001Good. Good evening everyone. Sorry for the delay. Okay. We need a motion to approve the minutes of the regular board of education meeting of 31125. Kathy Patty. All those in favor. That's everyone. Dr. Farrell. Hey, good evening everyone. Thanks for joining tonight. A few congratulations are in order as we start off our um public session. Last week we had the wonderful opportunity um to attend Founders Day. Congratulations to all of our award recipients and a huge thank you to our PTAs for hosting a wonderful evening um for all of our award recipients and their families. last night, members of our board of our board of education and I enjoyed uh representing um our school district along with many school districts from Nassau County um and uh Suffach County to acknowledge um scope award recipients. Right.
002So for our district specifically uh Mr. Rogavitz um from the high school, Mr. Ventor right here um and Mr. Hassel as our community member. uh we acknowledge them with scope awards on behalf of our school district um community. Um so a huge thank you to all of them for all of the support that they um provide our school district. And last congratulations to our art national honor society inductees who we just celebrated this afternoon at the senior high school. We are super duper um proud of all of you and I will say a happy birthday to Mr. Vanitar who decided to come spend his birthday with us tonight as well. um during our last board of education um meeting. So these are just a couple of um couple of updates, right? Uh during our last
003board of education meeting, one of our community members highlighted um that some of the supporting budget lines right in our presentation uh specifically in the program component presentation didn't add up to the top u total lines in that presentation. After the meeting, Miss Galante and I reviewed it and we figured out that the supporting budget lines, the screenshots, we pulled them from two different time periods and hence why they didn't match with the total on top. So, um you know, thank you to our community member and we did reach out to her and share the updated presentation and it was also updated on the website as well. An attendance zone update. Um we continue to work closely with our outside consultants to finalize these attendance zones. Uh we're currently conducting uh meticulous reviews of the
004projected zones and students in those zones with the following goals in mind. Right. We're we're looking to minimize some of the student changes by maintaining some of those areas of the Santa Pac walkers to try and stay at Santa Pog and some of the South Bay to stay at South Bay. Um that is um you know what we're going through now again through with really a meticulous um lens, right? And we're also looking to if maybe by virtue of doing so um could we potentially uh consolidate a section or two which would thus enable us to reinstate um some of our journalist teachers for a gifted and talented program without a budget impact. Right? So again these are lofty goals that we have but we are working hard to try and see if we can
005minimize some of those student changes and ultimately also try to achieve that without having an impact on the budget. Uh we remain optimistic um about achieving some of those objectives um within the next within the next two weeks so that we can f notify our families of our final um school attendance zones designations. Um as a follow-up to Mr. Payne's update on UPK during our prior board of education meeting um he recently in the last week or so um met with a third UPK local provider. They indicated that due to some limitations, they can no longer take any of our UPK sections within their facility as they have previously indicated to us that they could. Um so they can right um have their UPK providers run our UPK programs um in-house, right? Like such as
006this Forest Avenue. Um so as such again we're continuing to explore different options. Um that does include uh possibly going back to the concept of having some of our UPK classrooms um at Forest Avenue, right? Um so again, all of that continues to be um worked out and uh we'll provide further details once that's finalized. It was posted online, right? The applications for UPK have to be completed by 4 p.m. on Friday, April 11th, right? And the lottery date, right, um has been scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, April 30th, right? Um by that point again we should have all of the different options right of where uh the UPK classes um will be housed and information will be provided during that lottery. So those are all the updates I had for this section of the
007agenda. Mr. [Music] Povations, right? That's me again. Back to you. Okay. So now we're pivoting to our reports for tonight. Um I will start off with sharing uh some general information, general reminders with regards to our budget timeline. Uh April 22nd. Um at 7 PM is the Bosey's budget vote in Bosey's board trustee election. Um May 13th is our West Babylon School District budget hearing at 6 PM administration. and May 20th, 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. administration and Santa Pog, the district budget vote and trustee election. Information with regards to voting procedure uh is available at the rear of the room. And of course, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to our district clerk uh Miss Parata either by phone um or email for any additional information. Her contact
008information is on the website. So without further ado, I would like to invite um Dr. Falconee to come up to the microphone. We have a special presentation for you. So, Dr. Falconee is going to introduce um Miss Alfano and some junior high school superstars that are here with us today. Yeah, I hit the button. There we go. Check. Check. Okay, there we go. Now I can hear myself. Okay, hang on. Let me just pull it up. Uh good evening everyone. It is with immense pride and joy that I welcome you to tonight's presentation of creativity, expression along with imagination. As the proud principal of West Babylon Junior High School, I'm honored to stand before you as we explore our theme for tonight, which is empowering students through the world of art. To empower means to
009give someone the confidence, tools, and opportunities to express themselves, to find their voice, and to share their perspective with the world. Art is one of the profound ways in which our students can develop this empowerment. Through each brush, stroke, sketch, sculpture, and design, our students are not only creating something beautiful, they are learning to believe in their own abilities, to take creative risks, and to communicate their ideas in ways that words cannot sometimes encapsulate. Art allows them to tell their stories, challenge perspectives, and embrace the limitless possibilities of their own imagination. None of this would be possible without the unwavering support of our incredible community. To our parents, families, and friends, thank you. Thank you for fostering a love for the arts and our students and for being here to celebrate all of their achievements.
010A heartfelt thank you to our superintendent, central office administration, to the board of education, all for their continued support and commitment to the arts education, ensuring that our students have the resources and the opportunities to grow as artists and as individuals. Additionally, I'd like to thank our teachers, Mrs. Tomio and Mrs. Alfano, along with Mrs. SM for their endless support and encouragement that they give to each and every single one of our students and for the skills that they help them to develop and the empowerment that essentially comes as a result of it. Most importantly to the people behind me, to our students tonight, it's all about you. Thank you for your dedication, for your passion, for your bravery and sharing your work with us. Art is deeply personal and it takes courage to put
011your creativity on display. Your talent, your hard work, and your willingness to explore new ideas inspire all of us. Let's celebrate the power of art, and the incredible students who bring it to life. I now present to you Mrs. Alfano, our K through2 department chairperson and teacher. Miss Alfano. Lower this a little bit. I'm a little shorter. Good evening, everyone. Thank you very much to the board of education, Dr. Farrellly and central administration for the opportunity to speak this evening on behalf of the JHS art program. Um this evening with our presentation um just a quick empowering students through the world of art. There's some wonderful quotes really which can kind of inspire us this evening. So art has the power to transform, to illuminate, to educate, inspire and motivate. The arts can help students
012become tenacious team oriented problem solvers who are confident and able to think creatively. The true purpose of art and education is not necessarily to create more professional artists. It's to create more complete human beings who are critical thinkers who have curious minds and who can lead productive lives. And again, these will tie into our overall theme this evening. Um, just a quick look through. So, we're going to if this will work. There we go. So, these are some student artwork from our past. So, again, you can see that with talent here is definitely exceptional. We have some wonderful student displays as well. One moment. Sorry, skipped one. Okay, we'll skip the last one. Um, just in terms of the course overview. So, I'm going to skip to this and pressing the space bar, but it
013is not working at the moment. There we go. So, those are the displays that you will see throughout our building. Some are current. So the ones on the left hand side are displays of our current animal projects as well as some other displays that you are going to be seeing throughout the building throughout the year throughout our art shows. Having a little technical difficulty at the moment. There we go. Okay. Overall throughout this presentation this evening, you are going to see some course outlines for each grade level with sixth, seventh, eighth, and then our advanced studio and art program. We're going to highlight some art projects with student examples as well as having our wonderful eight student presenters tonight which are going to speak on behalf of project specific artwork. We also throughout this evening
014are going to ex examine how students are empowered through the world of art via real world connections, meaningful insights, visual communication which is how we as artists communicate without words, promoting critical thinking strategies, fostering self-expression as well as celebrating student achievements and collaboration. In sixth grade overall, our course really introduces the students to the basic foundations of art. Those are considered the elements and principles of art. With students, they're working with two-dimensional materials which are, excuse me, include but are not limited to pencil, colored pencil, watercolor, temper paint, Sharpie, micron pens. As far as projects are concerned, we're going to introduce you to one particular project tonight, which was considered our animal zenangle project. The focus of this was the application of those foundations of art. Again, elements of art such as line, space, shape,
015value, color, form, and texture. And the specific focus of our principles of design, emphasis, pattern, and contrast. With our visual communication and different connections to the real world, students with this project chose an animal that symbolized their personality. So they had to choose an animal that represented their values or something that was important to them to visually communicate to their audience. Students used patterns from their surroundings for inspiration as they identified how art is found and utilized in our daily lives. So for example, I know I can count on Dr. Falconee with his striped tie and his pattern right behind me. We see patterns everywhere in our Yeah, exactly. everywhere in our daily lives and students are recognizing that with this course. Students also explored the purpose of Zenangles, which is mindful coloring and relaxation
016techniques, rehabilitation, as well as design inspiration. This slide here showcases some student examples of this artwork where you can see this was all artwork that was done this fall by our sixth grade students. Again, very talented. There's no tracing here. They're looking and trying to create a realistic version of their artwork. What I'd like to do right now is introduce two students. select, excuse me, one student with us tonight, Kristen Huerta, as well as Joseph Strike. Unfortunately, fortunate for Joseph, unfortunate for us, Joey has playoff game for basketball, so he told us earlier today that he couldn't make it. So, good luck to Joey. But I would love to introduce Kristen. Uh hello, good evening. My name is Kristen Wera and I'm in sixth grade and my project was an animal Zenangle. The medium that
017I used for this project was pencil, extra fine point Sharpie, and micron pen on white drawing paper. For this project, we were asked to choose an animal that represented us. I chose a toucan because it is loud in some places and quiet and reserved in other places. I also love the beauty that the toucan has in general. I am most proud of how my project came out after the finishing touches and adding with value. This project took a long time and I had to restart once because I was rushing and pressing too hard with my p pencil in the beginning. In this project, I learned about symbolism which can also connect to other subjects like ELA. To add on, I also learned about the importance of Zenangles and how they help you to relax. It
018was really I was really relaxed when doing my Zenangle and it was a really calming activity that we did in art. Okay, we're going to move on to seventh grade. Thank you so much, Kristen. In seventh grade, this course really again bu builds upon the foundations that the students are learning in sixth grade. And now we enter into an opportunity for students to examine their real world structures and how to display the world of a three-dimensional world onto a two-dimensional surface. With this, we're going to explore two different projects. Both of which had very similar components. One is the creative expanded room drawing and the other is two-point perspective drawings. Both focus on the application of techniques that create depth in an artwork such as value change, size change, detail, linear perspective, as well as
019overlapping and placement. Students demonstrate their understanding of how to create this world that we're living on three-dimensional space onto a two-dimensional flat surface. With this project, you'll see how there are connections to both visual communication as well as other real world opportunities such as communicating themes within their artwork by use of details and the adjustment of objects which you'll see momentarily in the different student examples. Students utilized artificial intelligence tools as well with Canva to provide inspiration as they incorporated creative elements to develop their theme. Students incorporated proportions, linear perspective, as well as many other mathematical components. to take a look at some of these examples. So these are pictures or portrayals portrayals of my classroom actually where students had to draw from their seat from their own perspective and then after they drew they
020then had to apply a theme. So you will see in a moment the wonderful themes that our students are presenting. The one on the left you can see though is a flooded classroom. The one in the middle that we're looking at is a Halloween theme. And the third one, which is one of my favorites, it's a very sleepy classroom where we have sleeping components where you'll see a lava lamp, which I love the '9s throwback, as well as very tired students. Right now, I would love to introduce Wolf Gang Shorba as well as Brody Eggland to present their projects. Hello, my name is Brody Eglund and I'm in seventh grade. And for my drawing, we made buildings using twopoint perspective. For the medium, I used colored pencils to make the house and like the landscape
021and I used chalk pastel for the sky. Um, what inspired me to make this drawing is I really liked the school Cornell and we were allowed to draw any building. So, I decided to draw Cornell because that's where I want to go to. Um, what I'm most proud of in this drawing is because it's twopoint perspective, we used rulers to make sure it was a perfect scale. So, if you look at it, everything is perfect proportional wise. Um, and yeah, and it connects to the real world because we used a lot of math to make it and it helped us learn more about ratios, proportions, and better using tools like rulers. And if you look closely, I'm not sure if you could see, there's little Halloween decorations scattered throughout it because we made it during
022Halloween time. Like in the sky, there are bats and a witch. And by one of the doors, there are cats and pumpkins. Hello everyone. Good evening. My name is Wolf Gang Chba and I'm in seventh grade. My project this year was the expanded room drawing project and um so I chose to give it a horror movie themed because um my dad and my sister always watch horror movies at night. So that's what gave me the idea to tie to my own life. Um, I really like that this project can tie to my own life, and I wanted um the people that saw my artwork to be able to know that life can sometimes feel like a horror movie sometimes. The materials I used for this project were um H&B pencils and um tortillians on white
023drawing paper. Um that's it. Thank you, gentlemen. All right, we're going to lead into eighth grade. With eighth grade, we again are taking what we learned in sixth grade as well as seventh grade, and now we're applying color. In this course, we are learning to conceptualize and create art based on the theories covering the elements and principles of art and design, particularly color, light, and movement. With this, we're going to focus on two particular projects. One is the creative color wheel projects. You will see this in the boardroom on display actually in the back. So I will reference those in the back later. Um with this project, it really focuses on applying the application of color theory with primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. Students are only given three colors in order to create their artwork.
024So I think you will be impressed with the wide range of color that they can use. This was connecting with our visual communication as well as other um different themes by choosing circular objects. So the students had to choose a circular object to emphasize within their artwork and then from there they had to create a context within their artwork who what when and why in order to create a setting. The students developed this setting and again you will see a connection to ELA as well. The second project which you'll see this evening is Kandinsky's rhythms. This is based off the artist Kandinsky and his application of musical concepts within his artwork. So with this you will also see a focus on color and color schemes. He also visually communicated through music and we also continued
025that within our aspir excuse me aspirations within the project. Students visually communicated the emotions of a song via color and movement. They had to choose a song and a particular genre of music and then visually communicate that song in their artwork. These again are two examples. If you look where you see the centralized circle focus, those are our creative color wheel projects again where they had to choose a circular item. You also will see them in the back. So if you look in the back of the boardroom, you will see that they are on display both on boards as well as the back display on board, excuse me. And then Kandinsk's works are the two um the bottom lefthand corner and the top right hand corner. Right now I would like to introduce Paige Tedman
026as well as Kate Hopkins to present for our eighth grade. Hello everyone. My name is Kate Hopkins and I'm in eighth grade. And this project, this project we had to resemble Kandinsk's rhythms. Uh the medium that I used for this project was colored pencil along with stencils and rulers on black uh coloring paper. For this project, we were asked to choose a genre of music and I was inspired by my love of loud and bold music. Uh I am most proud of how colorful my artwork came out and my use of value on the sides. I would like I would like my audience to know how this artwork connects to me and my love of music for helping me study or just I don't know just for fun. This project connects to other subjects with
027music because it shows how music can be portrayed through lines, shape, and color. It also shows how Ginski would represent his songs within his artwork. Before I introduce Paige, I did want to let you know that Paige's artwork is actually on display in the back. So, you will see that picture right there is a wonderful representation, but if you look closely in the back, you will see that it is there. So, we can take a closer look. Hi, my name is Paige Tedman and I'm in eighth grade and my project was the creative color wheel project. The medium that I used for this project was beep pencils, tortillians to blend, primary color pencils, and white drawing paper. What inspired me for this project? To figure out my circular item, I was inspired by the fast
028food restaurant Popeyes. I really like to eat fast food and Popeyes is my favorite fast food restaurant. I am most proud of the biscuit with all the colors of the color wheel and the shading on the chicken nuggets. I would want my audience to know that all of the colors that you are seeing in the biscuit are colors that are found on the color wheel to make it stand out. This project connects with other subjects because it ties with ELA since I had to give context to my artwork to show where the circular item was and its setting. My project took two tries before I could decide that I wanted to do a drawing of Popeyes. Thank you, ladies. Our final studio art class is what we will be presenting next. For those of you
029that may not be aware, studio art is our advanced eighth grade program. It awards students honors credit in art in which they do get high school credit. This program is a survey of art. So it is a wonderful program and again it gives them the opportunity to really excel in a program in addition to their eighth grade regular class. What we are going to speak about today is two different projects. One in which is called the elements and principles of art. The students for this project had to focus on the implementation of the elements and the principles of design within their artwork. They had to visually communicate various principles within each quadrant. You will see that it is a four um quadrant piece. And with this, they had to use their understanding of the elements
030in order to portray those principles. The second project that we're going to take a look at is a fan favorite. Again, this is also another project which is featured in the back, and those are our animal portraits. With this, this was a focus on the application of texture as well as simulated texture within an art piece. The students worked with colored pastels on a velour paper, which really gives it a beautiful texture. And the connection for this is that students use a lot of mathematical concepts, which you may not just see. So, one of our students will be speaking in regards to that, but concepts with grid techniques as well as proportions, spatial relations, which all tie into creating a real representation and the beautiful likeness within this animal. If you take a look here,
031these are three examples of our studio art projects. I know I'm hearing some wows from the crowd. They really are beautiful. These are also very large scale projects. So, in addition to being very lifelike, they are also a wonderful size, which does make them really captivating. Right now, what I'd love to do is introduce two of our wonderful studio art students. Again, this is Nadia Rebecca as well as Maline Sienna. My name's Nadia Rebecca. I'm in eighth grade student. want to speak about the medium or you want um my project was the animal project the medium and and and so this is the part where right it's it's extremely difficult to present it in front of people so we had a little communication so I'm gonna speak for you is that okay all right so
032the medium that uh she had used uh was chalk pastels along with a velour paper. And you could take a look, it really does pop out and it really does um show the texture and her inspiration for this because uh she created a mouse because she feels that it has soft features uh just like her and she is most proud of the details of her work and again how it is able to uh pop out. And what it is that she would want the audience, you all to know about this is uh that this project has many parts, right? She uh we use gridding to create proportions uh from the 9 by12 reference to the large format paper. So it started off at one particular size and then it got larger as it went on.
033How does this connect to the real world? This connects to the real world because she had to use critical thinking strategies to find colors based on the reference. It also connects to math to make sure that her drawing is accurate and has realistic proportion. And also um one thing about the project uh it took a while to complete and she wanted uh um to complete and I wanted quite some times. I really like how it came out. So we are very very very proud of Nadia. Good job. Yes sir. You don't have to. Hello, my Hello, my name is Maline Sienna and I'm in eighth grade studio art. My project was the principles of art project. The mediums I used to complete this project was color pencils and micron and pen on white drawing paper.
034For inspiration for this project, I was inspired by Lady Justice. I was always interested in all the details that are in the statue. The thing I'm most proud of in my in my drawing is the details I added into my Lee Justice drawing along with my shading scales I put in that I put into with my flower. I would like my audience to know that one of the principles of art is balance. I use Lady Liberty as a way to show balance of her skills in social studies to represent balance in art. This project connects to the real world because we connected the use of symbolism by using the elements of art to show each principle of art. I feel as though I use my I feel I used critical thinking strategies in order to
035symbolize my ideas. The detailing on Lady Justice's dress was done with the micron pen to show the folds to make the drawing seem more realistic. Thank you. If we can give one more round of applause for both Meline as well as Nadia speaking in front of adults as well as your teachers is not easy. So again Nadia if also when she one thing we did not mention is Nadia also portrayed a little bit of a self-portrait with this. So Nadia is a very quiet wonderful student very talented but the mouse also represents her personality. So for her to come up here was a challenge, but we thank you so much, Nadia. You did fantastic. So as you can see from our student presenters, art has a way of empowering students by giving them a voice,
036giving them the necessary skills that they need to visually communicate to their audience, as well as other ways in which we empower students by communicating and celebrating student achievements. So, we're going to look at two more quick um quick slides with our celebrating student achievements. As an art teacher and as well as a K12 art chairperson, that gives me such great honor to be able to display student artwork as well as to showcase our learnings. So, some ways in which we do this is we do have regular poster contests in which we encourage students to showcase their artwork. So, you can see that we've received quite a few awards. Littering is trashy poster contest award winners. We have judge Baka art contests in which we've won many years. In particular, in 2023, we had three
037winners. As well as this past year, we did have three winners with our herald newspaper contest. We also have school displays in which we are obviously sharing our work with the BOE, you can see in the back. And in addition to that, we have our junior high school art show which showcases all of our student artwork. We also have a few artwork displays on, excuse me, throughout the year. One of which is the public library and current display in the children's section which has been a wonderful collaboration. We also and speaking about collaboration we do a lot of community collaboration with other clubs as well as other community organizations. You can see on the left we refer excuse me for world kindness day we created a sign with art club as well as other studio
038art students. We also have done work with St. Baldrick's annually with our face painting event. And inclusion, we also have done murals in which we will also be adding some more murals in the future at the junior high school. In closing, I'd like to mention that as art teachers, we truly appreciate the opportunity to come in each day to teach a subject that we love. That also gives students the power of self-expression, the opportunity to connect to the real world, and the ability to build confident, smart emphasis on art artists and students. Thank you very much. And please give another round of applause to our wonderful student presenters. Thank you. So, we're going to junior high school superstars back out here for a group photo. We can have Matteline, Nadia, Kate, Paige, Wolf Gang, Brody,
039Kristen, and Joseph. I'm enjoying May. Let's see. Meline. Right. Yes. Patty, please come over here for a group picture. Chris, can I steal you for a picture? We can for you. Fantastic. Okay. So, um at this point I would like to um let me just go back to if I could invite um Michael, where are you? Michael Judith to come on up please. Um so I am going to invite our director of facilities to come and join me. Just a little bit of a background right I think about eight nine years ago or so I think give or take maybe 10 years ago. How are you? We started a process where um on superintendent's conference day, right? Um or on a at a faculty meeting or just randomly in a classroom, uh we uh recognize
040uh an employee uh with the superintendent sort like an evil, right? Um so tonight we are presenting a special individual with exactly that award. So I'm going to have Mr. Litus, our director of facilities. Thank you. special. Yes. So, nice to be with you tonight. Um, tonight we're here to um, you know, recognize contributions that Michael has made. Michael is our uh, maintenance crew leader for the West Babylon maintenance department and um, you know, he has done a lot of really good work for us and uh, starting to kind of reform the efficiencies in which we operate. Um, a few things to just point out is, um, you know, Michael wound up, um, really responding to that water leak at the driver's den and identified, you know, the source of that problem and isolated it
041and definitely, um, in doing so reduce the amount of damage that was taking place. Um, you know, he's responsible for organizing all of our snow efforts when we're doing snow removal and, um, you know, we haven't ever gone out without a hitch. we've never been delayed. Um, you know, on and on. So, yeah, and that's going to stay like that. I could guarantee it's going to stay like that. Um, more recently, and we want to thank you guys for authorizing the purchase of three B&G vehicles, which, you know, is going to again uh help our operation out immensely. Michael took it upon himself um to do a pre and post operational check of those vehicles. and he did so by connecting um you know a uh QR code to a Google uh form which now
042everybody can sort of review the quality of the vehicle before they go and operate it which again is going to create accountability and things like that. So I can sit up here probably for the rest of the night which I don't want to do to you um and just go over how many things that Michael has done to um again enhance our operation. So it's really nice to um have him. He um certainly exemplifies service before self. His integrity is impeccable and um he's someone that I've really come to uh you know lean on for collaboration and things like that. So with no further ado, Mr. McNamera, we present you with the Soore Like an Eagle Award. I lose my shirt. No, Amanda at all. Hold on. Okay. So, at this point, I would like
043to invite our friends, our internal auditors. We have um Miss Lauren Aunzo and Mr. Michael Reinard from NRAI. Good to see you. You don't have beautiful artwork to display for us. That was amazing. That definitely was amazing. [Music] Thank you, Corey. Okay. Okay. Um, so we prepared an agenda. So with our audit team, it's Mike Reinhardt and myself and we have our uh senior associate is Nick Partain who is here at the district on a regular basis. Um so we're here to present our reports as of June 30, 2024. Uh what the reports that we have for you is our risk assessment update. Um our cycle report which from last year if you recall we decided to look at the food service cycle. So that report is here. Um and we're also going to present
044you with the status of our upcoming cycle which is safety and security. Um I guess maybe we'll do high level um just maybe you could just talk to them about food service the areas we looked at and and just kind of what we did. Definitely. So for in regard to food service uh we look at overall operations of the food service department um various functions regarding you know different applications state aid reimbursement. Uh we look at different vendors and contracts the district has with them. We also review inventory. Um we look at vending machines and then we also do like a participation and profitability analysis to kind of show if the district's uh food service program is making money or if the district is funding it with general uh funds. Um and then you know
045provide some recommendations to make some improvements to um that area and maybe make it more profitable or you know lower negative student balances things like of that nature. Right. Um we just said in that area we only had two minor um observations and recommendations. So overall it was a really great report for considering how many areas we looked at. Um we rated the um uh the area as satisfactory which is the highest rating we give as auditors. So that's that's good. And um with a low risk rating which is obviously based on the controls you have in place. So it was a very good report. Um and then just moving on to our risk assessment. If you go to page uh four that's really our executive summary. It really summarizes the next three pages. So
046we look at 21 business process areas within our risk assessment and we risk rate those based on the controls in place here at your district. Uh we rate them as either high, moderate or low. So we had no areas that we rated as high. Uh we had three areas that we rated as moderate and then we had 89 areas that we rated as low. So that's an excellent risk profile here. Basically almost 97% of the areas we looked at have a low control risk rating. Um in terms of areas from last year to this year any changes in the control risk we just had three areas that went from moderate to low that usually happens once we issue report uh and then corrective action is taken place and then the risk rating comes down. So
047that's the case here. Um we had four recommendations. One was in the area of revenue and cash management, one was in the purchasing area and two were uh in the food service area. Obviously the cycle that we looked at uh last year we had 11 risk assessment observations. Um so of those 11 areas 10 areas uh the corrective action has been uh completed and we only have one area that's in process. So that's that's great that a lot of corrective action has been taken based on uh our observation from last year. And then the outgrowth of the report is what area we're going to look at. Um, so an area that we decided to look at was safety and security. And we've already started the area. Um, it's a really good area. It's very compliance
048driven. We're not, you know, assessing whether you have good security or bad security. We're assessing it based on laws, regulations, and your policies. Um, so I don't know if you want to just give them an update as to where we are. Yeah. So we're in the process of doing our fieldwork testing. Um, at this point in time, we're in the process of reviewing, you know, camera footage, uh, different areas and zones at each building, anything that's maybe not covered by camera, etc. Uh, we're also in the middle of doing some other testing, looking at, uh, you know, some sorts of uh, uh, like building access. Yeah, building access, looking at doors, vestibules, uh, making sure that uh, individuals have trainings that they're required to have. um emergency response plans like that and if there's kind
049of plan and process in place and making sure there's no uh particular things missing from that, you know, trying to enhance uh the district's security and safety. It's it's a good audit to do. You know, we've done it at a lot of other districts and little things come about that you you want to be aware of. You know, you want to make sure that people are signing in and that they're you know, they have to go through proper process and and protocols to get into the district. So, um that that page really summarizes the next three pages. Um we, you know, where we the the report it talks about the 21 areas we talked about and the 92 sub areas and then the risk rating um in each area and we do a two-year comparison
050of that. I'm just moving over to the right. It the the the X's and the stars just represent areas that we've looked at or that we're going to be looking at. Any questions on the risk assessment? No, I guess in internal question would be so the corrective action but based on the recommendations just as an example like documented guidelines or something it's one of one of the uh deficiencies um how long does it take for us to put that corrective action together? Um, so which which one are you just in general? Just I'm just I just picked the first one there like so to generally that's a pretty general finding that we have at most districts when we look at areas because there's no sort of documented procedures usually in place for an area you
051know who does what. In this case there are some because you have you have plans safety and security plans. So basically what we do is when we do each area what we do is we do a narrative which means we do uh interviews with everyone who's involved in that area. So along with that report we provided a narrative which basically is a breakdown of procedures and who does what and how things are done. So what we do is we provide that to the district uh to utilize as like a starting point for documented procedures um and make changes to it just formalizing the practices that are in place. That's what you're saying. Yeah. Yeah. district obviously has documented policy. So what we're looking for is just documenting the process, the procedures. So as an example,
052what Mike was talking about, we'll be doing that with safety and security. But the food service report that you have here, that has the documented procedures that can be used as, you know, uh as the documented processes. Yeah. But in terms of the corrective action, uh the plan does need to be put together uh after these reports are finalized, which we'll finalize them after meeting with you today. Uh and then Victoria will put together a um a corrective action that will be submitted to the state, which is due by the end of April, April 30th. So So we'll get those these finalized and over to you by tomorrow. Okay. And then the board will see all of it together. Yeah, that's that's what I was curious what the timeline was on. Another deadline. Yeah. And
053they're not, you know, they're they're minor recommendations. There's nothing too crazy here. So, I don't I you know, again, a lot of corrective action. You had 11 last year, right? You only have four this year and and most of them have been implemented. So, that that's uh that's a good sign. Um any anybody have any qu any other questions? Right. Yep. To the state at Yep. In the portal. Any other questions? I'm good. No. Okay. Have a good night. Thank you for having us. Thank you so much. You too. I mean, we could take a picture if you want to take a picture. Picture with our auditors. Yes. Okay. Um and now we are going to um pivot to our last presentation of the night uh which is our budget presentation, our third one. So
054tonight um while Jay sets that up, we will be reviewing kind of a full right um expenditure and um revenue side, right? And we also have a followup budget presentation on April 8th. I'm just going to switch gears here. So I will also thank um Oy Kindleman um who is now providing us additional support and assistance. Right. Exactly. Um both Mr. Kinderman and Mr. Logitus are here. Um so in the event also again today we're going through in terms of the whole budget, right? if there's anything kind of granular, right, from a buildings and grounds perspective, right, from an IT perspective, um, that we can't answer up here, um, that I'll be able to phone a friend in the audience, right, because the two of them are here, uh, to be able to, um, provide
055any additional details that we may need with regards to their departments. Well, good evening everyone. Good evening board of ed. Good evening uh West Babylon community. Thank you for coming. And if you have been with us over the past uh two board meetings, uh you know how we are presenting the budget this year a little different than you had in the past. We're doing it by components and as stated last board meeting tonight we will present all three components which is the administrative component, the capital component and the program component. So besides the 2526 appropriation budget that we're going to go over, we're also going to again talk about our tax levy. We're going to present the slide that shows the revenue and the slide where the consolidation from Forest Avenue um present we had
056presented that I believe last uh board meeting and a slide on your reserves as they stand now and that was in your first presentation I believe and uh what is included in this 2526 budget. the superintendent will speak about the inclusions in next year's budget. So, I'm just going to try to go along here. You have now in front of you a copy of this PowerPoint. You should have a copy of the line by line the lines that make up all the these totals in the budget. And as you'll see as we go through the budget an explanation of what exactly is in like a 1010 line. So this these budget presentations now the third column we changed we put the variance or the difference the increase or decrease between this year's budget that we're
057in now and the 2526 budget. Um the past two presentations we saw the actuals from the 2023 24 budget. So this gives you a little idea of what went up from this year's budget and what went down. So again, if I'm not going to go line by line, uh we'll just focus on some of the um lines that had a variance that was a little higher than normal. So, let's take A1310 and that line is up a little over $74,000. And I can tell you the reason, part of the reason of that is that next year you have a treasurer for the full year. This year, you you're in now. I believe the treasurer started in late fall. So, her salary is not totally in this year's budget, but it will be in next year's
058budget. And then you have all other uh supplies and contractual obl obligations that are in that line. Again here you go the description of the code. So if we go to um a code from the previous slide you will see let's see if I could go to the 1310 the 13 cent uh code that we just spoke about. So when there is just all salaries for all the office personnel in the um business office including the assistant superintendent the accountant your treasurer and all that all the equipment the conferences that they go to and also any Boseie services related to that area. So and again the description of the codes will come right after the slides. So the next slide here you have um uh personnel which again is basically contractual obligations that have gone
059up and also their conferences their their uh supplies and equipment that they need um was the driver of that increase. Another big increase if you look at unallocated insurance and we talked about insurance than the rate that insurance is going up. Um you had a approximate 18% increase last year and you had an 18% increase this year. Um the range of increases from what I understand from other district range from anywhere from 16% to 24%. So it's not um just West Babylon that is getting uh increase in your insuranceances and that's all the insuranceances that the district has. And then these insuranceances are necessary. We have no choice but to have the insurance. The same way you have insurance on your homeowner's policy, your automobiles, the um district needs to have these um insurance coverages.
060And again, here's a breakdown of the description of all those codes in the previous slide. Again, um, in the 1910, the insurance code that we just lost, we just, uh, talked about is really just from the 18% increase in insurance. Uh this next slide, curriculum and supervision up a little again driving it is contractual obligations, materials and supplies, any conferences um that the um admins go on and things like that. Other than that um basically the next two lines uh have remained uh pretty steady. So the increase for this um component is $521,38. And again, the description of those codes. So now we're at the capital component. And the capital component has to do with your operation and maintenance of your facilities. And again, um I know the your facilities director would like to do
061more work in house and to do more work inhouse, they need to be able to buy the supplies and materials that are necessary to do that. Uh in the long run, it's a cost savings uh when you do things inhouse. In other words, painting rather than have a outside painter come in. The the guys from the um operations and maintenance can do painting. uh and it saves the money a lot of um money. You do not have any judgments and claims for next year and your debt service is going down because uh one of your bonds is rolling off. But again, your bonds are rolling off, your bands went up and your TAN will also go up and then you also have an additional EPC project that you're going to have to start paying for.
062So yes, your debt service in total is down a little but not um dramatically because other parts of debt service have gone up. So for this component um the district is down or has a decrease of a little over $2 million. And again, here's the description of the codes that will help you understand what what are in those specific codes. So now we go into the program component which is the largest um component of the budget because it involves all the necessary things that involve teaching of our children. So again, um, teaching regular school, if you look at your line by line, there are a lot of codes, a lot of things that go into that code. Um, so that code is up. Um, $794,000 approximately. Um, but again, because of the 33 million that
063that code is, that the 794 is really not a huge increase. pack your um pack and eagle hall. Um we're anticipating um the expenses to go up maybe $500 to maintain those areas. Those areas that you rent out and do um those areas do provide revenue for the district. So you want to have them maintained. Teaching special ed, those are our special ed students. And again, they're um increased the uh amount of special ed students overall throughout Nassau and Suffach County. Everyone is seeing an increase um for students to have more types of special ed services. Um so again, there is a million.3 um increase on that line. I believe it's less of an increase than you had last year, but still an increase. Um, students with special needs, again, a little increase on that
064line. And occupational education is what your uh students at the high school come to the high school half a day whether it be morning or afternoon and then go to a Boseis program for um to teach them carpentry uh being vet being a veterinarian or things like that. Um that's what occupational education is. And again you'll see descriptions for each of those codes. um teaching special schools as part of the alternative high school. And again, no big increases there. Um district um librarians and libraries, you do have a decrease of about $84,000 um between those two lines. And our third line is our computer assisted instruction, which is our IT. And again, not not a huge increase at all in that area. And that area is very very important to the district. The district needs
065to stay up and ahead of uh technology. All our students need technology uh moving forward in their education. And that's again the next slide will tell you everything that is in the computer assisted technology code. This slide um health services uh is down a little uh health services provi is um not only here but in that code you'll see if you see the line by line we pay for health services for our students who go to a school outside of our district and the district that they're in will send a bill to to West Babylon that we need to pay. Um but overall that line is down a little psychology services also down slightly. And again just some in in information about the codes co-curricular your clubs we left it flat. Your sports is up
066uh somewhat. You have coaches salaries that go up. Uh contractual uh obligations that go up. You have the equipment that the students use for uh sports has to always be repaired or replaced um from time to time. So that's what's driving that. Then the next um one, two, four lines, four one yeah, four lines have to do with your transportation. And as you know, um the district is having a hard time, um hiring and keeping bus drivers. Um so what they're doing is contracting out more of their routes when they can cover them because we do need to get a bus to pick up the children for school. So you'll see a shift of uh into more money going into contract transportation, some coming out of pupil transportation which are your own buses and definitely
067not using Bosey's transportation moving forward. So it's just a shift between the lines in transportation. Once again, a little description of what's in each one of those codes. uh civic activities or adult ed. We like leaving that flat. And um employee retirement system, that's the retirement system for everyone who's not a teacher or administrator. Um their pension is through the employment employee retirement system and the liability for the district is up slightly from this year to next year. teachers retirement system. Actually, the liability went down and also the fact that your teachers have been retiring and the new teachers are coming in under a different tier which means the contribution is different for those teachers and that's what what drove that to go down somewhat. biker is the is the taxes that we pay on
068our payroll whenever we do our payroll. And because of the consolidation of the um Forest Avenue school, um that that has driven that line down a little. Life insurance, um again, just down uh a little. Um disability insurance, same thing. health insurance um is down. Um our health insurance rate for this year that we're in came in at 2% and last year I believe it was 10 or 12%. Um next year in 2026 naturally we don't know what it is yet. So we had to estimate uh what we thought it was going to be. So, with even thinking it'll go back up to 10%, it still provided the district with a savings of $894,000. Dental insurance um is went up slightly. Again, not none of these lines have any big variances, just slightly. Um and
069you don't have you must be saying, why don't I have a description of the codes? because they're one line code. So there's only one thing that makes up those lines. And you'll see that if you look at your line by line. So um in this component, which is the biggest component of your budget, you're have an increase of 1,378,518. So if we put it all together, your total budget for next year would be 136,150,120. Again, this is the slide that we had showed previously about the um budget reductions due to the consolidation from Forest Avenue. Um, so it generated, I believe, um, at first we thought it generated about 700,000, but then when we added in all of the benefits that go along with these people, uh, it actually generated a, uh, reduction of of
070little over $942,000. And I'm sorry, the slide is kind of little to see. I mean, I'm even having trouble seeing it, but um again, this is your revenue slide and um basically last board meeting when we presented this slide for the first time, you had a difference and I believe it was a little over $400,000, right? But now we're presenting to the community a balanced budget. So, we're going to be taking in the same amount of money that we could spend. we can't spend more than we take in in revenue. Um, this is a slide from the first presentation where you could see when you closed your books at the end of June of 2024, you had basically um a little over $10 million in reserves. For this year that we're in now, you're using
0712,275,000 worth of reserves. If you use all those reserves, if they're used, sometimes you don't use all the reserves that you put in your budget. Whatever is not used goes back into the reserve, but if you do use them, um you will be left uh with 7,938,000 um approximate dollars in your reserves throughout all your reserves. Um the proposed uh tax levy um is going to be 2.06%. That was reported to the office of state controller uh before March 1st which was the deadline and by um the 2.06% 06% requires only a simple majority vote. Okay. So that means 50% plus one vote will pass the budget. We are not district is not piercing the cap. Um it is a just a simple majority vote. Okay. Okay. So couple of a couple of pieces, right?
072Um before I get into the next couple of slides from a state aid perspective, right? Um the numbers uh the figures that we have there, right? Obviously that whole column is a projected um revenue column for our school district. Um it always is at this time period, right? Because we do not have final numbers from the state. Uh we're always hopeful that the state comes in with an on-time budget, right? Um and a few of trustees have been in different meetings with me where it's been seems pretty clear that it likely will not be an on-time budget, right? Um this year. So, school districts have no choice but to go with um the initial state aid runs, right, that that were given. Um I do hear right we've we've heard from different entities different advocacy
073groups that um you know there's there's some some traction to some changes um that may um that could conceivably give school districts a little bit more right in state aid. Um so we're we're hopeful that that also um you know is part of the mix and that ultimately when those numbers are finalized from the state that we'll receive uh more. Um we as a school district uh froze our our budget right for non-essential expenditures last month. um that was done uh purposeful, right? So that ultimately, you know, at the end of this school year, we can close out the year and um hopefully, you know, ending with in a position where we are in the blue and we have funds to be able to put back, right? Or or I should say the other way
074around to not use as much of the reserves that we initially planned to use, right, for this school year. Um so again, from an operational standpoint, the budget has been frozen for a little bit over a month. um to help us, you know, get to that point. Um you know, the other pieces that again are um still unknown and and temporary, right? Um as we go through the process of establishing who will be renting out Forest Avenue, right, and and close that process out, then obviously then that number would be finalized once we have lease agreements in place, right? Um as it relates to the Forest Rental. So I just wanted to point out a couple of those pieces with regards to the revenue column that from a state aid perspective, from a forest rental
075perspective um you know that those are uh numbers that you know again haven't been uh completely solidified yet um as we stand right now. So what you know these numbers and again we provided some description on some of those lines particularly um you know the lines that encompass so many different aspects. What what does all that mean right in terms of the numbers? Um, so this budget maintains all of our current all of our current programs that we have in place, right? This budget maintains um from a co-curricular perspective, right? Um, from a clubs, you know, perspective, from a, you know, courses uh at the secondary perspective, right? All all of those um layers. Um, what else? Right. Um, some areas that we wanted to highlight, we included uh $14,000 for field trips, right? We
076know that this year that field trips were reduced from from the budget. So that is in this current um budget that we've you know presented tonight and we'll present again in in two weeks um as part of the um you know overall package. Um this budget maintains all of our academic intervention supports for our students right uh maintains and in some ways slightly increases right reading supports for students. What do I mean by that? If you recall when we discussed the consolidation plan, we talked about that all of those related um services and personnel, right, that those would be maintained within the district, right? They would be shifted to the other elementary schools. Um again, obviously the groups, all of that has to be um determined um and and and put together, but nonetheless, we
077will have additional staff that will give us a little bit some some flexibility there, right? And some of those um services for students. uh we are proceeding and moving forward with our year three of our benchmark uh reading program. Um again we've been on a consistent path there um adding additional years and obviously that comes with um you know whatever the materials and supplies are needed for the students in addition to the necessary professional development for our teachers at the elementary level. uh this maintains our average class size right so when we look at our elementary level and this was said during you know throughout the um different models right uh that we have a cap right from a K2 level and a 35 level in terms of number of students um we're we are
078absolutely um you know going to be hitting that target of not exceeding those um caps in terms of a class size um additional club opportunity at each elementary level again this is in terms of by virtue of um shifting some of those um areas from going from five buildings to four buildings right to the four buildings. So in essence everything any code right that was specific in terms of to forest right has now been divided equally right amongst in terms of um the four uh other elementary schools uh in terms of different um you know different opportunities. Um we are looking at the um reinstatement through the use of a grant, right? Um and some shifting around of some personnel um hopeful, right, to be able to land where each of the four elementary schools
079we can revert back to having the support of a full-time social worker um to support our students, you know, from a mental health perspective. um again grant funded um the health insurance piece um part of the general fund but quite honestly there's also a possibility that that may not be um in the mix at all. Right? Again we're still fine-tuning a couple of things there but right now that is in the budget as we finalize attendance zones um spelling error right there. as we finalize attendance zones um and uh consolidate um you know sections our you know I mentioned this in terms of at the beginning right again not 100% right um but we are hopeful that as we finalize attendance zones we can reduce how many students um are moved from one building to
080another right and simultaneously that we're may be able to consolidate some sections um and then maybe be able to reinstate right the generalist teachers um model that we have with regards to kind of a G&T right gifted and talented elementary um um program right that would be uh costneutral to the budget right so not affecting in terms of the budget but certainly as a direct result of uh consolidating elementary schools that's not 100% but that is definitely you know part of the mix of of what we're working hard um to try to obtain that next slide please under the umbrella of security finance facil and facil ities highlights, right? And again, Mike is in the audience, right? Um, we of course need to continue our commitment to enhancing our safety and security, right? Um, from
081a school resource officers, right? Um, from safety trainings and procedures, that all, right? Um, everything that we have in play with regards to trainings and and and systems and personnel, right? That continues. Um, and these are some highlights from a facilities perspective, right? built into, you know, some of those um those budget lines that were previously addressed, right? Uh roof fan um replacement of the senior high school. That's definitely, you know, one of the priorities. Um restoration of some of our fencing, right? Like as you know, at different times you'll see different fences in different areas and feel like Mike and I are constantly, right, uh sending each other a picture of this or a picture of that as as we become aware of them. Um so obviously continuing to you know uh to to
082restore our fences and and um needs throughout. We a don't want anyone to be hurt and two we know that aesthetics are also important right we want our facilities we want all of our buildings to uh we need to continue to uh work on our facilities and improve and enhance. Can't do it all overnight obviously you know all of our buildings are you know 70 plus years old um but certainly um addressing uh needs throughout the district. Tree removals right. Oh my goodness, this has been a a biggie lately, right? Where um again due to safety, right? Um we've had to uh remove some trees or some trees have have fallen, right? There's a cost associated with that. So that's built into uh the budget. It feels like this past year we had more than
083usual. Um so uh the junior high school orchestra room, right? Um the that abatement um and then certainly again district-wide scheduled painting, right? and routine uh facilities updates um that uh Victoria mentioned beforehand as well. Those are just a couple of of the highlights included and embedded there from an IT budget perspective, right? Um our IT budget continues to prioritize our our technology enhancements, right? Both from an instructional lens and also from a security lens, right? Um we have we've mentioned this beforehand at board meetings. the we are going to be shifting to a new website all right smart sites that um it goes handinhand with parent square uh quite honestly that wasn't necessarily by choice despite definitely us knowing that we definitely could be better in terms of our website um it really um
084our our current website provider will no longer continue to be a website provider right supporter so we needed to any school district that they support um needs to shift to a new website um so that is part of our plan and actually you know Mr. Kinderman and I have been working on the back end, right, of that that process and enjoying all those details. Um so we're we're happy that we'll be able to um launch that, you know, end of summer, beginning of the school year. Um linewise expansion, right? Um we implemented that last year, right? Again, that is continuing to help us under the safety and security umbrella with regards to the student use, right? gives us alerts with regards to what students are typing into their computer that is of concern. Right? If
085there's a student types something in um and uh with regards to, you know, hurting themselves or or or something along those lines, right? I get an alert, the building principal gets an alert, you know, Mr. Kinderman gets an alert, there's a couple of us that get that alert, and then we immediately contact the family members. So that um you know continues um and you know we're going to look to um you know obviously continue to to implement that and uh from a board perspective from a Chromebook perspective from an actual physical you know hardware software right um there are a slew of software programs that are used from a student lens from a teacher lens right in terms of systems and softwares for for that students use from an admin lens right from you know
086payroll modules to, you know, when a teacher is absent, right, and they have to call a particular system. All of those, right, our it um different types of of programs um that are included in the budget and of course uh the roll out and continuing to upgrade or change the smartboards as they um kind of live beyond their life expectancy. That a good way to describe it, right? um as well as obviously the Chromebook um you know upgrades and changes that we have on our cycle right for our students. So this brings us to our next um board meeting outline, right? The April 8th meeting. Um we will be uh in essence reviewing all of this, right? Um there may be some minor, right? Probably some some minor tweaks, but for the most part, right,
087we are looking at a budget that um is $136 million. Um you know, a a budget that is $199,000 less than the current school year that we're in. We're looking at a tax levy of 2.06%. Um so the next meeting we are going to for the most part um almost identical right with some minor minor tweaks that may um come up um discuss those and present those again during that presentation including the tax levy. We'll also add a few slides with regards to what a contingency budget means right should a budget fail. Um and then of course obviously the budget vote information that I've been reading out at the beginning of the of the meeting. So question on on the um the Chrome book replenishment. I know the initial the initial surge in those was
088around CO I guess there was a lot of grants and funding for that. Is any of that continued or is it all in the districts at this point or the new devices or replenishing of them? Uh so twofolds and Corey can speak a little bit more in depth of that but we also have um -ate right um process we go through a process with Boseies but uh Corey can speak definitely more in depth on some of those logistical Yeah. So so last year we were lucky enough to get um ECF funding so emergency connectivity funding uh where we brought in about 1,400 Chromebooks. The only issue with that was we had to put all into circulation. That was a stipulation of the actual funding. So luckily enough it went into the district. So this year
089we're able to lower the cycle of how many Chromebooks we need to replenish um doing a Boseies project as opposed to us spending $280,000 all at once. What we do is a lease project uh through Boseies. So we just have a small amount that we pay. The first year's larger and then years 2, three, and four are smaller. And what I'm trying to do is just cycle through and and create a a cycle of replenishment. you you purchase Chromebooks along with basically every other district in the nation uh all at once when COVID hit. So what happens now is all those devices are pretty much dying. End of life was the the term that that Yandandy was using and a lot of the technology right now is coming to that that that place. So I
090look for as much funding as I can. I try to get as much money into the district to help us circumvent all those payments. Uh and I think we're in a pretty good um place right now. So yeah, corre correct. Yeah. So any of the Bosey's leases um which I I have projected mapping and and you know I share that with central administration but basically we have leases that were already approved over years that basically we're just backfilling that same exact lease. So no extra funding is going into that lease. It's really just a replenishment and we're just continuing that cycle. So that goes for a ton of the technology we have in the district. Okay. So, thank you. Thank you. Other questions? Uh, last year, last budget cycle, we cap CTE, right? Yes. Are
091we at that cap? Did we at same thing at the cap and what we indicated to the high schools to maintain that cap for next year still? Yes. Yeah. Are there kids like on a waiting list or There were kids that there were students that did not get approved to attend last uh for this school year. Yes. The current school. Yeah. Yeah. And what we did with that uh Mr. Material is we didn't uh so typically some of the programs are a two-year program, right? So we ensured that whomever was in the first year, right, can finish out the second. Yeah. When we went to the you the legislative conference, they did bring up that well it seemed again you're everybody there seemed to agree and then when they go to Albany, what happens to
092that agreement? But there did seem to be a push to increase assist in that area. Um, do you think that's even something that's that we would maybe I mean again you're not going to get 120 back, right? But is that something you think happens and you actually see it and it makes a difference or are they just are they just splitting pennies at the end of the day? You know, I mean we Yeah. So they certainly all uh spoke in support of right um definitely absolutely and he definitely he for years he that has definitely been a consistent piece you know in terms of for him um this was I think the first year that we saw everyone else chime in right um in in strong support of that because again those numbers haven't changed
093in like two decades or something like that right um and it's in both house proposals which I've never witnessed that being spoken of as well as the New York State School Board Association seems to be pushing it. I think even um NICE is pushing it. Um yeah, definitely all the entities. I'm asking you to tell me the future of what what's going to be the result. I mean they're going to give a percentage and then you know you do the calculation. It's like, oh, we got 500 bucks, you know, or whatever, you know, I just So, there is an opportunity maybe that I hope, right, that we get it together changes any any difference is is and and it'll be interesting how they play that out, right? Like, do they embed that into foundation aid,
094right, which kind of has then all sorts of other pieces or is it then, you know, a separate line expense-based type aid associated with the CT programs? I don't know. Right. So, no. You're welcome. Other questions? No. Okay. Thank you. And just for our group, everyone saw the all the packets behind. Okay. Y. Okay. This time, statement of residents on agenda items only. A resident wishing to share a statement should come forward to the microphone, state their name, their address, and any organization they may be representing. Residents will also provide will also write their name and address on an index card and present it to the interim superintendent of finance and operations prior to giving their statement. Please be aware matters relating to individual students or employees cannot be discussed at a public board meeting.
095Residents will be given up to three minutes to share their statement. The statement of residents is scheduled for 15 minutes. Uh we will record the statements uh and questions presented by residents. At the conclusion of all statements of residents, we will respond to those statements questions. We can answer the questions requiring further research responses be provided the next meeting. Okay. No one at this time. Oh, this guy looks familiar. You want the address and everything for sure. You know the procedure. Go ahead. 15th Avenue, Babel, New York. Pizza skaters. Just two statements. I don't even need questions answered. You saved a million dollars on coing Forest Avenue and yet there's a 2.6% increase. And with the money coming back to the states, which everyone knew was going to happen, um suffic mentioned often in the
096in the debate and in the talk in reference to coming back to the states, I can't understand why you wouldn't wait to see what effect that would have before closing a school. Just didn't make too much sense. Um, if you think closing a school, and was my alma mada, by the way, uh, is going to save money for the district and balance the budget, I don't think you took into consideration that every parent in West Babylon is going to vote no for that budget. And a lot of the parents that aren't even from West Babylon where their kids are going to go to that school and the entire district is going to be remapped is going to vote no for that budget. and everything that Bendy just mentioned is going to go away because you're
097going to end up in a a budget that's not going to pass and you'll end up in contingency. And it just it didn't make sense to me the vote. I mean, I was on that board of sports for 12 years. You guys know that. And every single year the agency came to us and they said, "Well, we got a good idea. We'll close the school and we'll bunch of deosis." And every year I made sure that happened. And the hell of them is made sure that happened. It never made sense. It doesn't make sense now. And I just don't understand the thought. And that being aside, I'll mention yes. Um I'm probably impartial to this as you guys know. You see the amount of guys that died on 911. Mhm. This is my 911 medal.
098You know, I have cancer. I had four back surgeries. I spoken to a couple of congressmen. I spoken to Mr. Mpatrick. I've spoken to Tom Susie. They both introduced the Patriot Day Act, a bipartisan bill for all to formally designate September 11th as a federal holiday. Anthony Dspazito is a friend of mine. He also is pushing for 911 anniversary to become the 12th federal holiday, saying where the nation can pause and never forget. I know the day before Thanksgiving is a good nice day, five day weekend, but getting a four-day weekend and never forgetting the attacks of 911 will be much more respectful to the people of our district who are affected by those events. And I appreciate you voting for it and Kathy voting for it. I know John wasn't here, but I know
099what John would have been. Ray will never know. He was 9 years old. It was the bravest fireman in the world. That's not even per se. Greatest fireman in the world and was killed that day. Whether it's Loon New Year, which I know is a mandated holiday. That's a Chinese Communist holiday. That's what we have off. We have to give babysitters for that day, but you took away Patriots Day. I get texts from board members that I can't believe a vote that decided to take that day away. I cannot even imagine what you're thinking. And everybody else, volunteer fire. And I mean, it's a disgrace. I wear this shirt. I'm proud. I was always proud to be here. Every one of you I I don't know. I don't know what anybody's thinking anymore that you
100can actually and I spoke to the union members. I want you to know I spoke to the union top members. The teachers didn't push. The teachers weren't saying we need to get that day off before Thanksgiving. It didn't need to happen. And it's funny how just last meeting it was it was written off with a pen. 30 seconds. 30 seconds. Please. 12 years. I fought for it. And the person who just swiped away with a pen just so happens to not coincidentally be here tonight. I don't know. Coincidentally, maybe something else to do. Does it make sense? Okay. And in closing, Andy, to you and your family, praise and praise and love every day, especially with you, I know you're going through and I just God's watching over you and love to your family and
101the Fantastic Four. I know I've never met you. I hope you're part of that four. It was a Fantastic Four. I know it still is a Fantastic Three. Hopefully, you're the fourth. Let's keep that Fantastic Four because without them, you guys are dead. Thank you. Hi everyone. Um Anagalas, 5129th Street. Um, on a positive note, I'm very happy to see some things are coming back, field trips, um, clubs and other things for the kids, but is there any chance that we can try to squeeze in the academic center for the kids at both the junior high level and the high school level? I feel the parents would be um, in the district happy to see that come back. um as that's one of the things that was taken you know before um and we were
102hoping it could come back. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Shannon Kamarda 849 Brook Street. Um I understand that the numbers are always constantly changing and evolving from presentation one to presentation three. I was just curious if it was possible to share how after presenting the program component in budget presentation number two where we were over budget by several hundred,000 that now we were able to bring back field trips at a cost of approximately $14,000. Um just and kind of like where that would fit within the budget like what line item obviously that that would kind of like be shifted into. Thank you. you can pull that now. Um, or I could I could definitely find the budget line and tell you exactly which budget line has a field trip. I I I saw you
103shuffling. I didn't know if that's I'll definitely Yes. Um, but yeah, towards the end I can I can pull the budget line to tell you exactly. Yeah, sure. Okay. Okay. Policy review first time reading. Need a motion to wave the first time reading and adopt as revised policy 1915 display of the flag. Oh, wait. Did I do agenda? Consent. I crossed it off on mistake. I apologize. I'm still new at this. I don't know how long I could say that. Uh, a motion to approve the consent agenda. Over there, Kathy. Thank you, Patty. All those in favor? Good. Okay. See, my line went through from you. Okay. First time reading policy 19 15 display of the flag. Motion to wave the first time reading and adopt is revised. Kathy Steve. All those in favor? Motion
104passes. Need a motion to consolidate policy 4311-R into revised policy 1915. John Patty. All those in favor? Motion passes. First time reading policy 2300, Board of Education membership motion to wave the first time reading and adopt policy 2300 as revised. Steve Kathy, all those in favor, everyone. Thank you. First time reading policy 9550, expression of breast milk in the workplace. Motion to wave first time reading and adopt policy 9550 is revised. Kathy, Patty, all those in favor. It's everyone. Okay, we're done with that. Old business, none. Okay, new business. Uh, I do need to announce um that the board does have a vacancy. Uh, trustee Ray Downey has resigned. Um, uh, on his behalf for good reasons, and that's something for uh him to explain if you're interested to know why. but just appreciate his
105service to the community and uh hopefully don't go rumor crazy out there looking too much into it. Um so we thank him for his years of service on the board. Uh I guess the next uh discussion would be Chris in reference to filling the vacancy. Um I know we've had some back and forth and you've done some information and how do how do we options to fill um and and how to go about that? So really there are no options. Um, since we have sufficient time between now and your budget vote, um, currently you have three board trustee seats that are open for three-year terms. Um, so you're going to have an election. You're going to fill those three seats. Um, Mr. Downy's seat, he had another year left on his seat. So, the law
106requires that whoever is the uh the fourth place uh vote receiver at your May u election would uh receive Mr. to down seat which would last until June 30th of of 2026. So it would last approximately a month you know year and a month and a half and that person who who receives that seat would actually become a board member right after the election vote in May. So they would start before the new the new the new candidates. Yep. So a question from um from a policy actually well election law question and as well just a policy we just re reviewed the p like they wouldn't have to get signatures. No well yes everybody has to so they would have to get signature there would have to be a candidate that puts in for one
107of the three seats which is now going to be one of the four seats. Well what I'm saying I'm let me phrase it because the current packets state on the top that the candidate the resident signing for is seeking a three-year term. We're going to have to we're going to have our our legal notice is going to clearly set forth um the fact that we have another seat open. So the b what would the ballot look like when people go to the they're not so they're not actually voting for a specific person for the oneear term. No like like some districts do you vote you're you're for a seat not at large where at large we vote at large. So yeah, so in the public in the the public notice that gets communicated uh in
108several newspapers, it'll be clearly communicated the fact that the fourth place um vote receiver will get will get that term that's the shorter term. Okay. So the packets don't have to be revised or nothing like that. No. Okay. Okay. And they'll start before the new candidates. I got that was my other question. Okay. Yes. And they'd still be required to take the training, New York State School Board's training as well within the first year. Yes. Okay. Any questions on that? Yeah. So, what if what if you don't get four people to run? Uh I guess if you don't Can you leave a seat vacant? Well, I mean, we're we're obligated if we have four people who run obviously that we would have four people. Correct. Um, if it turns out, let's say you didn't have
109four people that ran and you only had three people that ran, then your options would be either to leave the seat vacant, to have a separate election, or the board would have the ability to appoint somebody. Right. So, a special election obviously comes with an expense. Yes. Right. Right. And appointing somebody is nothing but controversy. So, um, but that's what that's one of your options, right? Okay. You have to run again. Yes. the person who got that one year and you know two month seat would have to run again next year. Yeah. But Chris question some districts have seats that are up that have different year terms. Is that there's some where you run and some are a three-year seat, some are a two-year seat. How does that doesn't work that way? No, they're all
110they're all they're all threeear seats. They're all threeear seats. How does it So how would it work for us? It's three, three, and three. How does that take place in a district where there's seven? Well, they just have different number of trustees that run each year. Okay. So, it's not always three. It's not always an even I got you. Right. Different site. Yeah. Okay. So, that's that was all I had. We don't And the time and the timeline to get the legal timeline to announce this is we have time to do that. Yes, we have time. We have time for legal notices to put all that in place. Okay. And because we do have enough time, we're required to do it this way. Okay. All right. Great. Have any other questions in reference to that?
111Anyone else? Oh, maybe a future date discuss. Does anyone Oh, to go to like seven. Yeah. Right now. Oh, okay. You're teasing us. you like it's like when we come back from commercial. All right. No, no worries. No worries. No. Okay. Yeah, we could just say that to a group discussion at a later date. We're good. Okay. All right. That's it. So that we don't need to motion on do adding that spot. Was it part of your consent agenda? Uh part of the consent agenda was his resignation. Right. No, but I'm saying to add that fourth to add that fourth that's just going to happen automatically operational law that we're required to. Okay, great. Okay. All right. At this statement of residence this time this whole thing again. At this time, residents wishing to share
112a statement should come forward to the microphone, state their name, their address, and any organization they may be representing. Residents can also write their name and address on the index card provided and present it to the interim assistant superintendent of finance and operations. We had to put the whole title in there, right? Okay. Prior to giving their statement, please be aware matters relating to individual students or employees cannot be discussed at a public board meeting. Residents will be given up to three minutes to share their statement. The statement of residents scheduled for 15 minutes. We will record any statements or questions and answers at the end if we can. If we're unable to, we'll provide that information at the next meeting. No one. Okay. This time we need a motion to adjurnn. Rosanne Anthony because
113I heard you. All those in favor? Okay. I looked over there a couple times. There's nothing going on. Yes. Well, I didn't have any state. Yeah. There's no statements. Dr. Left me. Is it on? It's It's part of the consent agenda in terms of accepting. Yes. Oh, we're accept Oh, you're presenting the Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was not made aware of this. It's in the consent agenda as accepting it, but it's not. Well, we're gonna hang on. It's unofficial. We bought a little library for all the junior. Thank you. The West Junior High School libraryed by Dr. Alison, superintendent Dr. in the board of trustes of education. Great. Awesome. I love it. Beautiful. Where's it? Where? Yeah. Great. [Music] Yes. I know. It came out. Great. Yeah, we should make one of
114those for all the phones when they come in. There we go.