'm going to keep saying that. Hopefully people will hear me. Um, and congratulations on the yellow save the date cards. I thought it was a great idea. It really stuck out in the mailbox. I haven't heard Did anybody not get them? Did every I got two. Does anyone have you got two? My PO box and also my home address. Yeah. Um, so I thought that was a good idea. So hopefully people will vote. the April 22nd reception that's at six. What time is that? Six o'clock. Six o'clock. Okay. I'll send you a message. Okay. Thank you. We don't have anything else scheduled that night. Marine gets to schedule her own. Okay. Okay. Motion to adjurnn. So move. Second. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Good

122night.