001Good evening and welcome to the board business meeting of March 27, 2025. We were in um we convened the business meeting earlier at 6:45. We had a short executive session and we are now reconvening um after the executive session. The treasures report for January 2025 is available in the business office. Oh, I'm sorry. The pledge. Please rise for the pledge to the flag. I pledge allegiance 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. It takes a village. Yes. Um, I'd like to open it up for public comment on any of the listed agenda items. Seeing nobody, we'd like I'd like to move to the consent agenda. Um, Mr. Oliver. Okay. Resolved to approve the cons
002consent agenda items 2 through 10 is presented to the board at this meeting. Second. Questions or comments? The consent agenda tonight includes approval of the prior meeting minutes. CSC CPSC placements, amending the 2425 substitute listing, amending additional hours for one staff member and unpaid hours for another staff member, approving contracts and agreements. Tonight, they're all the health and welfare agreements. Bedford, Austining, Tartown, and White Plains. We're appointing Katherine Schutz as the MYP coordinator for the next school year. We're accepting the following bids. Water system operator, Lumar Plumbing and Heating, Internal Auditor Services, Noraki and Smith, HVAC Tech, Master Plumbers, Stony Point Heating and Cooling. And the board is accepting a donation in the amount of $100 from the PTA to be used as needed for students at the elementary school book fair this week. Um,
003there's no PTA person here, but does anybody know do they also do that at the middle school book fair? But I don't know if there's a donation. Okay. Any other questions or comments? All in favor? I want to thank whoever donated. Huh? I want to thank who donated. That's That's great. It is It's very nice for the PTA to do that. I'm sorry. Go ahead. H Go ahead. I'm sorry I cut you off. All in favor? Opposed? Extensions. The resolutions pass. Reports. Um, we're going to start with the student reports, but I have to say before Aiden starts that his um, he spoke at the National Junior Honor Society induction ceremony on Tuesday and it was excellent. It was amazing. Both student reps um, did a great job, but um, it was nice that I
004knew one of them. So, okay, Aiden. Well, thank you for that. Um, yesterday in the high school there were the Cass and Teia presentations in the library. It was very impressive to see what some of our students have accomplished. It's amazing stuff. Last Monday, spring sports season officially started. Some teams already had scrimmages. Our flag football team had a scrimmage yesterday, which I saw part of. Uh, today the senior class had the opportunity to register to vote during a um they're all called down. and they had the opportunity to pre-register to vote if they weren't 18, but if they were, they registered. And the spring musical is just under a month away. And uh why your co- people are not here. Why they're you part of theater works yourself? No. No, not this spring. I
005had to take some things off my plate. I know you're doing a lot. You have a lot on your plate, but are our two your two compatriots are? Yes, they're It's going to be great. I love theater. I've heard it's going to be a good one. Yeah. How about chorus? You're in chorus? No, I'm in band. Oh, that's sad. I was going to ask you to bug Dr. Miseri now. Look to the rainbow. We want that song performed. All righty. What instrument do you play? Make a request thing. Yeah. Clarinet. There you go. My son's a trombone player. He loves it. Yep. You want to just just explain Cass and T for the public who like we've gotten used to those things, but took me a couple of years to get it. So, so Cass
006stands for Oh, boy. Action service. Creativity, action, service. Action. Yeah. Creativity, action, and service. It's uh part of it's one of the requirements if you decide to do the IB diploma and you have to do a a service to your community and better the community in some sort of project. Um some people have done things from food drives to donation drives to one student worked in the lab to develop a heart failure drug and then TOK is theory of knowledge and that's a class you also take for uh the IB diploma and that is similar to a philosophy class and you have to answer a philosophy question in a presentation as part of your as part of the class and to get that diploma did the because they did it differently this year. They did
007it more at the way science research is done. Yes. Um does that still count for their presentation even though it was to a smaller audience? I would assume yes. Um I know students were allowed to go walk around. I I walked and saw some of them. Um as Dr. Love said, yes, that counts as their presentation. Okay. Thank you. uh busy time. Uh Dr. Left, thank you. Good evening, everyone. So, I did want to begin by uh providing some kudos to the Putnham Valley Science Research Team. Um as everyone knows, Coach Kat is new to the district last couple years. And we were thrilled to hear that Putnham Valley had the highest percentage of students win awards at the recent WEFF competition. Uh so congratulations to all of our students and faculty in the science
008research program for their hard work uh and the research on the future of society. Your dedication to work shows a tenacity and responsibility to citizenship which we all value here. Uh just to uh highlight some of the award winners. So McKinley Sharp won a TTown Young environmentalist award. Lily Johnson won the Yale Science and Engineering Award. Jonathan Duras won the excellence in computer science and mathematics a mathematic mathematics award sorry uh Felicia Rodriguez, Kate Nielsen, Izzy Que and Izzy Walther won fourth place in their categories in medical science, cell and molecular biology, computational biology. Uh Nyall Kelly won third place in environmental science and Christina Morganova won second place in engineering. So, a huge accomplishment. I know that we went through a transition period when we brought in a new teacher, but it's obvious that
009these students are continuing to excel and our program is continuing to be um a model for many in our region. We also have 10 students from Pont Valley High School who have their artwork currently on display in the Garrison Art Museum. And those art displays will be up through the 30th, which is coming up. So, get there and check it out. We talked a little bit about the CAST and TOK presentations. Uh we did change the model in which students deliver the presentations. In the past, students would uh deliver the presentation. Typically during the lunch block, there would sort of be some attendance. It was very sort of challenging to get uh an audience there for the period of time it took when everyone presented. So Mr. Melo and Mr. D Goro along with the
010Cass and T advisers had uh come up with a plan to try to uh not streamline the process but to improve participation and engagement of the community in that uh and they switched to a symposium style uh presentation where every student had a poster and then they were they stood and delivered their presentation or explained their poster to students. A couple classes came up and rotated through. uh it was really I thought a very efficient way to get a ton of information out to a group of people and definitely an increased engagement. My one uh recommendation is I would like to see a way to make that same experience available to parents similar to what we do for science research. And I do believe that's in the cards for next year is finding an opportunity
011to move that into the evening so that parents can also experience that same to celebrate all the work those students have put into their CAST and TOK presentations. I also know that Mr. Melo met with uh interested students from the class of 2025 to talk about the graduation ceremony. So I warned Aiden that I was going to put him on the spot because while I was not able to attend, he was. I believe there was about 20 students in attendance. Um they discussed uh possibilities, town park, baseball field, pros and cons, moving the date, keeping the date. Um, so I heard it was a productive meeting, but I will turn it over to Aiden if there's uh any specifics or what your sort of general feeling was uh entering the meeting and then leaving the
012meeting. Um, I think it was a productive meeting. Uh, no. A lot of the ideas that were out in the community were passed on to the students. They gave their feedback. Some were some of the ideas the students accepted, others the students didn't really want, which I agree with them. some of the there's some some things that the parents were really pushing for that the students really don't want to do. Um as not a lot of new ideas came out of it. A lot of this the same ideas were discussed and just got everybody's opinion on uh no it was we're all everybody who was there is now in some way or another going to talk to their friends and their friends and try to get a scope of what the whole grade wants to
013do and whether it's inside outside here or there. But there was some progress because some ideas the students had no some ideas for graduation the students had no desire really to do like for example I got the feel nobody really wanted to graduate at another school or at another place or of having graduation earlier nobody really wanted to do that either so it took some things off the list and there's still some things that need to be considered great thank you so I know in the conversation I had with Mr. Mr. Mel this afternoon he he sort of left it open-ended. Right. There was 20 or so students in attendance but he wanted others if they were interested or had feedback to continue uh to provide them the opportunity to come forward or if anybody
014comes up with a new idea that they were um we were still receptive and and waiting waiting and willing to hear that. I think from a board perspective we it's less of an issue if we're not going to change the date, right? if we're going to commit to the date and and full disclosure, the district has received communications from families who have family members flying in, traveling in, hotels booked based upon that date. So changing the date would obviously could have an adverse impact on those individuals. Um so if we're committed to the date and want to work out the details, there's really no rush to do anything. The details will continue to be worked out for the for the um entire spring. uh if there's a serious conversation about change in the date, that's
015going to have to happen sooner than later because it impacts families. It impacts travel, it impacts our staff, our rentals, and anything else that we would need to do, our buildings and ground staff to be able to prepare for it. So, um I know Aiden had alluded to the fact there didn't seem to be uh much interest in changing the date in the meeting they had today. Mr. Melo had shared the same. Um, but if that's something the board still wants to consider, we should probably have that conversation. I would say by the next meeting. If we're going to stick with the date and continue to discuss alternatives, then there's really not no board action required for that. Okay. Oh, sorry. I'm still going. Uh, many of us got the chance to attend the middle
016school National Junior Honor Society induction. There was 34 uh new inductees. Uh so it's always a great event uh get together at the middle school and recognize those uh excellent students uh academically as well as service. Our elementary school, I know we spoke a little bit about this, but the parent uh event had taken place after our last board meeting, but many of us got to attend the dress rehearsal for the musical The Jungle Book at Potton Valley Elementary School. It was amazing. Uh I think maybe the best play I've seen them produce. just the sheer number of students that are involved, the lead parts singing, uh they were on stage essentially one scene the entire time. Uh there was no breaks, it just kind of continued to go and I thought it was an
017excellent performance and I do want to recognize all of those involved. Uh before the meeting, the board had the opportunity to meet with Melody Loraca. So she is coming up in a few minutes as a appointment for confidential secretary to the superintendent as well as the district clerk. So well that's right. So this will begin the season of goodbyes for Moren. Um I teased that the first interview question was is your name Moren Bolino? And if you answered no you were out. Um but that didn't work so we had to go through a full search. Um, but again, we'll have the opportunity to hopefully recognize Melody in a few minutes. And, um, I know that the goodbyes for Moren will continue throughout the the spring. So, don't look so sad. She's I'll have to be
018sad. I'm sad. Um, we're also beginning uh interviews for the supervisor of special education. So that was the position currently held by Melissa Estraa who will be moving into the director's role uh when Natalie retires. So another goodbye is coming this spring. And uh Melissa is uh leading the search to find the replacement for who will be her um sort of right-hand person in the special education department. So those interviews are coming up as well. We had a capital projects meeting prior to this meeting. Uh unfortunately not a huge attendance, but we're thankful for those who took time out of their busy day to attend. We got to answer questions mostly about the well budget and capital project questions ensuring that accurate is information is out in the community so that individuals can make an
019informed decision when it comes time to vote on May 20th. So just a public service reminder on May 20th will be the vote for the budget be the vote for the capital project. It'll be the vote for two board trustee seats and as well it'll be a vote for the Putnham Valley Library uh is adding a proposition to our ballot as well. And that's all we have right now. We can get into a whole bunch of upcoming events but we're at we have a board meeting before all those start. So I'll defer to that. Okay. Um, all right. So, we're going to start with presentations and the 202526 budget presentation. Sorry, I'm going to go out of order. I do want to because the other one happens before on the April 10th meeting, and I'll
020mention this again later, the fourth grade elementary school science fair participants that'll be moving forward to the regional competition will have their science fair projects set up in the main hallway prior to the board meeting. That's before next meeting. like at 6:30. 6:30 they'll be here probably at 600 setting up. 6:30 starts the tour. Yeah. Okay. So, uh don't miss that. That's always a good experience. How many will there be? 13 projects. 13. 13 projects. So, sooner you get there, closer to the time it starts, the better. So, you can hear them all. We'll push Liz to get them ready by like 6:15ish. They'll be here. Thank you. I'm sorry, Grace. All right. So, now we'll introduce Dr. Grace Chan, who's going to go over for the second time our 2526 school budget. Uh, there
021was a couple revisions and a couple things I know that Dr. Chan wanted to highlight. So, welcome. Good evening, Board of Ed. Dr. Luck, Putnham Valley community. Thank you for joining us again. I'll try to make this a little different from last time, so I wore different glasses this time. Um the district's goal is to uh present a proposed budget to the uh board of ed that is balanced. What that means is that the expenses that we decide that we need for the 2526 year has to equal the revenue that we believe is coming in. Uh, one of the first part of the formulas that I used to um, work on for the district is the fact that we have a tax cap. So, I wanted to show you what the tax cap looks like.
022Uh, this is the formula set out by the state. And, um, the district likes to simplify it so that the community can understand what this means. According to this chart, we start with the prior year's tax levy and then we're given a tax base growth factor which is specific to Putnham Valley and that growth factor reflects the quantity change in taxable property values in the base year. The factor is based on actual physical changes to tax taxable property such as new constructions of home and stores and offices and not merely the change of the assessed value of the existing unchanged taxable property. After we multiply that out we get 41,413 and to that we subtract prior year capital exclusions which is a number of items that go into that line. For last year it was
023a million204. We come up with an adjusted prior year tax levy that's 40,208. To that we will multiply the allowable levy growth factor which is the lesser of the CPI or 2%. This number is the number that you actually read in the newspaper when you hear about 2%. When we multiply that out we have a tax levy limit before the exclusions for the current year which comes out to 41 million2. To that we will add the current year capital exclusions which again is a number of line items that come up and net to the number of 2,ion195. That comes out to the maximum allowable tax levy limit which is 43,208. That maximum percent change in tax levy is 4.54%. Historically Putin Valley does not go to the maximum allowable. This year we're actually going a
024lot lower. We're going to a 2.99% which would give us a proposed tax levy limit of 42,568. This chart will show you the cumulative change in the real property taxes between what we are allowed to tax which is 4.54% to what we're actually taxing which is 2.99%. This is a cumulative change for the next few years. This is the loss of money that we would have, the district would have been able to tax the taxpayers. This chart will show you the tax comparisons between ourselves and six neighboring districts. As you can see, we're right in the middle. We're not the tallest. We're not the highest tax cap this year, and we're not the lowest. We will tax you what we actually feel that we need. This is another way of looking at some of the
025revenues that would come into the district. And we're again, we're comparing ourselves to six other districts. And I'm highlighting the fact that the difference between the last year's state aid and this year shows to be 411,368. But actually, it's not because there's an amount in there of $410,400, which we are not allowed to use except for the full day kindergarten conversion. Whether we use that or not, we subtract that out from the 411. And the difference between last year's state aid and this year is really only 968,000. Can I just quickly I wanted to highlight something on that slide uh and its comparison to the slide before. So the slide before we talk about the tax gap comparison, tax cap comparison for neighboring districts and then you look at what districts are slated to receive
026regarding state aid changes. Um Pton Valley is not the lowest in terms of what we're receiving. But when you look at the amount of aid some of these districts are receiving and compare that to why their tax levy is lower, that will start to connect a lot of dots. So Yorktown is receiving 2.7 million more in state aid. Lakeland 3.6 million more in state aid. Mayapac 1.6 million more in state aid. Putnham Valley $968. Um so there's a reason why we're being as fiscally responsible as possible, but we're not able to offer a 1% or a point something% increase because state aid is simply not making up the difference for us. Whereas in other cases, it is helping districts make up the difference. So, I just wanted to point out the correlation between this slide
027and the previous one. Thank you. Also, uh, one other thing I wanted to point out that this state aid estimate is based on the executive budget. The legislative budget doesn't come out until April 1st and sometimes even after that. Grace, one thing real quick. And just to clarify, it's full day pre kindergarten, not full day kindergarten. So, I just want to that question came up. So, I just wanted to clarify. Yes. So, we'll fix that. Thank you. Yeah, this is a chart that will show you the state aid breakdown between ourselves and the six neighboring districts. Sometimes people like to see this comparison in a picture and sometimes they like to see it in a graph. The reason I put this chart in here is to show you the portion of that tax cap formula
028that is the allowable growth which is the middle column is never higher than 2%. But when you look at the CPI, for example, in the year 2023 to 2024, the CPI was 8%. The current CPI as of March 23rd is 2.8%. It's still higher than the limit that we're allowed in the middle column, which is part of that formula to figure out the tax cap. Dr. Chen, though, let's compare apples to apples. uh the the core CPI came in at 3% closer to 3.1%. And that's what we should really judge it at because uh the regular CPI includes volatile fuel costs and also the food costs which you know that they impact us but the core is truly on the money and that's the one the Federal Reserve seems to follow more than anybody else.
029So, in my mind, we're still under inflation with with the 2.99 as the core is at at 3.1. Thank you for that. Yeah, it's true. CBI is very confusing. It depends on what they're putting into that CPI when they make that comparison. Yeah, thank you. This is a picture graph which shows the tax cap inflation factor versus the total tax levy. Again, sometimes people like to see this in a different format. Uh the next three slides will show you the enrollment. Uh one is for the elementary school and the next one is for the middle school and the last one is for the high school. These include the Garrison students that are sitting in the seats. Now, um, so I guess this might be a good time to just mention that this the slide is
030different than the last time because we actually lost four Garrison students, which amounts to about $70,000 in revenue. So, the district has had to change the uh revenue stream that's coming in in order to keep the budget balanced. Here's the first picture of the revenue source and uh the garrison number is on the bottom. It is now 420113. It still represents 1% of all the revenues because we're rounding. When I subtract out the school taxes and the real property taxes and the state aid, then the garrison piece of the local revenue is about 33% and that's a decrease from my last time slide in uh March 13th, which was 37%. This slide is just showing you the numbers again in revenues as opposed to a chart. Um, and this is the first place where I
031try to make people understand that if we remove the transfer to capital line which is a million209 from the budget, the budget tobudget percentage is actually 2.58%. That transfer to capital line is inflating the budgetto budget percent increase to look like it's 4.5% 58%. That that's really really important that that point you just I I mean the 2.5% is the actual in my mind budgettobudget increase because that capital fund you know the transfer uh you're you're pulling that from the reserve which is already there. So it it it yeah that that is that's the real budget to budget that's the amount of money that we can use for the operating portion of the budget. The uh 1 million 209 is transferred to capital. When the budget has passed hopefully it will pass then we actually
032do a direct transfer out of that and it's no longer in the operating budget. So what remains is only 2.5% 58% increase from the last year's budget. Exactly. Exactly. So that would be the amount that I would stress the 2.5 uh you know 2.58%. Really? So this came up in the meeting we had prior to the board meeting, the community question Q&A session. And it's important to emphasize why we break this out and I think you guys both touched on this point. um the district that's within our allowable tax levy. So, we could have taken that million plus dollars and put it into our operating expenses and used it for staffing and programs or we could have taken it out of the budget entirely. Um but the reality is is the work still needs to
033get done. What we're attempting to do here, just like we did with the high school roof a few years ago, is we're attempting to meet the community sort of halfway and accomplish whatever capital improvements we can within our existing operating budget. So, we're not asking the community for additional money and we're not borrowing money to complete this work. Uh, which many in the community have emphasized the district to not do um to pay for stuff up front and not borrow money. And this is just sort of a case in point of one of the many ways we are trying to be fiscally responsible. We're completing work. We could have easily taken this two plus million dollars of work and added it to the capital project. We could have paid interest rates on it for 15
034years. Um we could have done we could have used this money in our operating budget for something else. But we didn't because we think this is the most fiscally prudent way to accomplish work and minimize the amount of money we have to borrow. minimize the amount of money that the community has to approve while still completing necessary infrastructure work. So, we could have not done it and if we had not done it, it would have been 2.58%. But the work still needed to get done and it would have gotten done in another way, probably a less fiscally responsible manner, which would have incurred interest and uh required another vote and increased the the cost of the outstanding capital project. So, just wanted to try to emphasize that for the community. When the community uh votes
035on our budget, this is a line item, transfer to capital, and that allows us to spend the money on what we're using it for in this budget. It's important to understand that that line also gets state aid, right? This is a slide which I'm using six neighboring districts again and everyone has to fill out a transparency report. I use the cost per student based on the transparency report. That's the green bar on top. The orange bar shows the um enrollment. The transparency report excludes transportation, charter school tuition, other tuition, debt service, and other. There's a lot of ways to look at the costs per student. But as long as you're comparing apples to apples, then you'll be able to present a chart like this. I wanted to show the adopted 2425 budget versus the proposed
036budget. And here we can see that it is split up between general support, instruction, transportation, employee benefits, debt service, and interf transfer. This is one way of looking at the pieces that are in the budget. And here it is again, except these are in number forms. This is another method of showing you what's in the budget. We're required by law to show you the three-part budget. And as you can see, we're spending most of our money in the program, the instruction, which is where you want it to be. This is a pie chart showing you similar items. This is another way of showing people who like to see the budget in a pie chart form instead of by numbers. This is another way that I like to show the budget uh composition. The reason is
037because it's interesting to see when you isolate the salaries and benefits it represents 70.92% of the budget. And on the bottom you'll see all the departments and all the people within the departments and the principles helped very much this year to try to keep the prices low so that our budget could come in as low as possible but still maintain the programs that we need. I like this chart because it shows you the delta. It shows you just the difference between the budget from one year to the other. So last year to this year, it's 2774, but the salary and benefits alone was an increase of 2607. Meanwhile, the school tax increase, the delta of that was only 1,237. These are fast facts uh to know. The proposed budget is 63,331. Our budgetto budget increase
038is 4.58 and the proposed tax levy is 2.99. We have three propositions to vote on this year. The first one is the budget. The next one is the bron preposition which I think we're going to be voting on this evening. And then there will be a third one which shows the library uh vote that that we're all going to vote on. These are the important dates. Um, and before we get to other questions, I just wanted to highlight some ways that the district has been working on behind the scenes to get the numbers to as close as possible to as little amount of money that we need for the budget. In the curriculum department, they build teacher leadership capacity in-house. Whether it's possible, it's in a critical area of the curriculum to provide support as
039opposed to bringing in consultants or sending teachers out for extra workshops. As a result, the district has a teacher leaders support professional learning team and is very important for foundation programs. in the business office. Uh the district established membership in the educational data services to simplify the buying process from the teachers request to the purchase order. There's over 700 members in this turnkey cooperative procurement management program. Streamlining results in a reduction in the workload, a reduction in the cost, a maintenance, compliance, oversight, and it provides peace of mind because we're following the board policies. Bosei services, we leverage Bosei services to access the Bosey's aid whenever it's possible. For example, when the special education services need things like tutoring, they have been satisfying this by sending out a request for proposal. When that request for
040proposal is expired, we will intend to look at Boseis to see if they offer any of these services, which would give us an alternative and we would not have to do an RFP, but mainly because we would get Bosey's aid back on that. Time piece is a record attendance. The clock controller interfaces with the district's accounting human resource program, thereby eliminating the need for paper submissions and electronically capturing signatures and approvals are captured this way. This workflow flow solution saves time in managing the data collection of hours worked especially in determining the overtime payments. We have uh labor contracts. All the labor contracts will require a contribution to health insurance in retirement. In the athletic department, the district monitors the participation levels to ensure that all the supported teams meet the requisite interests of the
041students to qualify for the funding which would include transportation and coaching stipens information technology. The district performs periodic auditing of all the software that they use to ensure that our licensing numbers reflect the real life usage. The district performs its own installations 100% in-house. Two recent examples that save thousands of dollars was the time piece physical installation and the physical security access control system. Similarly, the facilities department have leveraged the staff set skills savings by using the talents of the in-house staff. Some examples of what they have done is the carbon filtration system which saved $300,000. The elementary school modular building which saved $200,000. The irrigation elementary school upper field which saved $80,000. The HVAC maintenance work which saved $150,000. The alarm system work was saved $50,000. AV wiring work was saved us $20,000. The
042wellness trail saved us $200,000. Elementary school bathroom upgrades was a $500,000 savings. The new grounds building was a $200,000 saving. The middle school student support suite is a $200,000 saving. and the elementary school paint job was a $50,000 savings. The last thing I just wanted to share is that I had the opportunity to see the IB presentation and uh first I thought I was talking to college students, not only because they're taller than me, but just also their presentation and the way they exchange and uh conversation with me was really impressive. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for those um specific examples of savings because those really help to identify, you know, just and that's just an overview um of ways that we can save the taxpayers money. Yeah, I I said it
043at the last meeting. I'll say it again. Your presentation is to the point, concise, and right on the money. It it it is one of the best uh budget presentations I've ever seen, and I thank you for that, Dr. Jen. Thank you. If anyone wants more information, they're welcome to come and call on me or come to the office. We'll be happy to explain more of it. So, I do want to point out there's a slightly updated version of the presentation um that I think with that includes the proposition language in it. So, we'll make sure that that uh one is posted online and made available to the community. So, uh that was really just sort of um finished today. So that version, we'll make sure that language is included on the version of this
044presentation that's in online so individuals can see exactly what that wording will be for those two additional propositions. Any other questions or comments for Grace? Um I'd like to just make a suggestion. I thought it was absolutely brilliant um to highlight uh the way in which the district has really been intentional about saving money and being super responsible with taxpayer funding. Um would it be possible uh or just a pitch to throw it out there? I do think that the community really should have access to that information um in in even more than just tonight's reading of that list. It's very powerful. if we could perhaps think about an infographic um to share with our community on our website, on social media so that we can share with them all of the money because I
045I I couldn't write it down fast enough, but if I totaled all of that money, it would probably come up to a significant amount of savings. Um and so I I wanted to just ask if that's possible. Yes, that's possible. And I want to give a shout out to someone named Tina who actually emailed me and asked me can I present some things like that. So it's because she asked for it and we do listen to the public. Tina McKay very to highlight some of the ways in which the district was saving money. So Grace has been working on collecting that information throughout the week and we could certainly put it into some sort of electronic format similar to what we did for the sustainability where we created those infographics showing the savings. we can
046work on something similar with those. Yes. And then I I I understand um that we have um that that some of the Garrison potential Garrison students had uh decided that they are no longer going to attend next year. Um I know that you had mentioned a number for one year of tuition. If if someone could kindly highlight just what that looks like over four years and I I just want to say this too to the community, it's such a pleasure to have the Garrison students come here because of who they are. Um, number one, um, I I know that it it it just embers our community to have, um, more students from other districts come and enjoy the amazing resources that we have here at a zero cost to us. We have it, we can
047share it. Um, and it actually really does help us financially. And so, um, I wanted to just ask about that total over fouryear cost, what that would look like. So, it's going to be it's a little over $70,000 the first year. We have in our contract a 2% increase for each year. So 714 the following year and it'll continue. So it'll be upwards of $300,000 lost by the time those students would have graduated in person. That it's really important, you know, that the community also know that um you know $300 $300,000 is a significant amount of money um that could be used to uh lower right what we're asking taxpayers to help us with. Um, so just something to be considered by the community. Thank you so much. Um, and I'd like to say one
048of the um things that I thought about when Grace was reading the the savings and all that was done in house is not only is it saving money, but it gives you that sense of pride in what you're doing and where you are when you've done it for yourself rather than done it as a job. I mean it is a job but there's a there's a different level of pride and sense of ownership which I think is invaluable can't be calculated in terms of money. So thank you. Um any other questions or comments? Thank you Grace. Okay then we will move on to new business. Okay. Um resolved on recommendation of the superintendent of schools to appoint Melody Loraca to the position of confidential secretary to the superintendent of schools and district clerk effective July
0491st, 2025 and authorize the superintendent of schools to enter into a salary letter of agreement referenced in the official minutes of the meeting as document 16425. Second. Questions or comments? So I do want to recognize that Miss Rocka is with us this evening. She is joined with her husband and her son who came here to support her. Um, so Melody uh stood out throughout the interview process uh from the screening to the committee interview and it was really evident that she was the right person for this position and I know she got unanimous support from the members of the committee and I am thrilled uh that she's here this evening and uh and while I'll be sad to see her leave um I know that Melody will do a terrific job in filling Moren shoes
050and continuing to keep uh the board members myself out of trouble. That's her number one job. So, thank you. All in favor? I oppose. Absent. The resolution passes. [Applause] Welcome. You're going to love it here. Welcome to the family. Thank you. Um I see that she's um effective July 1st. Is she going to be able to come in earlier or Yeah. So she's going to start tomorrow. Um well, no, for her sake. Yes. Now, we we already have plans in place. Um Melody and Moren know each other uh for serving in the same role and they're going to work out a schedule that's mutually beneficial to provide opportunities for overlap and cross trainining. Um, I know the last time she was in the district, her and Moren met for almost an hour. Um, and she
051got to meet lots of individuals in the district office and certainly she was here early this evening to uh meet with Moren and go through the setup for the board meetings and those opportunities will continue to present themselves throughout the spring. So, I know there'll be many opportunities for uh cross trainining and making sure that we're able to hit the ground running on July 1st. And Melody's son told me that she's he's going to treat uh his mother to dinner this evening for congratulations with his dad's credit card. Thank you for coming, guys. Thank you very much. Um I wanted to say that I checked out um your web page for the Mayak school district. I was really curious. It's a um school it's a clerk web page that has so much information on voting
052and the board. Um, and it's really a wonderful web page and I'm really looking forward to you potentially bringing that here. I think it would make that information really accessible and um I'm just really impressed with it. Thank you. So, welcome. Okay. Number two, resolved on the recommendation of the superintendent of schools to appoint Mary Ellen Jack to a 4-year probationary term as a special education teacher in the tenure area of special education at the middle school effective September 1st, 2024 and terminating on August 31st, 2028. Miss Jack holds students with disabilities 1-6 and childhood ed 1-6 initial certifications. Second. Questions or comments? All in favor? I opposed abstensions. The resolution passes. Number three, please. Didn't she just read this? resolved on the recommendation of schools and the board of education hereby approves a supplemental
053memorandum of agreement between the district and the CSEA regarding a signin and signout system for various subgroups of employees for accurate timekeeping purposes as per doc number 15625 attached to the agenda and official minutes of this meeting second questions or comments all in favor opposed extensions the resolution passes number four please resolve to approve the notice of public budget hearing budget vote other propositions and trustee election for the May 20th 25 2025 vote for the Putinham Valley Central School District as per document number 162-25 attached to the agenda and official minutes of this meeting second questions or comments all in favor I opposed extensions the resolution passes so those were the for new business action items. I'd like to open it up for public comment on any topic. We'd like to hear from you. Good
054evening. My name is Joe Ferraro and just a quick history lesson here. um 1929 in a kitchen. The library, the Pton Valley Library was chartered in 1937, moved to his present home in 1968. A tissue paper mill turned toothpick factory, the Pton Valley Lodge, and then to its current incarnation. Currently, as of 2024, Funny Valley Library has had total attendance of over 48,000 people and we have over 5,800 regular borrowers from adults, children, general interest, etc. The library serves through all kinds of different programs and as of the last vote in 2023. Um, since the work that we've done since then, we replaced the skylight, repaired a large portion of the roof, replaced the HVAC system, replaced an outdated 13-year-old computer system, upgraded Wi-Fi, extends range to the the parking lot so that dur people
055can use our parking lot as as a place to to to be when there's especially when there's power outages. We increased our hours staying open later. Hired official full-time youth services member, added up-to-date audiovisisual techni technology, including 3D printer. We've remodeled a community room restrooms, brought one up to ADA standards. We've had our first professional audit and passed it with flying colors. We purchased new chairs, dishwasher, completed urgent repairs, uh, and so much more. We do all this for a total cost of $570,000. And the lion share that comes from our taxpayers currently $460,000. And of that, $385,000 just is for staff and salaries. So we are a lean machine and we don't spend frivolously. Uh we our current funds per capita cost is about $39 per person that lives in our town as opposed
056to Cold Spring or Mayapac where it's over $100 per person. So we do really save our money. So we're on we're going to be on the ballot with our 259 vote and our plan uh our increase of $23,000 to our budget through the tax levy on average about $5 per household. per year per year or for the year I should say. This does not necessarily go up every year. Um what we will be doing with that is repair repairing faulty plumbing, addressing asbestos that we found. Lovely. Um, also bringing the library further up to date on with American Disabilities Act, expanding our library of things, developing our outdoor areas, expanding our digital aggregator program, and then we're exploring becoming that cultural hub, that community hub that doesn't exist in our town, uh, transforming one of
057our rooms to a fantastic room that um, kind of cafe style, our fireplace room that is kind of just a hodge podge right now, but will become um that hub, that community place where everybody's like, "We need a coffee shop. We need a coffee shop. We need a coffee shop in town." We're going to be that place. But none of this can happen without support. And the challenges are real because of current administration. Um cuts are are on their way as far as uh funding to libraries, funding to museums. Uh I was very disappointed. uh I shouldn't say disappointed, but when you're talking about all these great researchers and scientific research and how much research is being cut by our current administration, now there is a pendulum swing. I'm I'm confident that it'll come back
058by the time our students will actually be in places doing research that requires money from the NAH. But the only place that that school districts and libraries can count on at this point is the local tax base. Uh, regrettably, that's that's how we're that's how we're built. Uh, so our plan is to continue on our mission to deliver services, programs, and community to our neighbors. And for the Lobbo price of an additional $23,000 over the course of the year, which again translates to approximately $5 uh per household for the year. Um, I think that uh we are looking forward to new things that are going to really bring our library to to well where should have been uh but has been grossly underfunded for decades and we're finally trying to catch up and we will
059get there with taxpayer support and with community support. So that's my pitch and I'll be happy to do a regular pitch with a lovely presentation if you'll have us. But we are planning on our own communication. We are planning on our own uh information sessions and we are available to take the show on the road. It'll be part of our board meetings. It will also have those standalones and hopefully uh people will come and learn. But you can always go to patnaval library.org. You can email me at joseph.ferputnaval.org. org for more information. That's it. Thank you, Joe. Thank you. Thank you, Joe. I have a quick question. Are you presenting also at the town board meeting? Uh, we will be. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you, Joe. Okay. Um, upcoming meeting topics and presentations.
060You mentioned that the April 10th meeting we're going to have science fair students, correct? Starting about 6:15. Yep. So, our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 10th. Uh SC our elementary school science fair students will be setting up their displays around 6:00. And as soon as they're set up and ready to go, it'll be open to the public and the board to uh go through and it's really an impressive experience to see these students who have now refined some of their presentation skills as they prepare to enter regional science fair competition. um having been sort of nominated uh from our entire science fair at the elementary school. So that's our next meeting for Thursday, April 10th. Following that, we have meetings on Tuesdays. So Tuesday, April 22nd is a special business meeting and Tuesday,
061May 6th is our final budget hearing business meeting. So uh just to note that those two Tuesday meetings are coming up before we return to our typical Thursday meetings. Mhm. Okay. Um, board member comments. Yeah, very quickly, I'm very pleased that Melanie will be joining, you know, the staff, but uh, most certainly, Moren, and I said this when I read the resolution originally, you're going to be sorely missed. For myself personally, you were an anchor when I was moved from the middle school to here and you were the uh confidential secretary to the principal at the time. And it was your guidance that helped me get a focus and and a real feel for what the high school was all about. And I'll never forget that. Uh it it touched me then and it touches
062me now. And um you're going to be missed really. I second that. Um, so just a couple of things, uh, exciting things that are upcoming that I just wanted to make sure we shared with the community. Uh, so our high school play is coming up as was shared, Legally Blonde, and we are going to do a first year tradition, um, a dinner and a show. Uh, and it's going to be a potluck dinner, and we're hoping that we can, uh, have just a night of community. And so we are looking forward to having elementary students and their families, middle school students and their families, high school students and their families, and anybody else who would like to join um and cook or purchase something to bring. Uh we just want to have a night of
063community. So that's going to be happening at 5:00 p.m. on April 26th. We're going to do it on the Saturday show and it'll be right here in this room. Um so look for further information. A flyer will be coming out soon about that. um to I just jump on that real quick. Go ahead. Uh I want to extend that we also extended an invite to our all Garrison families or students who come here as well as our incoming Garrison students. That's great. And we actually uh spoke with both um the directors of the middle school play and the high school play. And we're actually comping tickets for the incoming eighth incoming eighth graders, current seventh graders in Garrison um can get a free ticket if they would like to attend any of the performances of
064either the middle school or the high school play. We want to make sure that we're bridging that gap and making those students part of our family even before they start here. Uh sorry, I messed up the years. They're current eighth graders, incoming nth graders. Uh so we want to make sure that they're they're feeling as if they're part of our family prior to beginning uh 9th grade here in the fall. So uh we also extend their invite for the potluck as well as uh the place. That's amazing. Uh that'll be a really nice welcoming uh event for those families. So super exciting. Also, just a little plug for the um senior dress rehearsal. Uh seniors are invited uh to be able to come and see the show. um I believe just for a regular dress
065rehearsal, right? No cost to seniors. And so uh if you have uh if students have uh grandmas or grandpas or uncles or aunts or anybody in the community that would like to come and see the show, uh that's a really great way to do so and talk in a a cost-effective way, but to also support our students as that will be their last dress rehearsal before opening night. Um so super excited. I was a theater buff, so I just I I love the theater. We got to talk about it. Um, we also have the middle school show coming up. Really exciting uh things happening there. Uh, their shows are always fantastic, just like the high school shows. So, come out for that. Um, but tomorrow is the middle school student of the month breakfast. And
066so, I just wanted to share uh Sasha and I are both passionate about this event. We we secretly plot just making sure that we're there every single month so that we can celebrate the kids whether or not our children are even nominated. We just love to be there. Um, it's a really great way of celebrating kids who are going through a very challenging time in life. So, I want to thank the middle school for continuing that tradition, the PTA for supporting it. Uh, it's really awesome. So, we look forward to that tomorrow. Um, the elementary school, uh, backed by popular demand is going to have a student vote on May 20th. Uh, I don't have the details yet on what they will be voting for, but by the next board meeting, I will. I'm super
067excited about that. They voted on cupcakes or something last year, right? So, they voted on whether or not they would have ice pops or the bubble bus on field day. That's right. Surprisingly, the ice pops one. And so, that was like the big spoiler alert. You know, we didn't know that that was going to happen, but um the PTA was so incredibly generous and uh provided both ice pops and the bubble bus for all of the students at Putnham Valley for their uh elementary school for their field day. So, uh, this year it will be a different type of vote, but a vote nonetheless. So, please bring your children out to cast their ballot. Um, and we'll give you information about that. Um, I wanted to ask uh about an advocacy committee. I'm not sure
068that we have one um or how advocacy happens for Putinham Valley, but when I saw that Putinham Valley is not getting their lion share of the federal and state funding that we should be, um, you know, I I would I would love to help with that. So, if there's something that can can be put together or if there's something that we can do as a as a a a board or I can do as a board member or community members might be able to help with people who are familiar with advocacy work. I just wanted to know if there's anything about that. Sure. I know Barbara does uh a lot of work with the Lower Hudson uh educational coalition, LHC, right? Mhm. Um and that's who we um partner with to do uh advocacy at
069the state level uh schools across this region. So they're sort of our main conduit to legislators and assembly people. We do have opportunities. I know Margaret and I regularly meet with uh both local and national um subly people representing our area and always have an opportunity to share what those sort of wish list items are for us. Um but that's sort of we have one thing and Carmel has something different or may pick out something different but LHC is really the main conduit for our local advocacy at the state level. So I know that Barbara would welcome um more any participation on that on that group and they meet regularly and they have um actual advocates, right? They have um lobbyists that go up and and present what these needs are. So and Westp does
070that too. West. Great. Wonderful. That's right. That's right. Yeah, that's great. Um, I just want to also tell the community that if you have questions about the budget or if you would like to have access to any of the budget presentations that have been done or if you need uh information on absentee ballots. Um, you can go to our website. It is two clicks to get to the information that you need. It's right there on the front page. Um, so please visit the website for that. And then just lastly, will there be any other opportunities for community members to come out to hear or ask questions about the budget besides the board meetings? Yeah, we have additional Q&A sessions already scheduled. I don't know the dates off the top of my head. Wednesday, April 23rd
071at the elementary school. Wednesday, April 23rd at the elementary school. We're trying to do the road show. It's a 6:00 PTA meeting, but budget Q&A. The PTA with the PTA. Good. In conjunction with the PTA. So, April 23rd, 6 PM at the elementary school in conjunction with the PTA will be another uh opportunity for people to come and ask questions. And there was one at the middle school, too, right? We were we didn't schedule that one yet. Okay. No, no, more to come. More to come. More to come. Okay. Wonderful. That's it. Thanks. I have one thing. Um the a bunch of the middle schoolers also had their all counties today for band and chorus. Um so, congratulations to them. I was unable to go, but it sounds like it was amazing. Outstanding. I'm sure
072that'll be an update next meeting because I don't know what they're uh do we have did we have to do anything about the firefighters exemption? Um well, we had done some research and I know I shared that information with uh the members of the school board. We will need to ultimately pass a resolution. I don't have the wording for that resolution. Uh but if that's the board's will, we can get that together for the next meeting. If there's be before the budget, we have to have a public meeting. So, we'd have to schedule a public hearing. Yeah. At the beginning of the next meeting. My Well, my suggestion would be we're very You guys have a lot on your plate with the vote and this doesn't have to be done until until December. So, if
073we put it off till after the vote, it will give you more time to breathe and more time for us to roll it out effectively and have discussions. That would be my suggestion. But I think that's a great What's the due date on that? December, right? December. until December. We could we could even do it, you know, over the summer or or Yeah. Yeah, that that makes sense. 30 days. Oh, there you go. Yeah. I I think that's a good good idea. A lot of relates right now. Agree. I agree. All right. Yeah. I just didn't want to let it pass without. No, no, that it's important. I'll make sure I stay in communication with both the We did hear from the volunteer fire department as well as the volunteer ambulance corp. So, um, I'll
074make sure to touch base with both of them and say, "Well, we may not be acting on it right now. It's not no additional information is needed at this time." And if there's anything that comes up, I'll let them know. Okay. Um, I just to go off your note about advocacy, I just want to thank Barbara because for many years, Barbara and Sam will also admit to this, has held the torch for advocacy behind the scenes. So, um, it's a lot of work. There's a lot of lot of work that she does on that. So, thank you Barb. And I'm off West putt because you can only serve two terms. So, I'm off that passing that torch, but I'm still on LHC. So, um um I also had the opportunity to attend the National Junior
075Honor Society. I want to say were there 34 or 39 students that were 34. So, congratulations to those 34 students. Um very proud. Great evening. Aiden did a great job again. And um I'm going to pronounce her Eliza. El uh Elisa. Elisa. Okay. Elisa um also did a great job. She spoke a lot about her the service that she does at the high school. And then I had the opportunity yesterday to listen to her cast and talk present TK presentation here and where she went over in detail a lot of her um the activities that she did. And it was great to see her just the tie in between teaching middle school activities that happen over here and as well as her that and she does the IB science research and sports and I just
076want to do a call out to that's a lot on a student's plate and there's a few students that do all of those activities and not even just sports some jazz band like different activities and there's we know how what effort gets put into these um programs and I Just want to say thank you for all the students, all they did and the presentations yesterday were outstanding. Now, are any of those presentations going to be available for people to see if you weren't there? No, cuz the symposium style, everyone presented at their poster, so there was no recording, right? Because different kids were at different places in their presentation at once. But I think um what what I'm encouraging is is to create an opportunity in the evening so those students so parents of those
077students could also participate and enjoy the but and I have a feeling parents would come but I'd like rest of the community to see come during the day they they did not not that I saw it would be so great and and the only reason why I say that is because um the district recently posted um some pictures of uh the students who participated in the science research uh program and there really was a a great amount of positive comments um from community members, from uh parents, but also community members that do not have children in the schools about how this program is one of the crown jewels of our district. And um I do think there would be quite a lot of support uh if we were to host a night or um you
078know, just for the community to come out and be able to see uh some of those those posters. I it's just it's an incredible amount of work. Um, and it really is not typical of high school students to be able to engage science research. They're able to view the CA. Oh, it's the cast projects that they weren't able to do. But even that, and you know, the the the cast projects are just so incredible because they're serviceoriented. Yep. And I think that's so important. It's such a piece of um uh schooling that's really not uh in place in in many places anymore. I just feel like it's not a thing anymore. And so um even if they could come to see the cast projects because many of the students who engage in science research also
079do Cass and then they do all of these other things that Janette was speaking about. And so they're really very well well-rounded. um to give community access to as many of these amazing projects as possible I think is really important. So just a thought well and for the theory of knowledge which is not so much a a presentation of a project but it's thinking about your thinking right metacognition and bringing artifacts that support your opinion of whatever I mean it's it's it's pretty cool it is really it's really is interesting and it shows the level of thought that students Mattie L had a picture of I want to say her greatg grandmother with Anne Frank. Yeah. Wow. Before Anne Frank went hiding. It was just think about that. Wow. It was amazing. And how she
080tied that into it. Yeah. Anyway, all right. I just again I think about the suggestion that one of the uh parent or one of the parents ma made at the Q&A earlier about celebrating and recognizing the great work that we do every day. um when we had the Miss McCarti's class here, I mean, you know, seeing children learning and responding to learning was amazing. And I, you know, I go back to they're they're our business. Uh and the more we see of them, the better. So anyway, absolutely. Um when I know we mentioned the middle school play, but it's school of rock. I don't know if we mentioned the name of the the play. So, um, just let you know that's happening next weekend. So, and they're have they're having four shows, I believe. Yeah.
081Five. Five shows. Two matineese and three evening. That's fun. So, um, congratulations. It's a powerhouse. Yeah, it's a lot. And, um, just to tie in, you had mentioned um, M. McCarti. I want to say it was Mrs. Odell's class a few years ago wrote us letters regarding how important it is or um to have a playground for all children. And I'm glad to see that we're able if we if the bond passes that we're able to have a playground that will work for all our kids. I agree. I'm glad that you mentioned that, Janette, because I I do believe there might be a little bit of um uh confusion um in the community about the past projects that we've done for outdoor spaces and the one that we are now proposing. Um Dr. L, would
082you be able to clarify what the past project was and the fact that the the new project is a completely separate thing in a separate area of the school and what it entails? Sure. As part of the last capital project that the voters approved in 2018 and the construction really took place in 2020 and 21, we took the existing courtyard in the elementary school, so sort of between the second grade classes and the kindergarten classes. It's an enclosed space there. Um, it was very much underutilized and uh part of the vision of the new science lab was to connect it to an outdoor learning space. So, we were able to make that happen as well as leveling off that space. It had a huge dip in it. It was actually dangerous for students, especially ones
083with mobility issues. So, we were able to level off that space, put in a nice sidewalk, and have sort of a fully functioning classroom out there. It's a beautiful space. I know we've shared videos or pictures of it during board meetings, and we're happy to share again. So, that space is uh often utilized and in a very conducive outdoor learning space for students. The new space, which maybe has the we should have titled it differently, is really a space for students to utilize while outside primarily during recess. We have students that play kickball. We have students that play football. We have students that run around on the playground, but we also have students who read or students who write or students who color. And those kids are sometimes sitting in the dirt um sitting on
084the hard sidewalk looking for a space. And really the vision was just to create them a very simple space outside. Um maybe a shade, put some tables, have a nice flat surface for them to sit at. It's not a I mean million-doll expenditure. It's not even a $100,000 expenditure. It's just a little uh tiny little piece of that playground project that creates a new outdoor learning space for students. again, primarily during recess. Teachers can certainly bring their classes out there uh when it's not otherwise utilized, but it's really just creating a separate space for students who want to do something different during recess in their elementary school. I I just want to jump in here um about the 2018 project um or and 202021 project where the courtyard um at the elementary school. you spoke
085about a big dip in there and as somebody who works with uh students of all abilities and have running extended school year programs during the summer when you you like to use outdoor space um it was dangerous and it was it was terrible. And now we have our children outside for lunch all the time. We're able to um have them learning and touching and feeling and doing things outside. Um it's been it was one of the best projects and that really wasn't a costly project but it was one of the most useful um projects and then you know creating these outdoor spaces for students um that we know learn differently and have different types of physical needs. Um, I just have to to say that meeting those needs for all different learners is so important.
086Um, and really at the heart of what I believe Putinham Valley is. So, um, I I really hope that people understand what this project is and is not. Um, so thank you for sharing. It includes ADA specific uh playground apparatus for for those children who may be physically challenged or that's that's really important and access to it. Right now there's no way to access it without going across grass. It will allow true access for all different types as it should be. Absolutely. It's it's a it's a conversation of equity in a way. Um, but I just think to myself, thank thank goodness my children are well in their hold. Um, but for a student in a wheelchair or a student who breaks a leg or is in a cast for whatever reason and they can't
087use the playground and they can't play kickball and they can't play football and they can't run, they can't play tag, what do they do during that time? Yeah. And do we have a space to accommodate that? And if the answer is not yet, then um the hope would be that the answer could become soon. Yeah. No child should ever be on the sidelines watching their peers play and they can't. That that just makes me nuts. Yeah. Yeah. So good stuff. Thank you so much. Okay. Okay. Um motion to adjurnn. So move. Second. All in favor? I I I