BOE Meeting 4/22/2025

001Good evening everyone. Okay, I need a motion to approve the minutes of the regular board of education meeting of April 8th, 2025. Anthony John, all those in favor? That's everyone. Okay. Dr. Farrell. Okay. Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us tonight. Before we begin tonight's presentations, I would like to provide a few updates for our board and for our community. I'll start off with our cons elementary consolidation update. Um couple of quick items, right? Uh notification letters were sent out to families um earlier this month on April 11th. There's a parent square message that was sent out on April 14th. Um our students um have been entered into e school, right? Our student information system. We know that that's part of the process, right? You know, into the new attendance zones for the next

002school year. The room availability um has been reviewed um in all of the locations multiple times. Uh building principal meetings um have occurred again with our central team to review sections and tentative staff relocation. Forest Avenue staff members um have been um the majority of them have been notified of their new building location um and tentative grade assignments by phone. Uh letters are going to be sent um to formalize that process in the next um few days. St. support staff, right, remains tentative, right, in response to a couple of some student needs at each of the locations. Um, elective areas, those remain tentative again also in response to what the ultimate, you know, depends on u the final master schedule. Once that's completed, then the elective areas would be finalized. Non-instructional staff second um follow-up

003meetings um are going to be taking place in the next couple of days. student placement for ENL students and for students that are recommended for special programs such as the integrated setting and self-contained um special class programs um will receive formal notification of placement either their during their upcoming CSE meeting or as a followup right from our student services office um that will also happen shortly. Questions with regards to the uh attendance zone can be uh sent to either Mr. Hanley, Mr. Payne or myself uh via email. an FAQ uh document is being developed and we are going to be posting that um on our website. Transportation. I received a couple of questions with regards to transportation limits. Um as such, I'd like to provide just a short um update on our West Babylon transportation

004limits. In general, boards of education are legally required uh to provide transportation for students in kindergarten through 8th grade if they live between 2 and 15 miles from their school. Right. in students in 9th through 12th grade between 3 and 15 miles from their school. Right. Um in our school district, this has been established for many years. Uh the board of education authorizes transportation to students residing in the school district for all elementary school students um between 0.5 and 15 miles from school and for junior high school and senior high school students between8 and 15 miles. Right? So obviously that's you know a larger uh range right than required in terms of by the state and that's by not just policy 8400. Um in order to change those um actual mileage limitations that actually would

005require a community vote. The budget as we all know was adopted uh during the prior meeting on April 8th. The proposed budget that is being presented to our community is $136,50,120. Next year's proposed budget um is approximately $199,000 less than this school year's budget. The proposed tax levy is our cap right at 2.06%. All uh the required reporting and documentation um that we have to complete um on a local level right and state level that is all being completed. The budget hearing is scheduled to take place on May 13th here in this room. The district budget vote and trustee election will take place on May 20th from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. here in administration and also at Santa Pog. Tonight is the Bosey's budget vote and Bosey's um board trustee um election. The final

006budget presentation can be found on our website and again questions with regards to the budget can be sent to anyone of the central administrators. next year's uh elementary enrichment program. I am um thrilled that I know during the prior board meeting uh it was discussed that we're recently able to um determine the ability to have the staffing to uh reinstate the new enrichment program for our students. This will be similar um to last year's enro enrichment program. Once next year's schedule and programs are fully established, meaning the sections, the elementary schedule, the student criteria, the student numbers, we will provide a board presentation overview of the program as we've done in the past. Uh I believe there was a question last during the last meeting with regards to field trips. Uh so this current school

007year, right, the 24-25 school year, we did not have any budget allocation for field trips in our budget. This was removed after last year's initial budget failed. Uh for next year, we reestablished a budget line of $14,000 um for field trips. Uh just to clarify, transportation is not included in that budget line. Uh this is strictly for entrance fees, right? for some school field trips, right? Some examples like the Old Beth Page Restoration, um, Cold Spring Harbor, you know, fish hatchery, right? Entrance fees, right, for trips similar to those. Um, basically this amount that we indicated there, right, will be divided amongst our schools. Uh, it does not mean that every class, right, will go on a trip. That wasn't the case even when we had a larger, right, budget allocation. trips like uh the

00811th grade trip to New York City, right? The 911 sites, uh the visits to Sunni, right? Or any trip that requires transportation outside of a transportation department, midday timing, right? Those would not be included as part of this. And just as a reminder, classroom field trips, um they're not predetermined, right, by central admin or the building principles. um our classroom teachers, right? Obviously in working with the building principles during the school year, uh they plan um their field trips, right? And if approved by the principal, then those move forward. Uh so basically when we do when we ultimately have a 2526 um school year community approved budget, a field trip spreadsheet will then be created and shared with the principles to ensure that we stay within the budget. Right? So again, to be clear, it

009doesn't include it doesn't mean that every class, right, K through 12 will be going on a trip. doesn't mean you know that everything that previously happened when we included is for you know that's not um what is in that budget line. It does include again allocations for some of those trips that we previously had. And last um just on a personal note on behalf of um actually before I indicate that I do want to share provide a quick update on uh UPK right we just shared with our board as we have been analyzing all the classrooms the sections the zones um we are happy to share that it looks like we will most likely be able to house five UPK sections within our ele our four elementary schools and one um UPK K class um

010using an external um outside UPK provider. The all the information with regards to UPK can be found on our website. We are going to have a lottery um that will occur on April 30th exactly the way it's happened um you know in the past. We will establish that list right there will be an order um with regards to um the UPK standing um again as we've done in the last couple of years. I want to emphasize that we do not have um it's not finalized in terms of the state budget right for UPK for all school districts. So, West Babylon and all other school districts. We're proceeding with our lotteryies, with our systems, with our UPK registration, but that is with the caveat again that we are anticipating that we will be receiving that UPK

011grant, right? Um as of right now, no school district has that as a done deal. Um so, of course, that's pending obviously the funding uh for UPK. So more information to follow. Uh we will post the information on our website. We'll post it on social media as well. Um you know for all those families that are interested in the UPK program. And lastly um on behalf of my family and myself um I would like to extend our deepest gratitude um to all who reached out during our family's difficult time. Your kind words, your gestures, your love, your support, your compassion have meant more to us than we could ever express. So thank you again for holding us in your thoughts and prayers. And a huge thank you to Sean um Scott Victoria office assistants and

012the board um for your support as well. That's all I have for this section of the agenda. Okay. I am up. Yes. Okay. Yes. We do not have statements for the other areas. Nobody let us know of any. So I'm assuming yes. No. Okay. All right. So moving right along. I mentioned already the timeline in terms of May 20th reminder of the budget vote and trustee election. Um at this point in time I would like to invite I believe I saw Miss Alano in the back. U tonight we have um three presentations. The first two are the program evaluations. Um Miss Alfano um will come right off our department chairperson. The board has received our program evaluation. Right. So she will focus really more on the summary of the art department's um overall program evaluation.

013Mr. Payne, anything you'd like to add about process? our usual opening. Awesome. Okay. So, Miss Savannah, please provide us with a summary of the program evaluation. The board has received it already. Okay. Um, thank you again for having me tonight. So, I do appreciate the opportunity to speak with you this evening in regards to the K12 art program on behalf of the art program um pro department, excuse me. Um, as Dr. Farley said, I am going to be breaking this into three parts. So, we'll be beginning with the K5 art program evaluation. As far as the K5 art program, we do have a lot of participation in school and districtwide events such as the fourth grade organizer cover contest, the West Babylon Fire Department, excuse me, poster contest, as well as the PTA reflections. We

014have community displays such as the West Babylon Public Library Board of Appreciation Week displays as well as the Arburetum poster contest in which we've received first place, youth art month design, honorable mention, as well as the Town of Babylon Recreation Guide, which in which we received first place. Our program overall is a sequential program. So it does prepare students for subsequent years of instruction. We build upon foundational concepts and skills from year to year. As far as data analysis, you can see that we utilize data with informal assessments as well as formal assessments. We do a lot of project based with the analysis of student application and skill. Our program accommodates students strongly in the areas of the needs of all students, providing appropriate remediation as well as academic appropriate, excuse me, support services, which

015assist students to succeed in our program. We address the needs of highly competent students with appropriate enrichment as well through our flex periods. As far as motivation and enjoyment, obviously art is very engaging for all students. We use a variety of mediums as well instruct as instructional hooks in order to engage our students with different topics, different themes that align to student grade level and interest. Our use of imagination and creativity is obviously also one of our strong points. In terms of academic support services, at this time we do not need any additional academic support services. Our teachers communicate within the buildings and across g grade levels to work with support staff as needed to accommodate student needs. Our teachers provide modifications according to address individual and classroom needs as well. Our teacher information as

016far as grade level meetings, department meetings, we utilize all of these opportunities to improve instruction and enhance student achievement. Professional periods are also used to effectively discuss teaching strategies and methods as well as the sharing of ideas. Um, our professional development opportunities that we use throughout the school year are addressed in terms of teachers needs and we also use this to align things with the New York State standards. Our teachers are encouraged to seek support from colleagues as a means to enhance instruction as well as to um utilize analysis of data which informs our instruction. We utilize um Atlas which has been has had a profound impact on our program. Our scope and sequence of our program is able to be completed in our academic school year. We make adjustments obviously if there are delays

017due to timing in buildings or different assemblies and such but for the most part everything is able to be completed within our instructional time period. Our professional development opportunities we participated in the last two years in with Hexure Museum of Art for our November conference day. We also have indistrict um opportunities with Scallow which is our Suffach County Art Leaders Association which is one of our affiliates. We have department meetings, faculty meetings and all of our um professional development which is coordinated with our K5 as well as our K8 and then K12 respectively as needed. In terms of technology, we utilize technology to enhance instruction with our use of the Elmo camera in the classroom, our sharboard as well as our sharp pen software, Google applications such as Google Docs, Slides, Forms, etc. We utilize

018this also to analyze our data and again with Atlas. Atlas has been very great with aligning grade levels as well as our buildings and and that connectivity. At this time, we didn't feel that any instructional um technology was needed or additional professional development. In terms of materials and supplies, we use supplies that our district provided um for all of our materials such as drawing paper, construction paper, anything you could think of, glue, um paints, temper paints, crayons, markers. And then in terms of our educational technology, um all of our teacher created materials are utilized with which would include our handouts, worksheets, presentations, any type of instructional material where you're looking at project examples, all of that is teacher created materials. We do use those equally. So in terms of which is provided for us um

019by the district and what is provided by our teachers individually, we felt that it was very equal. And at this time um we don't feel that we need any additional resources to enhance instruction. However, we are exploring adjustments to our fifth grade curriculum in order to enhance with the use of a technology within their Chromebooks, the possibility of adding in different applications so we can prepare the students as they go into the junior high school. Um, at this time we didn't have any further recommendations for the program. However, we did see a lot of positive changes providing um the collaborative opportunities to work with K through 12. We have seen an improvement in our vertical alignment of the curriculum and again with Atlas as well. And right now we work we are truly working to

020improve our K5 art program and benefit the overall growth of our K12 program. So take a breath. I know it's a lot. Trying to keep it under the time limit. Okay. Okay. Um moving on. I'm going to speak in regards to our 68 program. Um I do teach at the junior high. So obviously this is something that's very um you know in the back of my head all the time. As far as our student information with our 68 program, we do participate in a lot of school and district-wide events. We have our junior high school organizer contest which is available to our seventh grade students. We also offer two art clubs at the sixth grade level and then one at the seventh and eighth grade level. We also have ongoing displays with West Babylon Public

021Library as well as Babylon Citizens Council on the Arts, which is well, you'll hear that later, which I term as Baka. We've received awards with the town of Babylon littering is trashy poster contest as well as our judged Baka art show. And this past year we did have three winners for the Herald newspaper holiday wrapping paper contest. As far as our program preparedness, our program strongly prepares students for subsequent years of instruction. We do prepare students for New York State assessments as well as regents. As far as data analysis is concerned, we do both formative as well as informal assessments and summitive assessments. Our formative assessments would consist of our tests, quizzes, rubrics, self-reflections. And then our informal assessments, we utilize partner work, peer sharing, class discussions, class critiques, and then our final exam would

022be considered our formal assessment, which is done through Google Docs as well as Google forms. Program accommodation information. We strongly have felt across the board that our program accommodates the needs of all students. It provides appropriate remediation as needed as well as utilizing recommend, excuse me, recommended academic support services. The program is extremely motivating and engagement engaging as you'll see. This will be a kind of a theme across the board throughout our entire K12 program. Um, with art, we do try to support the horizontal articulation of other subject areas such as ELA as well as math. We also have a lot of real life connections and we try to support the social and emotional learning of our students. Um, it was also extremely engaging in terms of promoting student choice and giving students an opportunity

023to have a voice within their decision-making process in terms of demonstrating their subject matter with their own individual interests. As far as academic services, excuse me, support services are needed. At this time, we don't feel that we need any additional academic support services. We communicate as needed with other building level teachers, support sta, excuse me, support staff as well as other professional staff to accommodate the student needs and to suit suit the needs of all learners. Our teachers provide modifications accordingly to differentiate instruction on a daily basis. Our teachers also participate in a lot of faculty department meetings as well as grade level meetings to improve instruction and to support the student achievement. We have professional development opportunities which are offered throughout the school year um by both the district as well as outside district

024opportunities and the scope and sequence of the curriculum align with our New York State standards. At this time, our scope and sequence is able to be completed throughout the school year and any adjustments that are needed are made um within the daily learnings with our classroom to accommodate any building level needs such as assemblies or any other delays in instruction. In terms of professional development, we have participated as well as the K5 teachers with the Hexterra Museum of Art on our November conference day. We also have opportunities which are provided through our district membership to Scala. As I stated earlier, department meetings as well as faculty meetings and department need meetings that are made which are based just on professional development to address particular student needs as well as teacher needs. In terms of technology

025information, technology has been a strong point for the art department. We really have increased it in the past four years, especially when it came to COVID and the switch over to the use of Chromebooks. It has really been an enhancement to our instruction and we've seen an improvement in student achievement. Our technology that we utilize in our daily lessons and presentation would be our Elmo camera, Sharboard, Sharp Pen software as well as that Google suite technology as I stated earlier with Google Slides, Google Docs, Google Forms, etc. At this time, additional technology is not needed to improve instruction. However, additional time would be wonderful to meet as a K12 department. As you know, it is difficult to align throughout the entire all buildings at the same time and this would definitely benefit the vertical articulations

026of the curriculum as well as community engagement. As far as materials and supply information, similarly to the K5 grade level, we use our district provided materials and we are very thankful for that budget. All district provided materials provide us with the materials that we need and the mediums that we need in order to provide instruction to the students. That would include drawing paper, paint, watercolor, acrylic, temper paints, drawing pencils, charcoal, and as well as other advanced media that we may need at the junior high school. As far as educational technology, as I stated earlier, we do utilize those Elmo cameras, teacher laptops, as well as the student chrome Chromebooks on a daily basis. The teacher created materials that are utilized are any type of handouts, any presentations that you may see. That would include handouts,

027worksheets, final exams, shar presentations. All of these we feel was a nice split as I stated earlier with the K5 program where all district ma materials that are provided are used for the actual art making and then the presenting techniques and excuse me presenting project examples, PowerPoint, slideshows are all teacher created. At this time we did not feel that additional resources were needed to enhance instruction. However, we are looking to increase our district accessible digital tools such as Photoshop which could be beneficial and aid in the 21st cent excuse me 21st century art skill set for students. At this time we don't have any other recommendations or concerns for the program. However, we would love the opportunity to reinstate the art workshop program which was an advanced seventh grade course which would offer our students

028um the benefit of an art sequence course choices at the senior high school and we would see an improvement I believe um across the um vertical curriculum excuse me vertical um articulation. We have also seen positive changes with our use of technology as I stated earlier working collaboratively with our K12 program this year with our fellow colleagues and we have seen improvement in the vertical alignment with the use of Atlas for curricular goals. Overall we are working to improve the 68 art program and benefit the overall growth of the K12 program. Are we ready for 912? Okay, we're ready. Okay. All right. At the senior high school level, um we have a lot of awards which we've received in the past four years. We have participation in school and districtwide events. Our national art honor

029society is definitely a large contributor to this. We also have art club as well as mural club when it's offered. We have displays in the senior high school gallery across from the pack as well as the board of education boardroom displays as you can see in the back. We have community displays at the West Babylon Public Library as well as Scala Hexter Museum, the Veterans Day Exhibit, which was at the Patchog Center for the Arts, as well as the Babylon Citizens Council on the Arts. We've had many recog recognitions over the years between Baka, as I stated earlier, that's the Babylon um art council's association. We also have Scala Invitational Teacher Student Show where our teachers have displayed alongside of our students. We've had Suffach County Community College High School Art Exhibit as well as

030a Baka Senior Scholarship Competition. We've also done some recent murals at both Cedar Beach as well as other local beaches in the town of Babylon. Um last year we did have students um submit artwork for the Suffach count community Suffach Community College. A little bit of a tongue twister there. High school art exhibit and we had five submissions as well as one honorable mention. As far as our program is concerned, we do feel like that it strongly prepares students for subsequent years of instruction. As far as data analysis, we use this to with both our formative and our summitative assessments with tests, quizzes, rubrics, as well as self-reflections. Our informal assessments would consist of personal reflections. We do a lot of writing where they are self-reflecting and looking back on their artwork to display aside

031from their excuse me beside their artwork. We also offer opportunities for class critiques where they're reflecting on their student learning. We also have formal assessments with final projects. And in some of our upper level classes, we do a body of artwork which consists of a theme and that would be presented in a portfolio with our upper level classes. As far as our program accommodation information, um this program definitely accommodates the needs of all learners. We did neither agree nor disagree that the program provided appropriate remediation for students um that needed academic support services, but we do agree that the program addresses the needs of highly competent students with appropriate enrichment. The program is definitely, as stated, I said this would be a theme. It's very motivating and engaging for all of our students. We offer

032a variety of classes, variety of subject matter, me, excuse me, different mediums and styles as well as our variety of teaching styles. This promotes the creativity for students, critical thinking, visual communication as well as student choice, which helps to demonstrate subject matter with their own individual interests. We also have opportunities for the students to take art sequence courses for higher higher level art students. At this time, we did not feel that any additional academic support services were needed. In terms of teacher information, our teachers um again throughout the throughout the district, we are always working with grade level meetings, faculty meetings, department meetings to utilize this time to really enhance our instruction and our student achievement. We strongly feel that our professional periods provide effective opportunities to discuss teaching methods, strategies, and the sharing of

033ideas. And we also feel that in district professional development opportunities are offered throughout the school year. Um we would love the opportunity for more content specific professional development if that was an opportunity um provided. As far as the scope and sequence of the curriculum, we do align this with the New York State standards and the teachers are often seeking support from other colleagues as a means to enhance instruction. We do um provide opportunities for entire scope and sequence to be um completed within the academic year. Each individual course can be completed. Again, it's unfort it's not a as it is with a 68 program where it is like subsequent years of instruction. These are all individual based courses. In terms of professional development opportunities, the high school teachers have participated in superintendent conference day which

034they really enjoy this year with training with Canva eShool as well as mindfulness through Zenangles. We also provide opportunities with our district membership to Scala for outside um district membership opportunities. Department me excuse me department meetings are based for are provide professional development and again this would address any student needs as well as teacher needs. Our technology definitely meets the needs of the program and provides data analysis to inform our instruction and we strongly agree that our technology enhances instruction and student achievement. This would include as far as technology is concerned, our Elmo camera, Sharboard, Photoshop, which is utilized with our Chromebooks, excuse me, not our Chromebooks, our teacher laptops as well as student Chromebooks, our Google applications such as Google Slides, Google Docs, Google Sheets, as well as Google forms. We utilize Google forms

035to analyze data and enhance instruction to inform our instruction and develop different plans as moving forward. As far as additional technology, the only um concern that we had this year was that we did um have a need for three additional laptops for our class of 28 students in our photography program. However, Corey Kindleman was able to loan us three additional teacher laptops this year, which definitely was wonderful. So, we do appreciate that and that was utilized as of February. Um at this time we are looking forward to having additional meeting time if given the opportunity for our K12 department as I said earlier with the 68 program and this would definitely enhance our instruction as well as the vertical articulations of the curriculum in order to develop content grade level um and art related concepts.

036At this time, our materials and supply information is consistent across the board where we feel that the district provides wonderful opportunities for our art making materials such as at the college level quality materials for our supplies, drawing paper, Copic markers, airbrush tools, ceramic tools for our ceramics class, paints, brushes, charcoal, etc. Our educational technology is utilized as well within these programs as I stated earlier. And within in terms of which is used mostly, it is definitely an equal split in terms of the technology which is utilized for the teachers with presentations for teacher creative materials and then all other artmaking materials are provided by our district budget. At this time we don't feel that we have any need for um additional resources to enhance instruction. However, due to rising supply costs, our program would benefit

037from an increase in the supply budget as our vendor costs have risen while our budget has remained the same. At this time, we don't have any other recommendations or concerns for the program. However, we would if given the opportunity to reinstate our advanced placement studio art and AP art history courses of as offerings. It would definitely benefit our art sequence students for college and career readiness as well as benefit the enrichment courses for our advanced level art students. At this point, we are very glad to see it running for next year. So, we're very happy to see that. We've had very positive changes working collaboratively with our K12 colleagues. And in terms of our goals, we would love to see an increase in in our enrollment in our elective courses and really bring that to

038life as well as promoting the arts in our K12 program and the community. Thank you. Thanks. Well done, Dr. Neville. We just state underscore how wonderful the art shows are both at the middle school and at the high school. It's always so impressive to see the artwork and it's really nice to see students bringing their parents or family members or friends around to see their artwork and it's just really nice when what are the date? Do we have the dates here? We do have the we do have the dates. I don't have it off the top of my head as I have about seven of them right now but I can send that out to the board and you will receive invitations as well. So Dr. Farley as well as all the board members. Okay.

039Thank you. I had a question. uh you had referenced um the use of technology as it pertained to I guess communicating and uh illustrating to the kids the the tasks at hand. Are they using the use of a computer in any type of drawing applications? I know you mentioned I know you mentioned Photoshop but that's probably photography class specifically. So at the high school level we do utilize Photoshop at the photography level. Um we do utilize it at the junior high school. Right now we're actually using AI tools with the students for artificial intelligent intelligence and trying to use that as a tool to enhance learning rather than um a cheating mechanisms really so they can own it and use it as a powerful tool to increase their engagement and their motivation within the projects.

040We do utilize Photoshop as well. Um however we don't have access to that currently on our Chromebooks. So it is something that we can look forward um look for in the future. Yeah. So, at what point are um I don't know if you compared to other districts, do they start um introducing artwork on the the computer to kids? Is there a certain grade level that that's best at or that is a good question. It's definitely something I can look into. I would say usually typically this is going to be done more at like the seventh and eighth grade level. Um but again, I would have to look into local um districts to really give you accurate information. Okay. I was just curious because I know they have the pens and the pencils that you can

041draw and then manipulate the artwork. So, we do have Whackom. Excuse me. I'm not exactly unsure. It's WACOM. I want to say wakehome. Um I don't know if Corey Kindleman's back here. He might be able to tell us. But those are tablets that we utilize at the studio art level program. And we do have those. Those are a rather costly um item because each one would need an individual wake tablet. However, those are more for the drawing applications. We also have especially during COVID when we um had to find drawing based applications we were utilizing canvas which is um excuse me Google canvas I believe on the Chromebooks which was an application right within our Google suites and that was very helpful. Okay. And then the last question is I know we're always involved in

042uh I think we've painted storefronts in the village and we've done stuff at the beach. How do we find all those opportunities? Is that just from knowing they're out there or do they get those opportunities get sent to us? And a combination of both. Um, this year we did have an opportunity for the junior high. We we did windows in Babylon Village and we actually got second place. I don't know if I if I told everyone that. So, we did get received that during the holiday decorating and that was offered by a parent who was um affiliated with our um an art a sixth grade art student parent in the West Babylon. Um however, a lot of the information does go come through us off the desk of Dr. Farley with um things that are

043sent through the town of Babylon such as the mural opportunity, but it really varies. Um, right now we also have been working with West Babylon Library in which I reached out to the West Bablin Library to coordinate those art shows. So, it really depends on the v the variety of pathways. Okay. Thanks. You're welcome. I have a question regarding the seventh grade art workshop program. What how is that different from the studio art that they can go into in eighth grade? Is it Sure. Does it do you feel it needs to be that that's a prerequisite to it or is it totally different to the uh studio art? Sure. So the seventh grade um art workshop program was a program in a similar capacity. So this program was a a fullear course. However, it met

044um for 20 weeks in lie of the 40 weeks. So with this program, they had the same um portfolio where they had to have a portfolio pro process as a sixth grade student in order to get into this advanced seventh grade class. It was a feeder program, however, to the eighth grade studio class. So when we had that program, we had about 56 students. So we had 28 in each class, two sections. So they met every other day for a full year. Um with that program when we had 56 students and then we had going down into a 28 pool for our studio um students. We then had a very high interest in the class and unfortunately because it was such a high interest not every student got into the program. Now with the cutting

045of that program we are seeing a lower um pool of students that are applying for our studio class. So with that that means sometimes we have 22, sometimes it's 20. So unfortunately you're seeing a trickle down effect. And then that also then affects our high school as well. Um but in terms of answering your question, both of them provide that enhanced enriched program. It's a wonderful program. I did teach it, so obviously I'm a little bit more um you know um supportive of this program, but it really was a wonderful program that really enhanced um our students as well as our vertical articulation. Questions? All right. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. At this point, I'd like to invite Mr. Duran, um, who will provide a, uh, summary update on our music department's program

046evaluation. Good to see you, Mr. Duran. Good evening, everyone. It's good to see you all. Uh, before we get into the details, I just want to take a moment again to thank all of you. uh your ongoing support and perseverance has made it possible for us to keep our music programs running even in the face of some real challenges. Uh tonight I'd like to talk about the tremendous impact music education has on our students. It goes beyond just learning how to sing or play an instrument. While most academic subjects focus on cognitive development, things like memorizing, analyzing, problem solving, music goes further. It also nurtures emotional growth and physical coordination skills. Music touches on three key learning areas. The cognitive domain, effective domain, and the psycho domain. That means our students aren't just thinking and

047creating. They're also learning how to express emotions, collaborate with others, work together as a team, and develop fine and gross motor skills. So, let's get into elementary music. Our students are engaged in a wide range of experiences in the elementary music classroom. They sing songs in different styles, genres. They play instruments like recorders, ukuleles, rhythm instruments, or xylophones and matophones. They explore music through movement, dance, and partner games. These activities help develop not just music skills, but also critical thinking and cultural awareness skills. We also celebrate student participation and achievement. Our students receive participation awards for participating in before or after school ensembles such as chorus. Uh we also give special recognition awards for students who are invited to participate in our Scamia all county festivals and also NISMA solo festivals which is coming up

048in a couple weeks. From a curriculum standpoint, we're well aligned with the New York State Arts Standards. Our teachers use a combination of district provided materials, online resources, self-composed works to create engaging lessons for all of our students. We've also added the Quaver music education software curriculum which has brought consistency with our curriculum um as well as improved our instructional quality across the board. We would love to see it become a permanent part of our K5 music program u that would involve yearly subscription. Uh we have regular meetings, professional development, collaboration with our county and statewide professional music affiliate programs to keep our teachers well supported and well informed. Still, we see an opportunity to better integrate uh performing ensembles into a teacher's regular schedule so that they're not seen as extra or optional programs.

049Our current model, particularly for course, makes it difficult for all students to uh participate because of conflicts with transportation and other programs that are going on before after school. Moving on to our grades four or five instrumental music program. Moving into instrumental music for fourth and fifth grade. Students who perform band and orchestra um not only receive participation certificates but they also gain valuable experience um for those students who perform at our NISMA solo festivals and it's going to be all county festivals. We use formative assessments to track their growth. Things like listening very closely offering constant feedback and observing techniques and understanding. These help us guide instruction and support each student more effectively. The program accommodates a wide range of learners. We offer remediation and academic supports where needed and we provide enrichment through

050before and after school ensembles such as band and orchestra. What we see again and again is how much students love playing their instruments together with their friends and the sense of teamwork and com camaraderie that it builds. Uh one ongoing challenge that we do have is uh our teachers travel between multiple buildings. Uh this makes it tough for them to meet the specific needs of each group and each building. So reducing building assignments for the teachers in the program would help us provide more consistent targeted instruction as part of a dedicated building staff. There's also increased demand for school-owned instruments. Most families provide their own instruments, but we would very much like to restore our previously broad approved five-year instrument purchase plan that was enacted in 2020. Um, so that we can help bridge that

051gap. Moving on to junior high school, grades 6 to 8 music. We've seen many improvements in student readiness and performance levels thanks in large part to strengthened elementary programs since 2020 and a slow but steady recovery from the pandemic. significant disruptions. We assess student progress through participation and effort rubrics, group performance evaluations, general music assignments, and tests. Music remains a powerful motivator, supporting creativity, friendship, and emotional well-being. But we face real challenges. Budget cuts have further reduced instrumental lesson sections and limited our ability to differentiate instruction for instrumental ensemble students. Some general music classes include students performing at very different levels. We have honor students uh in the same class as students who perform significantly below grade level. So this makes it tough for the teachers to tailor our instruction and provide curricular consistency at

052a pace that meets the needs of all students. We need to look at placement and pacement a little more more closely with our general music classes and consider strategies like flexible groupings or smaller class sizes to better serve all of those students needs. Technology is a significant strength for us at the junior high school. Tools like smartboards, digital pianos, Google for education software, and recently added quaver music curriculum software help us to engage students in new ways. We're also exploring options like site reading factory to help further improve music literacy skills for our junior high school students. So to wrap up, I just want to emphasize a few key takeaways with you. Uh music education supports the whole child cognitively, emotionally, and physically. Something that I feel very important. Our programs align well with state

053standards, continue to evolve with strong curricular tools, improved instruction across the district, and professional development. As I said before, we need to restore previously approved funding for the purchasing of new instruments. Uh, I need exists to improve staffing flexibility, especially for our elementary ensembles and six to eight instrumental lessons sections. We recommend better support for differentiated instruction in our junior high general music classes. Ultimately, when we invest in music education, we invest in student success, not just in the arts, but across every aspect of their learning and development. So, again, I want to thank you all for your continued support of our music programs. I'm happy to take any questions. a question in reference to the um the the five-year reinvestment in the instruments that had stopped um and you know hopefully we will get

054back on track with that. Has not being able to keep up with that magnified the problem? Meaning have we fallen further behind in replenishing those instruments versus if we had stayed on task? It just limits our ability to purchase new instruments. So we it's very hard for us to predict what we're going to actually need from the students and the parents. Um so we like to have a pool of instruments available so that we don't have to turn anyone away from the program if they want to participate and they can't afford to get their own instrument. Okay. Um so that's really what I'm looking to do with that plan. Right. I just recall in your first the first time we spoke you had mentioned there was just instruments that were beyond repair. Yes. Yes. And

055those are the ones I I think we replaced some of those. The the most urgent purchases were done already in the first few years. Um we we still have some other instruments that are older than me. Okay. Uh but they still work, so we're still using them. Um so kids may not want to use them because they're ugly and they're all dented, but um you know, they we are we are making progress. We just need to keep it going. Yes, I agree. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Duran. Thank you all. Okay. And our last presentation for tonight, if I can invite uh Mr. John Grill, our architect, to come on up. And Jay, you have the uh presentation. Yeah. Okay. And we have Mr. Michael Ojitus, our facilities director, also with us.

056How are you tonight? Good evening everybody. So just uh while we are setting up a quick little um recap, we have um funding left over, right, from prior capital projects. Um as per as allowed, right? Um, with regards to any capital project, anytime a community votes for a capital project, we vote for the project and we also vote for potential belist items, right? In the event that the estimates that are provided or the work that um is done comes in a little bit lower, right, than the initial projected amount because again, when everything gets approved and then the actual time in which the work actually happens, there is some considerable amount of time that passes in between that. Um then once that happens and we do have some funding left over then as a district

057we have the ability to then tap in and do some of that you know some of those beist items um you know to continue the the the project. So we started that conversation um a while ago um and this is a followup right from the previous conversation uh we had at a board meeting. Okay. Thank you again everybody. Um just want to walk you through really uh the funding sources. So you really have two different funding sources right now or two buckets of money. You have the funds that are available from the 2015 bond issue. There is $515,000 left. And one of the things you have to remember is when the community votes on a project, they vote on a not to exceed x number of dollars and the specific projects that you can spend

058the money on. We can't say to the community, we're going to do windows, roofs, doors, and then we do science labs and turf fields. We have to do what is allocated in the 2022 bond um 9.7 million. There is about $2.8 million left of unspent. 2015 bond was much more expansive, a lot of different projects in there. the 2022 bond was really more limited in terms of site work, the tennis courts, um, and the other one of the other projects there was was district-wide window replacement. So, as we're going through some of these projects, and remember, you want to do a inside project with an outside project because that'll get you your building aid. If you send a site work project up to the state by itself, the state will approve it, but you won't

059get building aid. So, we wanted to tie something in. So we had t looked at some of the interior classroom spaces. We were look we were asked to look at family consumer science, some of the technology rooms, those kind of things. Unfortunately, the way construction costs are going right now, $500,000 unfortunately is really not enough to do a fullblown I call it a gut renovation. all the finishes, all the casework, demo, you know, the asbestous, ventilation, furniture, appliances. So, the last two products we did for middle school family consumer science, they came in well over $600,000. So, we're limited there. And I really don't like to recommend. I mean, I'll I'll obviously do whatever the board tells me to do, but to like renovate a classroom halfway. It really like, oh my god, you did

060all of this money, but you left this or you left that. So, how else could we achieve that? So, Michael had brought me down to the technology rooms and one thing I had remembered that one of the beeless projects in the 2022 bonds were window replacements. So what we had looked at was the existing conditions of so this is the that's the family consumer science which is the the other the wrong presentation correct and I apologize for that that's okay I can sing um okay so here is the technology lab I mean obviously you could see it's old and tired it's from the original construction um just another some existing conditions but one of of the things we had talked about is there is one of the technology rooms is on the corner of the

061building. It's isolated. So if we wanted to tie in additional funds from the 2022 project, you could do the technology room with the windows in that building and then the rest of the project would be the $2.8 million project would be the the site work, the um tennis courts, the basketball courts and all of that stuff we had looked at. So we had put some numbers together and to fully renovate the the technology room as well as the windows in that in that corner room was $885,000. And then we took a look and then the second project we were talking about which I had originally done a presentation back several months ago was the exterior renovation to the uh athletic complex. tennis courts, handball court, basketball court, the eagle walkway, outdoor seating area, um you

062know, with some of the nice the sales, um you know, some of that stuff there. We really haven't sat with the nuts and bolts and met with the end users yet. So, a lot of these are just pretty pictures. Um, so for example, you know, the outdoor, if you look at the outdoor tennis courts, when you just look at the Google Earth map right now, those courts aren't to code, you need 12 feet in between each court. So, we know once we get a full survey, we'll be able to come back and then actually put real dimensions. Right now, again, everything is just in in rendering and nice pretty pictures and stuff. We do have time. It's not a oh my goodness like the state several years ago when they were between 36 and 38

063week backlog. Right now they're at backlogs like I haven't seen since I started working in the early 90s. There are two to four week backlogs. So we're not in that pressure of oh my god we got to make decisions. We got to make them quick because it's going to be at the state for 9 months and we want to get it done next summer. I would rather because I don't know what the future's going to hold. if it's going to if it's going to expand, it's going to go to 10, 12, whatever it is. So, I would like to get the stuff up to the state as soon as possible, but not without end user, board member, etc.'s full input in terms of what we want to do, how we want to do it. As

064always, what we would do is we would design something with a base bid and then several alternates. We can pick and choose the alternates. You know, the priority would be in for example here would be the tennis courts. alternate one if we wanted to do one of the outdoor seating areas or the second outdoor seating area or some of the upper sails or the or the the eagle walk, that kind of stuff. We can pick and choose. But like I said before, until we get the full survey, we got a price out. I think we got the approval to start it. They're going to they have to work around the school schedule. I'll be able to report back and show you actual dimensions of how everything is going to fit on that site. And I'll

065definitely need some input with from the junior high folks in terms of family consumer science technology. How do we how do we spend those monies because we're a little more limited in that in that original bond proposition. And this is just the six steps that we need to complete. Um obviously board of education approve approval to move to the next level. We've already received soil boring and survey and utility markout proposals. Once we get those back, we can start our design work. You know, that'll go through, you know, May and June, maybe into July. I did this whatever three weeks ago, so it was 10 to 12 weeks. It's down to two to four weeks. Architect and engineer. We would bid in the late fall, early winter, lock somebody in early, you know, give them

066the the work. So, we're the first kids on the block with the new toy so everybody wants to, you know, we'll get more biders. And we would complete the work in the summer of 26. and questions. John, can you go back to this? Yep. So, conceptual here in terms of um design, right? Um maybe we can kind of start there, right? You know, in terms of the outside because that outside project at the junior high school is definitely the priority, right? Um and then obviously we know that we absolutely have to tie it to something in the inside of the junior high school, right? Um so from a conceptual you know the the overall concept there of where things are let's start off there. Do we feel comfortable um with the layout? Right. And then

067that second page, I believe after the last meeting, the board had asked for maybe some shaded, right? Like different concepts of ways to um reach the goal of having some shade for students there. Um I think the other ask was um some green with Right. So it's not all concrete, right? Or Yeah, I think we were looking for something around the tennis courts to soften it so it's not so concrete. Mhm. Correct. Um the original um walkway to the main field had some kind of an arch, a little bit more decorative arch. Um my only question is we would have to have these plans approved, correct? In order to spend the money, we would have to go out for a referendum. No. No. You already have voter approval to spend the money. So we're going

068straight to the state in terms of state approval on the project. So al Okay. Okay. So, we only have to approve the new plans because we're changing. We've changed and waited a year. We don't have to go. Yeah. There were never an official submission to the state. I think the previous firm had done a bunch of renderings and and stuff like that. So, it never went to the state to get formal approval to meet building codes. Okay. So, it got to the the pretty picture phase, which is where we are now, and then the next step would be formal construction documents that contractors can actually bid on and put pricing together. But we have or you have the you have the approval two different funding sources. One from the 2015 and one from 2022. So

069on the SED forms that we submit, they'll indicate the amount of money that could be allocated from 2015 and the amount of money that can be allocated from 2022. But no more voter approval is required if we stay this route All right. I was just concerned because we changed and you know we had originally help we held off on this project. Yep. Um because it it was getting to the point where we were taking things off that it was almost like we weren't really doing anything. Now that we've able to correct take from the other bond, we have the money to do this, right? Yes. And the voters approved. I didn't know if any of that changed because of No, we do not have to go back to the only way you would have to

070go back to the vote is if you said we want to put a bubble over the tennis courts or we want to add a ferris wheel. It wasn't approved originally. Now we want to do it. So changing scope and dollar amount, that's when you would have to go. Okay. Okay. Um, any question questions? I have a question regarding this layout um that's up there right now because I know we we touched on it at one point for our emergency services. Is there enough room for them to get back there still with this? Because I think this layout's beautiful, but um ambulance, fire trucks. I'm gonna I'm gonna hold off on answering that until I get the full survey and then lay it out. Um, you know, basketball going left to right. I mean, it's not

071a formal sport. You really want to have your sports go north to south. This one's going more east to west. So, you're going to get, but it's only pickup games and then and that kind of thing. Recreational. Um, and I think by the tennis courts, they're going to get wider. That overall footprint's going to get wider because of the spacing. I didn't know if I wanted to keep the basketball court to the left of court one because then it's kind of in the middle of that field area. So, I'd like to see if we could tuck it there, but I'm not going to know until we have a the full service so I know what kind of path we'll have. We only need 10 ft. Um, we should have it, but I want to be

072to be determined. They had said there was enough room to get vehicles back there and then it's a different level of concrete. I guess it's a heavier concrete, correct? To handle that traffic. that that dark blue court. That's the handball court. The one to the right would be a handball court. Yes. And then the Yes. And we would play with that area. Right now, I show a lot of out- of- bounds area near there. We can tighten that up a little bit as well. Yeah. And the height I remember when we talked previously, the height of some of the fences back there, you know, it gave it that prison yard look. Can those still have to be 20 feet in the air? I mean, tennis court, you want at least 10 feet or you'll be

073chasing balls all over the place? hand ball court you could get away with against recreational. It's just I mean the ball goes all over the place. You could eliminate that. You could by all means eliminate the fence around it. I mean there's no need to again it's recreational. I think it was just the the height just seems to be a lot more than I've seen elsewhere. If we weren't going to go with the height to keep the balls in, I don't think I would spend the money and put like a 4 foot around it. I would just leave it leave it I think I'd leave it open. Yeah. I I'm just concerned with the the height. It just seems a lot higher than I've seen elsewhere. And I it could just be all the rust

074and corrosion that's throwing me off, too. So, going with what Chris is saying with, you know, that the fence look and then the rust and like corrosion issue, is there a big difference between going um I guess standard metal fence versus like a like a black vinyl or something? Is it That's what I always I black vinyl. I know that elevates the look too, you know. It makes it look a lot nicer and the colors pop. Yeah. And I know some of the older renderings that we were looking at, I would had a a look at them and I would never, you know, professional courtesy say anything there. But two, I mean, two things. One is simply maintenance. I mean, there's a lot of I mean, it looked beautiful. The walk looked beautiful, but a

075lot of maintenance there. And now with the with this whole safe schools by design act, you know, I used to when I would walk into a school, the first thing I I looked at is handicap accessibility. How does this person get from this place to now I walk in and all I think about is god forbid what could happen in this case and that case. I mean, I just walked past your administration building up these the big huge bushes right in front of the building. I mean, no offense, but I would be out there tomorrow cutting them puppies down. It just I'm in a new realm of thinking and a lot of those bushes and stuff, it's just places where people could hide B, you know, I don't know. It's my new sightines. We did

076uh that I remember covering that previously lighting having lighting out there lampost and more decorative, but it was actually for security reasons. Oh, perfect. Okay. Yeah, we could do that. Yeah. So, what was the what was the the time frame uh as far as the surveys that you were sending? So, the surveys will probably take a couple of weeks between the surveys and the utility markouts and then we can lay something out right away and I'll do it. I'll email it to the district so we, you know, so we can pass it around to the board sooner than later and then I'll be able to show you real dimensions and how everything lays out. Um, you know, I don't love a lot of concrete and you know, we could do a lot more with the

077stamp concrete. I mean, it holds up well, but if we are going to have an area where cars and trucks will drive, I wouldn't recommend the stamp concrete because the amount of money you would need to put, you know, rebar underneath to prevent it. But you could do stamp concrete and just an area of, you know, the asphalt just where they have to drive back there. We can, you know, play with that a lot. John, our next board meeting is May 13th. You think in terms of surveys? I will have to check with those guys because those are all out of my control. So, I got to see the rest box be able to be utilized in this money talking about putting No. [Music] Um, so it is. It definitely is. Um, so there is

078a we actually had a couple of uh email banters on who wanted to go out there with the concession stand. I believe we can demo that in house. Um, the press box has all the electrical facilities connected to it that operates the Musco lights, the field lighting system. So John and I discussed that possibility and unfortunately because of the amount of work that would have to be done with the electric system, it's just not cost-effective to do that right now. Um for the press box for for the press box. The concession stand is a hip roof that's wood construction and it's block. We can take that down in house. We could demo that in house. I would feel safe about that. Would it be beneficial for you guys for storage or should we take it

079down? It could be. I would like to use the the uh press box for storage, but I would like to reduce it to a one-story building. That way, we're not dealing with the elevation of that building as it, you know, is an issue for us. So, the concession stand can't be used for storage unless we do some work to the concession stand. And again, it's not a building that is approved by the state, right? Or all the above. So um in order for us to keep it right, we actually have to dedicate some money to do some work to that even to keep it as a simple Yeah. So, so the press box, right, like that area particularly because we do have to keep it, right, for the areas that for the reasons that Mike

080mentioned, you know, we would want to lean to if we're going to dedicate some money, dedicate some money there to close that loop, right, and then use that as storage. I know. Yeah. You know, one of the things that we could explore is that when there's an excavation, I I did see plans at one point. It looks like a sanitary sewer line was potentially um going to be run to maybe, you know, correct some of the issues with the concession stand. So, I can definitely as we get this project kicked off, you know, consult with John if there's a point that we can utilize uh to maybe get there even through maybe not this funding source, but you know, our in-house funding source. I'll I'll certainly look into that. Um, but again, we could, I

081think, even demo it in house. Um, I'm not sure because of where it is on our field that we would want to use that as a storage site. Yeah. You know what I mean? That's our entry point to our varsity our varsity sports. I I don't think that that's where you want a storage facility. So, to me, it's either we legitimize it. Um, I think we're having a pretty good run with the food concessions. I will say that that's not a bad thing that has come out of this, but um you know, I guess everybody can have an opinion on that that may not align with mine. So, um but before we totally annihilate it, I'll I'll definitely, you know, consult with John and get his opinion if there's any salvation to it, you know,

082right? Or a way to salvage it, excuse me. Once this project gets approved and you get all your permits, how long would it take to get everything complete? I would want to steal it from you guys in the beginning of June so it's ready for September 1st between you know you know inclement weather and that kind of stuff. So you would need the whole summer. Yeah. The inside probably just you know end of June through September 1st but the outside I always like to grab 12 weeks if I can. I mean that f and that first summer will not be very you know because we're going to have to work around finals and regions at the junior high level. So graduation, you know, all of that stuff goes on there. If you have graduation there,

083then I don't know if I want to start then, but then obviously that pushes you into the fall. Um, you know, so something we would have to talk through as to, you know, when I can seal 10 to 12 weeks. I mean, I think it it it would have to be that we make alternative plans, right, for that in, you know, like because otherwise then you're going into September, October in terms of construction. Yeah. late June. Yeah. But again, I mean, we're kind of putting several steps ahead, right? You know, in terms of timeline, um ultimately we definitely would be looking at Mr. Recommendado of doing this project next, you know, summer of 2026, right? And then we could frame, you know, how early or how late we want the project to go. Okay. So,

084the next step would definitely be in terms of the surveys, right? Because then we get, you know, um deeper into it and we would be then looking at this overall concept here, right? in terms of um you know for um you know state approval and then uh we can talk about in terms of the u the alternates. I mean ideally um I would have loved for us to be able to kind of capture in there obviously the technology room at the junior high school and the family and consumer science at the junior high school. We're not going to be able to obviously do everything, you know, um but we'll we'll the windows I think you know again we can we can do a portion of that but not all not everything that we wanted to

085do. So the next step as soon as the survey is in then John you reach out to us and then we'll close the loop and come back to the board for final thumbs up and then we can give you authorization to send everything to the state and take it from there. Yeah. So, we went through that with the junior high school. We met with um the fizzed uh department chairperson and with the um uh junior high school um admin team at the time. And from a fizzed department perspective, from a coaching perspective, and from a building in terms of use of they all um they actually actually the department chair even said, "Can we have more?" Yeah. Yeah, good. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Thank you. Have a great night.

086Yeah. Okay. Statement of residents on agenda items only. At this time, residents wishing to share a statement should come forward to the microphone, state their name, their address, any organization they may be representing. Residents can also write their name and address on the index card provided, and present it to the assistant superintendent of finance and operations. Prior to giving their statement, please be aware matters relating to individual students 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 is scheduled for 15 minutes. We will record the statements questions presented by residents at the conclusion of all statements of residents. We will respond to those statements or questions we can answer in their entirety. For questions requiring further research, responses will

087be provided at the next meeting. Any statements? Um, hi, good evening everyone. got my glasses on. Firstly, I would like to thank the board of ed trustees for the time and dedication that you commit to volunteer for our students and our community. Um, I want you to know that I appreciate every effort and recognize that you were faced with making some very difficult decisions. I personally would love for the budget vote to pass and for it to pass on the first try. Um, we are all aware that if the budget fails and if we go into a contingency budget, every single student in our district will be negatively impacted. At the last sport of ed meeting, it was stated that it is important to replenish the fund balance for rainy days. I don't disagree with

088that and I can understand the concept of being conservative. However, it is my humble opinion that the community would be more accepting of the proposed budget and more likely inclined to vote yes for the budget if they saw more things go back to the students, especially after seeing the closure of one of our elementary schools. I don't doubt that you have done your due diligence analyzing each line carefully to propose a budget that does not pierce the cap even with the cost of living going up tremendously. But for the sake of saving some time and resources having to vote a second time like we did last year, I'm asking you to please reconsider bringing some more items back for our students for the next school year. Um such as some more clubs and enrichment services

089at the elementary level for those students who do not need AIS during the intervention block. Um academic center for the junior high school and high school as well as some more electives. And I also support Mr. Duran's presentation tonight for a bigger budget for music, for more instruments and specific building instructors. Um, another area of concern, uh, is that we need more stability with the busing situation. Um, I'm just not sure, you know, sometimes what to do with all the messages I get on Parent Square notifying me almost on a daily basis, morning and afternoon, that uh, my child's bus route is being covered by Suffach Transportation. Um, I'm sorry. I just I don't know what to do with that information. Um, it's daily. Um, and uh, additionally, I don't have students in elementary school,

090but in an effort to make this transition easier for the parents that do, um, I would ask that you release the time schedules for the schools that the kids would be attending um, like earlier rather than like finding out in August. Um this way the parents can plan accordingly to secure a slot for either before care or after care. There are waiting lists for both of these. Um so this would alleviate some stress from the parents. Um and I think I just want to say I always want to end it on a positive note. Um I want to thank um everyone who made it possible for the students at the high school to be able to participate in blue and gold this year. Um, from a parent perspective, it is lovely to see our students

091come together and create something so amazing. Uh, I encourage all the trustees to attend and witness firsthand why it's so important to our students to keep these kinds of things um as a tradition. Um, and that's it. Thank you everyone. Good night. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Shannon Kamarda. I live at 849 Brook Street. Um I would like to echo some of the sentiments um of the previous speaker and say that I do appreciate the hard work that goes into the school budget and really analyzing it and coming in at the tax cap this year. With that being said, um since the last meeting um the release of the line by line budget, I was able to take some time and look into that. I did want to send an email before tonight's

092meeting, but you know, life happens and things get away from you. So, with that being said, um after looking at the released line by line budget, many Forest Avenue line items were zeroed out on the new line by line budget, and I understand that those reflect positions that were eliminated, while others are being moved to the other elementary schools due the to the consolidation. My concern is the TBA line items that are significantly higher than what appear to be last year's corresponding line items. For example, principal's clerical salaries for Forest Avenue for the 2425 school year was $64,13 and zeroed out on the line-to-line budget. There is now a new 2526 school year line item that says principal's clerical salaries forest avenue to be assigned. I'm assuming that's what TBA means. And chose an allocation

093of $15,329. Another area that I found was special ed salaries for Forest Avenue for the 2425 school year was $321,771. There is now a new line item and that was zeroed out. A new line item for the 2526 school year says special education salaries Forest Avenue TBA with an allocation of $62,152. My question to the board is why are these new or newly allocated line items almost twice the corresponding budget line items for the 2425 school year? It is my understanding that positions were being maintained and relocated as needed under the consolidation. I know that there are contractual obligations such as raises every school year, but these significant increases in line items cannot solely be cons explained by contractual obligations. That being said, when looking over the line by line budget, this isn't the case

094with all of the TBA line items. For example, there is a 2425 line item for reading teachers K to5 Forest Avenue um at $226,193 with the new 2526 line item of reading teachers K to5 Forest Avenue TBA at $235,636,000 which would obviously could be explained then by those salary increases and contractual obligations. I'm asking the board to please look at these lines um that show the significant increase for the upcoming school year and offer an explanation to the community so that we can better understand these new line items for the upcoming school year's budget. Thank you. Thank you. No further questions. Oh, I'm sorry. Hi, my name is Liz Burns, 151 Lexington Avenue. Um, I currently have students at Forest Avenue. So, um, but that's we're handling that. Okay. That's not what I'm hearing. I

095have a question about field trips. I know it was discussed earlier. My question is why are parents not allowed to pay or contribute to a field trip in the district? Is that it? Okay, that is my question. Thank you very much. That's it. Okay. Yeah. Did you want Yeah, because I know a couple of those would probably clear the air on some things and Yes. So, um the field trips, right? So it's actually not um so it's not a specific West Babylon um rule per se, right? So field trips within school environments, right? Um have to be um tied to the curriculum, right, the instruction. So if they are we make them, right, and they are part of um the program, part of the grade, then um we are as a school district legally obligated,

096right, to um to pay for that, right? So, it's something um that we learned of quite a number of years ago, right? Um and adjusted because years ago, right, that was in play where um you know, parents would pay for, right, a different different um field trip. So, from a legal perspective, right, if we are indicating that part of our curriculum is for our third graders to go to XYZ um field trip, right, then as a school district, we have to um pay for that um pay for that trip. So that's the um field trip um you know u response from a u budget line um piece right so a couple of pieces the forest avenue um I'll start off with the special education um line in particular so last year the original budget so

097when we reflect in terms of all of the numbers it shows the budget last year's budget right um so the 321,000 um number that was referenced in terms of special education forest avenue salaries I'm going to actually read the other elementary salaries because I think it'll make more sense when you hear the other numbers. Um so Santa Pog special education salaries were 601,000 the original budget. Um South Bay 769,000 Tuker Avenue 718,000 JFK 851,000 Forest Avenue 321,000. I'm rounding. So, um the actual um that was the original budget under the special ed uh salaries for those elementary for the elementary buildings. Um at some point during the school year, uh that we have a lot of different transfers, right, that happen in terms of where people's salaries are paid out of from different codes. Uh

098at some point throughout the school year, uh there was an actual adjusted budget, right, um for the Forest Avenue line. This is a 2425 school year report that Miss Galante pulled for me. And that 321,000 again I'm I'm rounding um was adjusted by an additional 256,918. So this year's actual Forest Avenue specialed um salaries is approximately $578,000, not that 321. Right? And I referenced the other elementary schools because when you compare now that adjusted budget for Forest Avenue special ed salaries of 578,000 that is more in line with Santa Pag is 601,000. Uh South Bay is 769. Tuker Avenue is 718. So this year's actual adjusted budget for that special ed 2250 code is 578,000. Right? So you then account for um you know the normal kind of contractual pieces beyond that and then that

099brings you to I think it's like 604 607 whatever kind of that number exactly right so it it actually qu and to be quite honest when um I forget who was it that brought up the question to me I'm like that is weird three right like so we're kind of going through and again each one of these and during the year we do all the different kind of budget transfers and different moves but specifically in terms of looking at the budgetto budget um I initially was like Oh, you know what? It's probably under the special ed umbrella, the 2250. Um, in zeroing out because everyone I think every we explained beforehand that we zeroed out the forest. We didn't place them where they need to go. They're under TBA to be right announced and to

100be determined next year when everything is in place. Then everyone's going to be moved to the appropriate building right off of that forest TBA budget line, right? if they go to Tuker, if they go to the junior high school, if they go right to all these different places, then those all of those transfers will appear on an agenda, right? On on a board agenda reflecting where all of those new um those salaries are being transferred to. Um so, initially when I first looked at it, I said, you know what, it's probably the special ed power professional people, right, that are in there, but the power the special education power professionals are there. This is purely it was missing the part of in reality the budget forest avenue specialed salaries is not 321. It's actually 578

101that was adjusted during the school year to um account for the difference and of people that should have been paid out of that budget code but being were being paid out of a different budget code. And you'll see that in the the 2250 code where it was decreased from there and moved to Forest Avenue to the 2425. But if you want it like you can reach out to me, right? And we can kind of I can I can show you. But now that better explains No, it's not supposed to happen. So, I'm going to kind of pause it in terms of right there. So, here's the piece, right? In terms of all of the budgets, right? The budget gets adopted, right? And then there are there's a there's a lot of constant movement, right? In

102terms of in between the lines and actually we were chatting about it beforehand and you know, Mr. Po was like, "So, do we then show the adjusted budget, right, like let's say next year?" We can't do that, right? Because then the question is going to be, "Wait a minute, but that wasn't the approved budget." That's right. That wasn't the approved budget, right? It was these numbers. But then as a result of we got new students who we needed to open up a new class and now we needed to transfer money from here to here right that's a constant that's a constant eb and flow right you know in terms of within each of the different um budget lines but I think and particularly after I read through the other special ed elementary buildings right it

103makes sense why that budget line was then needed to be adjusted during the school year to not from not 321 but to 578 and now from the 578 to the 604 or 607 7 or 602. Thank you. Um then that's contractual, you know, in terms of the changes. I think I think the confusion happens with the the the difference between last year's budget versus this year's expenditures expenditures and it's it's not a comparison because when you make next year's budget and that throws off the percentages because we're seeing last year's budget or everybody sees last year's budget then they see what a budget line is going to be for next year but the factor is of the actual expenditure. Correct. So it throws it off. It's not necessarily It's just another column that would be

104on there in a budget that is still ongoing. We're still living in this year's Correct. We're still living in this year's expenditures. So those numbers would be different, but at the end of the day, the bottom line difference is going to be the same. Yes. And also on the on the um the clerical piece, right? Um the ripple effect and we're still living it. Actually, Mr. Hley met with me this morning, right? um who is ultimately um I'll say affected right or directly affected from a civil service p perspective when we talk about office assistants and clericals it's not the individuals that are in the specific seats right um because time that people have served in other positions from a civil service perspective counts as seniority so there's several different moving parts when it comes

105to the clerical piece I don't know Mr. Hanley if you want to add anything else to that but um so it's not yeah we're trying to you know we're putting people based on bumping rights right and their salaries into different places so the to be announced definitely um I'm trying to because these are singletons right um it's people with higher higher salaries more seniority that are moving to that need to be moved to different places because people with right um not the individual idual that are in those buildings are the ones that ultimately whose jobs were affected. Okay. Okay. That's it for this area. Thank you. Okay. Need a motion to approve the consent agenda. Anthony John. All those in favor? That's everyone. Okay. Policy review. None. Old business. New business. Jump in on something

106very quick. Yes. Yes. If I may, um, so the West Babylon Board of Education, they just voted on the consent agenda, right? Um, which means that the board just approved um the recommendation, my recommendation for tenure of the following professionals um in our school district. Carmela Brudo, Gina Delarado, uh Crystal Montion, uh Jennifer Omen, Sean Kenon, Michelle Scholman, Amanda Smolen, and Angela Mayo. So, congratulations to all of you. And if you're in the audience, please stand. Thank you. Okay. Uh, just I just had a question on the new business only. I don't know if it's new business. New question. I I had had it earlier. Uh, last meeting. Um, oh, is he presenting something? No, I think you just went to I didn't polit this to ask earlier when you talked about enrollment. So both

107had projected uh 216 for kindergarten entrance this year. We came in 209 and you like I know Sean had mentioned that would change. What's what's the current number of students in 12th grade? Do we do we know that off? Is it like 3:40? Give us a few minutes. I didn't mean to throw that at you. We could pull it up. But but my the overall question is I think what whatever last year's graduation class is. So 209, does that stay relatively within that number as as they move up? Yeah. As they move up. So that's really that those have been our huge drops, right? Like so your incoming, right, the elementary classes are much lower, right, than you're exiting, right? Um, so yes, that'll that has been for the most part that has stayed then

108give or take, you know, 10 15 students. Okay. I was just curious if if that tends to fluctuate as time goes on, but I guess kids moving, kids move out, it's going to even out. Okay. Yeah. So, it doesn't um it's not a huge in terms of difference as they continue to kind of move up. But here's a piece, right? So next year we will reflect umundred and what did you say 321 321 yeah so at least 100 students less in our total enrollment by virtue of the incoming class kindergarten being about 100 students less than the exiting seniors. Okay. Sure. Um, back slowly. I don't have any further update beyond what was shared, I think, also via email, right, for the board. So, we have a number of them that have been restored and

109been placed back. They're still working on continuing to try and get more. It's not complete yet. Yep. Yep. They're still working on it. Yeah. And it's, you know, the graduation, right? All the different videos. Yes. I had I had gone on and like and then a couple days later there was more. So I I don't know if it's just building retrieving the archive. Hopefully it continues but all right it's not closed out. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Great. Okay. Statement of residence. At this time, residents wishing to share a 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 assistant superintendent for finance and operations prior to giving their

110statement. Please be aware matters relating to individual students employees cannot be discussed at a public board meeting. Uh residents will be given up to three minutes to share their statement. Statement of residence is scheduled for 15 minutes. Any statements? Not it. Not it. Okay. Okay. Okay, we need a motion to exit public session and enter into executive session to discuss uh assistant superintendent of finance and operation interviews. All those in favor, John, what? I didn't do a motion. Oh, need a motion to enter into executive session. What did I say? I I need a motion to enter into executive session to discuss uh assistant superintendent finance operation interviews. John Anthony. All those in favor? Okay. All right. Okay. Thank you everyone. Good night everyone. Thank you.