001Okay. Good evening everyone. Uh, we need a motion to approve the minutes of the regular board of education meeting of 4212026. Frank, Steve, all those in favor? Everyone? Motion passes. Okay. Dr. Farrell. >> Okay. Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us. Earlier today, we held our budget hearing. Uh, please be sure to uh review our budget presentations that are posted on our website in addition to our line by line documents. Um if you have any questions please feel free to reach out to Miss Galante, to myself, to Mr. Hanley and we would be happy to um address your questions. Couple of questions that I have received with regards to the budget. Um one was um is the proposed tax levy of 2.21% is that um you know piercing the cap? You know the answer
002is no. The 2.21% 21% uh levy for our school district is within our allowable tax levy limit right set by the state. Actually, Mrs. Galante uh just received information from school districts throughout and the average in terms of the tax levy for this year seems to be about 2.4. So, we are below the overall um average that's uh within our region. Another area um that was um asked or question I should say that was asked is you know did we increase uh funding for field trips for next year? Yes. Um the budget doubles right for field trips for the next school year right that uh was currently included in this year's proposed budget. Now the question in terms of uh the propositions does proposition two right um what happens if proposition two and proposition three
003you know fails or doesn't pass right um you know how does that change our budget does that change our levy no right Proposition two and Proposition three have nothing to do with our school budget um that we are proposing to our community um it has nothing to do with the tax levy if those um do not pass then the facilities work that our board that our team, you know, that we're proposing to do with those funds and that work doesn't happen and those funds remain there, right, as part of the capital reserve uh fund at some future time period, right? Then the board can discuss and decide, do we put that back up for vote, right? Asking for our community's authorization to utilize the funds to continue to upgrade um our school system. So again,
004both Prop 2 and Prop Three do not affect our budget um in any way, shape, or form or our tax levy. There's a question and answer document. Um there are a couple of there's a newsletter actually that just went out. I don't know if it reached homes yet. We got our batch um earlier today. So you should be seeing that shortly. There's an electronic newsletter that will go out um next week and also the following week. And again just reminding everyone to please exercise your right to vote. Couple of other um statements for this section. The senior high school will be sending out details with regards to all the wonderful end of the year festivities that are coming up. Um I have received questions relating to our senior walkthrough specifically relating to plans as it
005relates to Forest Avenue Elementary School graduates. Um so again this all of this information right will be going out um by our senior high school team. But since I've received that question, I figured I would bring it to our attention here. So Tuesday, June 16th, um is uh last day of classes at the high school, right? That's when we are looking to do our walkthroughs. All seniors who attended Forest Avenue Elementary School will be asked to complete a Google survey indicating which elementary school they would like to attend. Right, during the senior walkthrough, uh the survey will list the current teachers um that are located, right, in terms of in the building. So specifically where Forest Avenue teachers are, they are spread throughout our four elementary schools so that students can see maybe where a
006former Forest Avenue teacher is currently teaching um if they wanted to obviously visit that particular building. All seniors are going to uh report to the pack right at 8:30. Um at around 9ine we're going to have uh two buses right and any former Forest Avenue student will have the opportunity to go to Forest uh to take pictures outside and on the playground. um that will take place kind of between 9 and 9:30. At 9:30, they'll return to the high school pack at which point around 9:40, 9:45, all students will board our we're going to have eight buses, right? Distribute out to for each elementary school and they'll participate in our senior walkthrough. Um after the elementary school walkthroughs are all finished, then we'll conclude with a junior high school walkthrough, um which we did last
007year as well. So that's kind of the general overall plan. And again, all this information, right, will come out from the high school, right, to our families and our soon to be graduates. Let's see. Earlier today, email communications was shared with families with regards to how to access graduation tickets. We ask all families to please review that notification carefully as it includes specific links, a QR code, and information relating to where families can access their student specific access code. We ask families who would like to request additional tickets to please include that information in that designated area of that website. Please rest assured we are going to try our very best to accommodate as many requests as possible without of course compromising our goals for the evening. And that's all I had for this section
008of the agenda. >> Thank you. >> Miss Scoal, you're up. >> Good evening everyone. Um right now students at the high school are focused on AP exams. these two weeks. Um, we're preparing for the end of the school year, even with our busy schedules of studying for some sports and clubs. Um, we're continuing to stay involved and work hard both inside and outside of the school building. Um, we're also all looking forward to upcoming spring events and senior activities as the school year winds down. >> Exciting time period. >> You counting the days? >> Okay. >> Are you going to continue to come to our Tuesday night board meetings. >> You know, there's a live stream. >> Oh, well done. Well done. Well done, Miss. >> All right. Uh, a statement of residence on agenda
009items only. Uh, resident wishing to share a statement on an agenda item. Please come to the podium. State your name, address, and any organization you may represent. You can also write this information on an index card and present it to the assistant superintendent for finance and operations. Comments about individual students or employees are not permitted. Each resident will have up to three minutes to speak with a total of 15 minutes allotted. Responses will be given after all statements. Questions needing further research will be addressed at the next meeting. Okay. Okay. That's good. Uh need a motion to approve the consent agenda. Frank Anthony. All those in favor? That's everyone. Okay. Any old business? New business. Just one thing for uh new business hit me today when I was passing by the sign out front. Um
010I know we have the top 10 uh cycling through the new sign and we did the college signing day. uh have we or do we do any type of acknowledgement for students who uh are going to be graduating with you know a certification from CTE training or Boseis training where they're already selected their career you know we have kids that are going to go out to college to get educated for their future career but then we have some kids who will graduate and start their career on Monday do we ever do anything to kind of >> highlight what they've already decided to become Or is it possibility >> on the message board? No. >> No, no. I mean just in general. We we I know I know we we we do a lot for college
011college signing day. We do the acknowledgement for the top 10. Is there any way to highlight I don't know the group can get in on this just a discussion to kind of show where some of those students who graduate are starting their career right after they graduate. You know, who's who's going to be >> so those that complete a program >> a certification program. Yeah. We could definitely um we can touch base with the senior high school, right? >> Okay. Yeah. Because I know we we've done a much better job over the past few years of exposing students to that opportunity. I think it'd be good to complete it by highlighting those who have taken advantage of it. >> Yeah, definitely. I mean, and in reality, actually years ago, we actually had more way more
012students, you know, participating in in in those. So, the involvement and um participation in the CTE programs has always been pretty steady within our within our district. Um but um I understand the ask right taking a look at how we can acknowledge the students that culminate in programs with a certification. >> Right. Right. >> I actually >> that's different than I just want to culminating with the certification. >> Yeah. In other words, they're career ready. You know, they're graduating high school. They start Monday, not you know, four or five, six years from now. >> Okay. I was actually gonna, it's funny that you brought that up with the new business because I was gonna um go with the armed for anyone that enlisted with armed forces to see if we can put them up there.
013You know, >> we definitely So, so two things I think we're talking the sign and then in terms of recognition the students, we definitely do multiple resentment for on the sign. I think >> definitely >> I mean listen the opportunity right um in terms of acknowledging students and to be able to have it in color and their pictures. Absolutely. I mean, that's definitely a huge plus for us to be able to do that. It's the first time ever that we've highlighted student pictures, right? >> I love Chris's idea. I didn't even think about that. >> We're all We're all okay with that. >> Absolutely. Because there are some apprenticeships kids are going right into. >> Yeah. Someone's going to be an electrician and, you know, they're going to graduate and be working Monday after they
014graduate on their career. So, >> yeah, we'll talk to the team. >> Okay. >> Definitely. Great. >> Definitely want that. >> Okay. Uh, that was all I had for that. Okay. Statement of residence on any general topic. Residents wishing to share a statement, please come to the podium, state your name, address, any organization you may represent. You can also write this information on index card, give it to the assistant superintendent of finance and operations. Comments about individual students or employees are not permitted. Each resident will have up to three minutes to make a statement with a total of 15 minutes allotted. Responses will be given after all statements. Any questions needing further research will be addressed at the next meeting. How are you? Press the button. >> Yeah, that little Yeah, sorry about that. >>
015There we go. >> There you go. A little oil. >> Good evening. My name is Teresa Vieiraa. Um, I'm a resident of West Babylon. I live at 1533 12th Street. I'm an attorney. I'm a senior parent and I'm a resident of the community for over 25 years. I'd like to address what has been the elephant in the room as far as the parents are concerned with respect to the limitation of five tickets for graduation. Um my understanding is that there was some kind of an altercation or something that happened yes last year at the ceremony that may have led to this decision. So I'm here today to respectfully request that to be reconsidered. Um, the quantity of tickets issued does not guarantee the quality of the guests that are coming. And perhaps there's an alternative
016way of having better security or more security or police presence or something as a deterrent for these possible altercations. I don't know if it's happened in the past before. Um, I certainly am not aware of that. But the kids are very upset. This is supposed to be a time where they're celebrating the accomplishments of a very long career and the kids are super upset about trying to figure out can grandma come and not grandpa or what about my uncle who's flying in? Um people have bought tickets and they bought tickets months ago because of the way that airline prices and things are and to kind of just find this out in the last month or so um is a problem that people are here. They want to come see their loved ones graduate and now
017they're going to be I thank you for paying for that ticket, but you're going to sit in my house and watch a live stream. So, they're understandably upset. I'm concerned, you know, about their well-being as far as having to make those decisions. There's also some questions about how what the maximum number of additional tickets are going to be, how those are going to be allocated. Is it a subjective? You know, this person has this many immediate family and they're going to get the tickets versus, you know, I want to take grandma and grandpa. So, there's a couple of questions about how those additional tickets are going to be um sent out and and decided upon. Um I also have a statement. Is it okay if I read a statement from someone else? I don't know
018if that's allowed. I can sort of summarize. >> I mean, you have another minute. I mean, I'm not I'm not at a hard stop on that, but I I you know, we're very flexible. But, >> um, it's kind of basically like what I just said, but, you know, it's a person who's been in this community, has graduated from West Babylon, has been at every ceremony for the past x amount of years, and and she also is concerned that she now has to limit the people that have been a part of this tradition for all of these years. Um, well, having older people navigate YouTube is not always the easiest thing. And if you're not there to show them how to do it, they may miss out entirely on their kids' graduation. >> You could also
019I just not I'm not just still your time. You can also submit that statement and then we would all get get that as well if you want to see in its entirety. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Um I'm I'm happy to submit >> because I see like you're kind of breezing through it. We could see it in entirety. That's fine if you want to see. >> I'm happy to if Kathy is okay with that, I'm okay with doing that. Sure. Um and that's basically our concern. You know, we just want to do what's right for these kids. >> Yep. No, that's definitely understood and those are things that we discussed openly. Some of those concerns, a lot of those questions were submitted as well and discussed. Um, I don't know if you have anything you wanted
020to add. I There was some obviously some information >> now at the end. >> Yeah. Well, I I don't know. Are you Are you speaking for everybody in the crowd? >> Oh, no. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm my my mistake. >> Sort of. I mean, yes, I am, but there's additional >> Okay, understood. I don't know if you had another statement. >> I do not have another statement. Okay. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you. Hello there. Um, my name is Colleen Pelichion. I live at 154314th Street. Been a resident of West Babylon for over 25 years. Um, and my daughter is a senior, so I am speaking on behalf of her and of course um, the entire graduating class. Um, I am a licensed clinical social worker, so I'm very um in tune
021to dealing with um crises and also the psychological well-being of students. I know that West Babylon has set a priority in um promoting the psychological well-being for students, especially this specific class who has dealt with a significant amount of tragedy, starting with the loss of Omar and then Bella and then R.J. R.J. and then Liam to lose their classmates and to be dealing with the profound losses that they've had to overcome in the last year and a half or so and then to be faced with a situation where they have to now choose which loved ones are going to be at their graduating ceremony when they know that their some of their classmates aren't is putting them in a lot of distress. they are coming home crying trying to figure out um if I you
022know there's um blended families where is my stepdad going to come or is my real dad going to come but I have my stepsister over here but I have three siblings over here so I do I tell my sister that she can't and the concern of course not only with with this is that just in light of one experience or one bad experience um which we were not part of last year's graduation, but we had heard that there was a situation. We can't change what's happened, but we can put into place things to make sure that those things don't happen again to penalize a group of individuals that have worked so hard. And this class is a pretty good class. Um there's never been issues at events. Blue and Gold actually got more tickets to
023go into Blue and Gold than you're allocating to be able to go to the graduation in an open arena. Um, we want we want to be able to celebrate everything that they've not only accomplished academically but overcame as young individuals. So, young uh young women and men that have had to deal with these losses and have really prospered. Um so we don't want one situation to kind of change the altercation of all the benefits that could be to them. In all past years um ceremonies were wonderful. You know pe people came the community came people celebrated um all you know that whole experience as a part of the West Babylon community. Um and we wish that we could continue that with with our children going forward. Um yes we do know that there is a
024process now to you know access extra tickets but again how many extra tickets and what is the process of you know we read that it was um you know uh fair well you know my neighbor who ra you know raised my kids who we call grandma like she wants to come and attend and she's lived here for 60 years in the community but would that be fair because she's not really a biological grandmother over somebody house like who's making the decisions of how many extra tickets and what is fair for the for the you know that grouping. Um but I appreciate your time and listening to me. >> Thank you so >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Good evening everybody. Mike Rosenberger, 31 Broadway. Um just uh first of all thought that was a great idea
025by Chris tonight about the uh you know for the announcement day. I did see that other districts were doing something similar uh in that regard where they were announcing, you know, those attending military service and those going into other jobs. So, I think that would be great if we uh did that here as well. I thought that was a good suggestion. Thanks for that, Chris. Uh I just wanted to piggyback off of what um these parents had said tonight. Um you know, I know the board already rendered their decision and I know the you know, how the how that goes. Um but just in general um speaking from a general point of view um you know a lot of people in the community were upset about the change in ticket policy uh the implementation of
026the t ticket policy and I know that you know we can't always you know have it all our way meaning you know the district has one way of looking at things and the parents have another way of looking at things. Um, and I think that, you know, there's a difference between hearing the community and listening to to the community. So, you know, hearing the community is, you know, oh, they're saying something and we hear you, but, you know, it has to be this way. You know, listening is, you know, taking in the information and empathizing and, you know, then coming up with a sort of a middle ground. And I thought when I was at, you know, listening to the meeting last week, you know, I thought the board was heading in that direction. um
027you know trying to meet find that middle ground. You know there was a presentation um of an idea that you know maybe we can do six tickets but if we do then we're gonna have to put some extra seats on the field or seven tickets but then people are going to be all the way in the back and there might be some sound issues or you know other other types of issues might arise from that. But at least at that point you know it would show that we heard the community. You know we're willing to meet in the middle. You know X says you know the district says five parents want it all open. Well, we can't all have it our way, so let's meet in the middle. Let's do six or seven tickets. Um,
028so I just feel like in a general sense, I think it's important that we, you know, try to work on compromise, uh, with the community when it comes to situations like this. Um, and it should be up to the community to decide whether or not, you know, they want to not have to hear, you know, the sound of, uh, you know, the the announcements of the names. you know, my kids always want to go to concerts. And a lot of the times when I get tickets, you know, last things available are in the nosebleleeds and sometimes you're behind the stage, but it's not about what you see and what you hear. It's about being there. And and I think that was a big issue um for a lot of parents. They just wanted to be
029there. Grandparents, they just want to be there. It doesn't matter if they can hear it or they can see it, you know, it's all about that, you know, being present. So I just wanted to know I know you know I respect your decision uh but I just think going forward you know it's something to consider you know looking at things holistically and trying to meet in the middle for a compromise. Thanks. >> Yeah. Well if I could just I know I you jump in. I just I want to just emphasize one other point to to those who did speak and I know we're we're talking about the now. I just want to emphasize when those other incidents it wasn't one incident. when those other incidents took place over last couple years, few years, um the
030voices in the room weren't, well, I'm glad grandma and grandpa came. It it was the embarrassment, the the messages and emails about what are you going to do? You know, there was a lot of that too that obviously you don't hear now because those people have graduated. So, yeah, there is a response uh the board discussed openly as Mr. Rosenberger just just indicated. uh there was a decision made, but there was a lot more people that were vocal about what occurred and what's going to change and it happened two years in a row. So that there is another side of that that conversation that did take place and and I understand it's a change now that every you know everybody's going to adapt to and I think Dr. Farrell will emphasize some other things as
031well. But that was a very very loud voice in the room to us through messages and emails about what are you going to do? There's fights. There's parents arguing while validictorian's giving a speech. They're cramped in front of the bleachers. There was a lot of those messages before. So, it's not just a decision made because of one incident. It's listening to another part of the community as well. And that's what the balance was. It was an open discussion and the board did obviously move in a direction. But if you wanted to jump in. >> Sure. No, I definitely um I'll reiterate the piece. I mean, the the situation last year I would I would say was probably the tipping point, right? you know, it's it's um the um I'll call it the incident that was
032uh most uh visible, right? Because um it started during graduation and then trickled through into parking lots and Suffach County PD was involved and whatnot. But I have to emphasize that that was the tipping point, right? As as um Mr. Pavlo indicated, we've had five to six years, not including COVID, so really probably a little bit less than that. um four years, right, where we have had pushing shoving arguments, right, that didn't expand to parking lots in Suffach County PD per se, but our school resource officers addressed, right, so people within those immediate areas. So the crowding safety piece has been an increased piece throughout the last um couple years across the board. Uh you know, some of the maybe our comments or the recommendations that have been um brought up, we've we've instituted, right?
033So we have um increased our chaperones. Uh we've increased our school our entire squad of our school resource officers, right, who are all phenomenal former law enforcement, right? They're all on, right? It's not a matter of, oh, we only have a few, right? Everyone is on. We've changed kind of strategically where they stand, where they are, who they're focused on. Um we've closed out different areas. Um we've had overcrowding in different areas that in addition to um yes the arguments between parents and the pushing and shoving and those types of pieces that then the following year we closed off because in not because of that and also because of egress right and and safety issues and then ultimately to only cause kind of concerns in other areas in terms of crowded umness um inviting Suffach
034County PD we've invited them right unless there's an issue right um they will not send a presence, right, to be there for the entire um for the entire ceremony. Um so every year we've made some slight different changes to different things to account for um some of the crowding safety pieces, right? And not necessarily here, but uh it was a conversation I had with someone else. The reality is that with five people in a room, right, you can't guarantee safety, right? So that that is definitely, you know, um understood. That's understood for all of us, right? in terms of wherever we go. We do also um you know, we're looking to mitigate right um and reduce those that come with a natural crowding piece um that um those of us that have been at graduations
035for right in my case um you know since 2006 um so 20 years in our district the last four years right um the they're they're um the safety issues relating to crowds um top of each other is a concern. Uh that it's only a matter of time in terms of kind of the next step, right? Um peace and and hopefully again, God willing, um you know, never. I do absolutely um understand the challenges of up to five, right? When I reached out to colleagues throughout Long Island and heard the um they issue four, I was like, "Oh my goodness." Right? Um my own self, I'm a divorced household, right? My own district for my graduate this year. uh the the Google form was request up to four no guarantee. So I do understand from a
036personal level with a large family, divorce households, right, what what that means. Um and the you know the the differences there in terms of saying to family, okay, join us for the celebration afterwards but not the ceremony. I get that. I do. Um we the the other piece um I think someone uh to address one of the uh questions um was uh with regards to the additional tickets and the how right it is not our business we would not be indicating oh grandma is more than this person or that person right so that questionnaire doesn't include the the where or the why or the who right or any of those pieces it's um simply asking for how many additional tickets right are you requesting um so So the manner in which they would be you
037know additional tickets right would be um assigned or distributed right to um families wouldn't be based on the who um so by example um if we have I don't know 60 additional tickets right to assign right um and there are I don't know you know Dr. Mr. Neville requested an additional 15 tickets, right? Miss Gobble requested an additional two, right? Miss, right? Uh however, we can evenly do it in a way. Okay, based on how many we have, we're going to all these individual families that have requested, we can assign an additional one across the board, right? So, when we say in terms of even and um distribution, right, it's not accounting for oh, who's more important, right? Or that's not within our purview. It really is to try and as fair as possible, right?
038For everyone that that requested um to assign additional um additional tickets, as I mentioned in my opening statement, we are absolutely without compromising again our goal, right? You know, in terms of enhancing safety and and and looking at the capacity in terms of that of of people that we'll have there as it relates to how many school resource officers we have on hand, all those pieces. Um we absolutely are going to try to accommodate as many requests as come through as possible accounting for the track. I had mentioned that I think in one of the meetings right counting for you know some of those um you know other areas the how many I don't know right because until the process unfolds and we see how many families are in the mix. I've had families that
039have reached out and said hey Dr. Farley just as an FYI we're not going to need all of our tickets right so you're going to have an extra two for my side to be able to assign. Right? So we do know that there will be families that will may not necessarily need all five. Um so we'll have that bucket um plus again some strategic planning with with the the track. We need to get to the point of first seeing the the ask for the additional to then be able to determine that. And all I can say is that I can assure you that Mr. Olirri, Mr. Deain, Mr. Fury, you know, Mr. But we've we've met countless times and we will absolutely try to again within reason without compromising the original reason why we're doing
040all of this try to accommodate as many as possible evenly right in terms of throughout as opposed to oh you know Dr. Neville requested 10 and Miss Global is here and she requested one well we're going to give the 10 available only two right uh Dr. Right. We we want to be able to kind of reach all families requested. Um so that that is um that's where we're at. I think I in terms of the different areas. >> Hopefully everybody's reading between those lines. Yes. >> Yeah. I get >> Thank you. >> Um >> thank you, Mr. >> Okay, we need a motion to adjurnn and enter into executive session to discuss an individual employee matter. Patty, Katie, all those in favor? Okay. Thank Thank you very much. Thank you. Have a good