001Okay, good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us. All right. Ready. Okay. I need a motion to approve the minutes of the regular board of education meeting of 513 2025. Patty John. All those in favor? Okay, Dr. Farley. Okay, good evening everyone. I will keep this short because we have many special guests here who are going to be presenting shortly. Uh, congratulations to Mr. Medina. Welcome also first day on and congratulations to Mr. Po, Miss Armado and Miss Thyman Johnson. um who have been reelected to continue to serve as our as part of our board. Looking forward to uh working with all of you. And uh congratulations to Grace Goel, right? Our first um exeicio, right? This is one of our senior high school students. She was elected by her student body and she will
002be sitting up here on her JS um somewhere somewhere. We're gonna we're going to need to kind of squeeze in our elbows a little bit. She will be joining us um in July as our student representative on the board. So, we're looking forward to having her on. And that's all I had for this section of the agenda. Okay. A couple pres. There's no other statements that I have here. That's correct. Okay. Okay. You're next. You're up. All right. At this point, I would like to invite uh Mr. Greg Cunningham, who is our interim Forest Avenue principal, and Mrs. Andrea Francisco, our school library media specialist, to come up to the podium to um share a little bit about what we are going to be hearing about today and um to present our special guests that
003are in the audience. Good evening everyone. I'd just like to thank you for this opportunity because I know we have some very excited students and some very proud Forest Avenue parents here this evening. Um when I first took over the job, uh Mrs. Manzy, one of the first things she told me was that we'd be doing one of these presentations and she said, "You have to talk to Andrea." And I did. And she's put like, "Wait, what are you talking about?" I can't tell you the amount of time and effort that she's put into it. She's an incredible teacher and she's just one of the hardest working teachers I've ever come across. So, thank you so much. And the kids have certainly worked as hard. So, I don't want to talk anymore because I know
004we're on a time limit, but now I'm going to turn the program over to Miss Francisco. Yes. Thank you. Is it okay if they come and just stand up here? Absolutely. Definitely. We're going to put them up here. Not sure if we need this or not. So, good evening BOE members and attendees. I am Mrs. Francisco, the school library media specialist at Forest Avenue Elementary School. Tonight, I am here to share our very first ever Forest Avenue Invention Convention, which was held on February 11th, 2025. Inspired by the Henry Ford Invention Convention Worldwide, former Forest Avenue principal Gail Manesia and myself worked with students to be critical problem solvers who can brainstorm, be creative and innovative, have fun, but most of all have grit. Inventing is not easy and it comes with a lot of
005trials and tribulations. What exactly did we do to make this event worthwhile and fun? It all started with just what do you do with an idea? How could we inspire students to be creative thinkers and problem solvers? To kick off this event, former principal Manesy visited every classroom from grades K through five to challenge students to think of an everyday problem that they could possibly solve. She read stories um and tried to inspire students as well as shared v videos to get their brains thinking. In library, we talk a lot about the inventions but not not necessarily the inventors. So we did some research, we read a lot, we wrote biographies and we posted our biographies on an inventor biography eboard and then we were lucky enough to have a Zoom meeting where students got
006to meet Alan Amron, the inventor of the sticky note, also known as the Post-it. The culmination of this amazing event took place during the school day in order to give all of our Forest Avenue students, staff, and families the opportunity to meet our innovative inventors and get a hands-on demonstration of their inventions. With that in mind, who better to tell you more than our inventor inventors themselves. While we had over 50 student inventors participate, I could only bring a couple of them with me tonight. They are Elliot Jelly, Ryan Torres, Kellen Kenny, Addison Damonte, Anthony Damonte, Ashley McCoy, and Giana Paresi. So, without further ado, I give them the floor. First up is Elliot and Ryan. Hi, I'm I'm Ellie Jelly. I'm one of inventors of the board game Minecraft Chase. Its purpose is that
007people go on their iPads too much. It's not for children under four years old because we don't want them to swallow any game pieces and cards. Hi, I'm Ryan Torres. I'm the other inventor of the board game Minecraft. I had fun inventing this game, especially since I got to spend time in person with my friend Elliot Jelly, which is part of the purpose of our game. We want to play games in person, not on a screen. I had so much fun making this game. I hope we do mention convention in my next school. Do do you have any questions for us? How do you play? So, you start at the start and you have to get to the end. And there's some there's like some blocks that you shouldn't step on and you should What
008happens if you land on a block that you shouldn't step on? Um, you could either go um three blocks back or or you have to go back behind um one of them. Definitely. We hope you have a good night. Thank you for having us. Next is Kellen. Hi, I'm Kellen Kenny. I'm in third grade and my invention is the shoe knot and tire. I was really glad that we had this invention convention. I got to be a problem solver. For me, the problem solved is no more knots and shoes. My invention is made with the two ends of a spork. You can get one from your school cafeteria. Use both the spork part and the end of the spork. It is held together by packing tape and crazy glue. The base of the shoe knot
009and tire is a nail file which I also use to sharpen the head of the shoe knot and tire to make it easier to get through knots. that not it's easy and simple to make so people can make it at home. They're at home materials so you can probably find the materials in a draw in the your kitchen for safety purposes the age of three and under cannot use this invention. I will answer any questions. Do you have any? Can I buy one for you from you? It's my every morning with my daughter. I have to see this definitely. And he demonstrated at the convention. So we all came up with our we made a knot and tried him and he did not fail. It worked. Yeah, it worked. Definitely worked. Definitely. Hi, I'm Addison
010and I'm in fourth grade. And with me is my co-inventor Anthony. He's in second grade. We created the Super Soda Saver because at home we always open soda like salsa and sometimes co Coke and we leave them open overnight and then the next day it is all flat. With the Super Soda Saver, we reuse an empty water bottle or vitamin water bottle and we have crystals in the bottle. And when you pour the soda in the empty water or vitamin water bottle, the crystals make the soda bubbly again. Any questions? You say crystals? Yeah. It's like these like caffeine crystals that are like in our bottle and we have them like pre in there and when you have your flat soda, when you pour it in, it makes the soda bubbly again. I hope you
011like our demonstration of our invention. We hope you have a good night. [Applause] Understood. Next up, next we have Ashley and Giana. Hi, my name is Giana Prey. I'm in third grade. Hi, my name is Ashley McCoy. I'm also in third grade. Our invention is called the AG magnetic ball retriever. What made us think of this is when you hit a ball far and you don't have to run and get it. It was super fun to create and the best part is that we got to hang out and create together and also learn how to drive it. Driving it was a fun and crazy process. The cool part was able other kids were able to drive it which put a smile on our faces. How it works is first you would turn it on. Then
012you would hit the ball, but for demonstration purposes, we will roll the ball, not throw it or hit it. Then you would drive the car to the ball. drive the car and drive back to you. Ah, perfect. Any questions? I had my dad. He drilled the triangle in it and then he would push the magnet in and it doesn't fall. Thank you for having us and letting us talk about it. We hope you get to do this again next year. [Applause] Thank you for having us and allowing us the opportunity to share our invention convention with you. We hope this inspires other schools to want to do this next year. Behind us has been a presentation that's been running of all of our wonderful inventors and their inventions and the link will be shared for
013everyone to check it out. And we thank you again and hope you have a wonderful evening. Excellent. Thank you. Well done, boys and girls. If I can have a group picture up here of this amazing group. And by the way, this presentation we're going to post it, we'll post it online. And Miss Francis, if you can share with me the link, I can put it online also so that everyone can click and see all the inventions. Stand behind this help. Yeah. Yeah. Come around. You have to go in. Yeah. And you have to But then you have to take it. Yep. Mr. Cunningham. Okay. Ready? Big smiles. One, two, three. Okay. Don't move. Don't move. Okay. Here we go. Big smiles. Two, three. [Music] [Applause] Great job, boys and girls. Great work. Thank you. Thank
014you. So, not as exciting or equally as exciting, maybe equally as exciting. I would like to invite Mr. Michael Leone to come up, partner of Colin and Dowski, our external auditors. No, equally definitely equally as exciting. That's great. First of all, I have a question. This is the most important question. Can I hire these inventors? I mean, we got to figure out a way how to shorten the audit. Yeah, I mean, and I could use that. Definitely. So, good evening everybody. My name is Mike Leone. I'm the engagement partner on the annual audit. Uh, it's that magical time of the year again. Uh, this is the first of two meetings. Uh, this is the planning meeting. Uh, before you, you have a presentation that I handed out. Uh if you could kindly turn to the
015overview uh right here, I'll just tell you what's included in the um in the planning document. First, we have the engagement objectives. Then we're going to talk a little bit about the audit engagement, what it is and what it's not, what what it's intended to do. Uh then I will speak to our auditor's responsibilities, the standards that we have to follow. Then we'll discuss what the district's responsibilities are for providing us the information so that we can audit it. Um then I'll talk a little bit about our audit methodology and our approach which happens in two phases a planning phase interim work and then our substantive work when we come back at year end. Uh we'll look at the timetable and then of course I'm going to mention some two thing two things about uh
016some gazsby standards that are out there. One is applicable this year which is important and we'll have to talk a little bit more about it. It's Gazsby 101 that relates to compensated absences. And then the next one is on financial reporting which is effective for next year. So with that said, I'm going to turn to the engagement objectives. Uh every engage every audit engagement external audit. Um we have to provide reasonable assurance that the financial statements are fairly stated. We go about that in various ways. We perform risk assessments. We look at internal controls. We do substantive testing. Um, and if we're comfortable with all the numbers that roll up to the financial statement, we issue what is known as an unmodified opinion. That means it's a clean financial statement. We're also required under government
017auditing standards to report on internal controls over compliance with laws and regulations. Uh, if we have any issues that relate to that, we would have to include that in the report. I'm happy to say that in the past, we've never had those issues with West Babylon. Additionally, we have two other things that we have to report on. We have to report on the extra classroom activities funds as well as we perform a federal uh single audit. The district does receive more than $750,000 in federal funding. I think last year was a little over 6 million. Um that is going to change to a million dollar that threshold. Uh but right now that's I don't see the district coming under that anytime soon. So we perform certain procedures that relate to that. Moving to page two,
018the audit engagement. as I mentioned is designed to obtain reasonable insurance. How do we do that? We establish a materiality by the various different funds that are included within the district. Uh we also perform sample methodologies uh to look at certain items to make sure that they're recorded properly. Uh one of the things that we also look at is internal controls but we're not engaged to appine upon the internal controls. So uh we may come up with management letter comments which are areas for improvement. Uh so it's important to remember that that we don't test every transaction. We sample transactions and we make a determination on the opinion. So our responsibilities in addition to what I just mentioned, we have to follow certain professional standards. Uh those standards include generally accepted auditing standards and we're
019on page three right now. uh government auditing standards as I mentioned with compliance with laws and regulations and the single audit act which relates to the federal funding that they receive. We're required to have this meeting with you and also a conclusion meeting where we go over the financial statements with you and we report any other findings that we may have. Um and one of the most important things is we have to m independence we have to maintain independence throughout the entire audit. Moving to page four, we have the district's responsibilities. Now it's it's a big job on the district. Uh so you know we come here for interim a few days and then we come here at year end and then we also have to assist in preparing the financial statements. So there's a
020lot of information that needs to be gathered. Um so you can see just from this alone all the bullet points here. Um they're they have to they have to give us the information that's required to report in the financial statements. Um, they also have to have someone that's responsible with the skills, knowledge, and expertise to oversee our help in preparing the financial statements. Uh, they have to abide by accounting policies. Um, and you can see there's numerous other ones here. At the end of the engagement, we will be required to obtain a representation letter. We do that every year. Um, and that basically states that the district has provided us with all the information necessary to report on the financial statements. Moving to the next page, page five. This speaks to our audit methodology and
021our approach. Uh again, I I mentioned this is in two phases. The interim phase, which we did complete May 12th, we'll be back for the week of August 25th to to do our substantive work, which means the books are closed and we'll start working on the on the substantive phase of the audit. Uh so the planning phase is gaining an understanding of the internal controls, looking at journal entries, going through the narratives, making sure that things are real tidy and our risk assessments are solid so that our approach for the audit is right. Then when we come back at year end, we perform our actual audit procedures. Um and this will include testing account balances uh you know including with interim interviewing people um and doing the necessary procedures so that we can appine upon
022the financial statements. You can see them enumerated here. Um, and so that carries on to page six. Again, it just gives you some flavor of some of the areas that we work on. You know, on page six, we talk about payroll, revenue recognition, real important. Uh, restricted reserve activity, capital projects, expenditures, and the like. Uh, once we're done with all of our work, the uh we're now on page seven. We will present um draft audit financial statements. Uh we have to coordinate the year-end meeting on that. Typically, that's been at the end of September. Um I've indicated in the timetable that's probably September, October this year. So, we'll work through that. Uh we present the draft audit report. We present the communication to the uh audit committee/board. Uh if we have any findings that relate
023to management letter comments, we report them to you and the district will be responsible for a corrective action plan on that. Uh we do submit the financial statements to the state by October 15th. Uh I would expect that that's going to continue uh so that we meet that deadline. You do have an an additional 30-day extension until November 15th, but we typically like to get that done by October 15th. All right. And then the federal single audit will be submitted by March. That you have nine months after year end. So your junior year end would be March of 2026. Page eight is the timetable. As I mentioned, we were here May 12th. We did some of our interim work. We've reviewed that interim work. We'll be back for the week of August 25th to complete
024our year-end work. Then we'll take everything that we have back and we'll start working on the financial statements and completing the audit in our office. Um, and then we'll issue in the late September, early October phase to make sure that we uh get the reports submitted to the state by October 15th. And as I mentioned, federal single audit will be March of 2026. Now, as far as new standards, uh there's one new standard that's applicable this year. It's Gazsby 101, compensated absences. Um it's different than in prior years. In prior years, you know, you have a number of bargaining units. And you just calculated what the anticipated payout would be for those bargaining units based on the the contracts. Gazsby 101 enhances that a little bit and they require you to take into consideration all
025the time that has been earned by someone and the potential that they might use that additional time. So, it requires the district to look at some historical information. More than likely, it's going to increase the compensated absence liability. One thing to consider, uh, and I know a lot of districts look at this is they also have an established reserve to pay for these compensated absences. We're waiting for the comproller to come out with some sort of regulation as to uh whether or not you can use the employee benefit acred liability for this additional liability. more than likely not because it was designed to just pay out when people retire. Uh so this could be GSBY 101 takes into consideration if I'm if I'm I'm at the district for 20 years, if I'm taking a lot
026of sick days, I'm going to get paid for that in my payroll as opposed to being paid out at a later date. So that's one of the things that needs to be considered. So we'll work through that with the district. We'll talk a little bit about some historical information that we'll need and that they'll have to gather so that we can come up with that that liability. Okay. The following year, uh this is a big big change. It's a new accounting standard, Gazsby 103, and it's going to be financial reporting improvement phase where it requires the district to not only report on budget to actual, but also add a lot of information within the financial statements and supplementary information explaining why there are those changes, right? It makes the MDNA really important and it makes
027that supplementary information very important. So there's a rationale behind why did why did why was my budget you know why was my actual higher than my budget or vice versa. All right. So uh important when we when we come back next year and we're ready for the planning phase we'll talk a lot more about that but this should be something to to keep in the back of your mind that's uh coming down the pike. All right. Are there any questions with respect to Yes. Can you explain the Gazsby 101 like just a little bit more? Sure. Sure. So, so what happens is um it's part of the bargaining units you're uh you can earn a certain amount of acred time each year. Uh within the bargaining unit contract, you're eligible um to accumulate that time
028and get paid out based on what that contract states. Some contracts might be 50% of your time. Some contracts might be a certain dollar amount per hours that you have. Um, so in the past, the way that has been set up is it's based on the collective bargaining unit and some estimates that the district does at the probability of people going to retire and what they'll be paid out based on the bargaining unit contract. What's changed now with Gazsby 101 is they're saying, let's say you accumulated 200 hours, but you're only entitled to be paid out 100 hours. that 100 hours of pool of time is potentially still a liability because someone might take that time before they retire. So that's why there needs to be some historical information to look at active employees as
029well as retirees. So um you know anything with the Gazsby is to enhance the um you know financials. Um again it does cause a lot of a lot of extra work. Uh, but that's some of the main things that you have to be worried about. And it also includes like donated pool time. So if people donate time to others, you have to track that. And I know the district tracks that, but again, that's something that needs to be taken into consideration. And there's various components that go into this. There's sick time, vacation time, there's donated pool time. All of those things need to be factored in. And typically the the best way to handle that is look at it by bargaining unit because that's where you're going to get the most valuable information. uh to
030come up with this estimate, but we'll definitely assist in that area because it's anytime you get a new standard, it's it's complicated um and it's hundreds of pages. So, we kind of sort through that and kind of summarize it for you. Well, you're going to So, we're going to identify a potential liability is if if everybody was take that time, how would the district afford to pay that outright? Yeah. Does that equate to a separate reserve to reduce that liability or No. So, you already you already have an existing reserve. It's it's not going to equate to that. I mean, we have to wait for the comproller to come out and see if they're going to have a statement on whether or not you're able to use that employee benefit acrewed liability reserve that you
031currently have because Yeah, because that's the reserve you typically use and they allow you to fund up to 100%. We've seen districts that fund more uh but they can come in and criticize you if you have more than the actual liability that you anticipate. But the bottom line is what we are expecting to see is these compensated absences liabilities are going to increase because with this new standard, you now have to factor in that pool of time that I just mentioned that has never been factored in before because it was all based on what you expect to pay out. Now it's there's there's a likelihood if it's more than likely uh that that people are going to take time based on historical information. We're going to have to account for that. Okay. Yeah. It's a
032it's a big thing. Mhm. It is. But if there's any further questions on it, yeah, feel free to email me. Not a problem at all. All right. Are there any questions? Uh any concerns about anything regarding the audit or any particular areas that any concerns over? Okay. Not at this time. Not for me. All right. Very good. Well, I guess I'll see you back here in September, October. All right. Thank you. And hopefully these inventors will be here, right? I really Thanks again, everybody. Thank you. Take care. You're well, Mike. Take care. Okay. Statement of residents on agenda items only. Residents wishing to share a statement state their name, their address, and any organization they may be representing. Residents will also can also write their name and address on the index card provided and present
033it to the assistant superintendent of finance and operations. Matters relating to individual students or employees cannot be discussed at a public meeting. Residents will be given three minutes to share their statement. The statement of residence is scheduled for 15 minutes. Hello. I have my paper here. Alicia Deonte, 1333 Fifth Street. Um, so this actually has to do with the transition and has to do with the um the school closure, things like that. So I know it's on the agenda as a piece and it's just one of the peace meals of the many peace bills to it. So I know I brought this up a few weeks ago and there's a lot going on for all of us, but I do need to bring this to the attention again. There's a gap in the timing schedule
034for the time start and end between the first school and the junior high. on a year that you have severely disturbed our villages and I quote um etc. There needs to be some level of accommodation in this curb bowl that no one planned for. For some families, they will have kids split between both early and late schools. And how is it now feasible for those parents to feasibly accommodate their working schedules? We are a title one school district in a title one district, not a district set with families that have multiple nannies and all pairs. I'm a mom that usually starts work at 9 the latest. And now that that's my drop off time. I am not the norm in that I have additional family that can always help. But this is not the case
035for many families that have now been switched. Kids going from Santa Pog to South Bay maintain the same time scale. Children going from South Bay to JFK have now completely changed their timing as well. Kids going from Tuker to Santa Pog have now gotten an earlier schedule. Kids going from Forest to Tuker now have a later schedule. I completely understand although I and although I still and will always strongly disagree with the decision that has made that was made to close forest and it will take massive leap and bounds over the next few years to ever convince myself and many others otherwise there also means some some levels of gives and take everything currently is working as showing is taken. Can we please look at the transportation timing and seal the gap decrease the time
036gap currently between junior high and the first round of elementary so that everyone can be moved up accordingly. By doing so, there should also be a cost savings on fuel, which would be that time gap that's sitting right now. What are the buses currently doing doing during those time gaps? So, I ask you again, please, to look at the time gaps, to kind of think of all those parents with all those villages that have been broken apart. You have kids that live on the same street that are going to different schools. And I applaud the efforts that have been made to try to make this as as feasibly, you know, accommodating to families and things like that, but this one piece has not been. And even the teachers currently, you have teachers that are switching
037schools that now have to switch their whole schedules at home. They've switched their schedules with their their kids sports teams. They have to hire nannies. They have to hire a pair. Just if you could just look at it, even a 15-minute difference makes a huge difference. Thank you. Thank you. I know everybody missed me. Okay, that's it. No further statement. Okay, I need a motion to remove. Yes. Need a motion to remove item 6 C, Forest lease agreement, pending amendments made by uh district attorneys, John Anthony. All those in favor motion to approve the consent agenda. Frank, that's your first one. Anthony, all those in favor. I was I was waiting for his hand up. Okay. That right. All right. Policy review. Need a motion to wave the first time reading and adopt policy 6685
038as revised. Patty Rosanne. All those in favor? Okay. Need a motion to wave first time reading and adopt policy 6830 as revised. Anthony Rosanne. All those in favor. We need a motion to wave the first time reading and adopt policy 6900 as revised. Patty Anthony. All those in favor? Okay. Motion to retire policy 6850. John Anthony. All those in favor. Okay. Any old business? I'll try to business. Any new business? So, as a followup to what um the motion Mr. Polo made beforehand where we um removed from the consent agenda the Forest Avenue um lease agreement. That's as a result of there were an in executive session some additional um changes that were just um approved and that were just discussed by the board. Our attorney will amend the document right and we are going
039to um have a board meeting probably tomorrow evening to to only just to approve in terms of the forest lease agreement. Okay. Okay. So, I just wanted to kind of share that as a reasoning why it was pulled from the regular consent agend. And as soon as as soon as we have the amended document, right, we will post it on the website. Thank you. And then um we just had the approval on the consent agenda, I would like to give a shout out and a congratulations in the audience. We have a new our new world leader teacher, Mr. Dup. Congratulations and welcome to W. Okay. All right. Statement of residence. Residents wishing to share a statement at this time, please state their name, their address, and any organization they may be representing. Residents can also
040write their name and address on the index card provided and presented to the assistant superintendent of finance and operations prior to giving their statement. Matters relating to individual students or employees cannot be discussed at a public board meeting. Res be given up to three minutes to speak. Statement of residence is scheduled for 15 minutes. Okay. All right. You get a motion to adjurnn. Frank Anthony. All those in favor? All right. Okay. Have a good night, everyone.