001All right, I will call good evening. I'm calling the meeting to order at 7:00. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Once again, welcome everyone to our April 20th Board of Education meeting. At this time, I will have Mrs. De Vivo do the welcome safety message ground rules. Good evening. In the event of emergency, please exit the building using the doors at the front and rear of the auditorium. Please be reminded that smoking and the use of vape products are strictly prohibited on all school grounds. During the public comment portion of the meeting, each speaker will have 3 minutes with no sharing of minutes.
002When you approach the podium, please state your name and address for the record. Speakers will be asked to conclude once 3 minutes have elapsed. To protect privacy, comments regarding specific students or staff members should be directed to the appropriate administrator and not raised publicly. All questions and comments should be addressed to the president of the Board of Education. Thank you. Thank you. Um so, we're going to start with the appointment of the Superintendent of Schools. So, I need a motion that be resolved that the Board of Education hereby appoints the individual named in confidential schedule A as Superintendent of Schools effective July 1st, 2026. And it be it further that the Board of Education hereby approves an employment agreement with the individual named in the confidential schedule A for the period of July 1st through
003June 30th, 2029, pursuant to section 1711 of the New York State Education Law, and authorizes President of Board of Education to execute said employment agreement on behalf of the Board of Education. Motion. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you. The Board of Education has worked diligently with our superintendent search firm to select a qualified and capable candidate to serve as our new superintendent. This comprehensive process incorporated input from all stakeholders and led us to an accomplished educational administrator with extensive experience and enthusiasm who believed we will passionately support our district's values, opportunities, and success. Tonight, the Board is pleased to introduce to you Dr. Patrick Harrigan. Dr. Harrigan will be sworn in as the new superintendent of the Patchogue-Medford School District in July. Dr. Harrigan most recently served as the executive director of curriculum and
004instruction at the Oyster Bay-East Norwich Central School District from 2024 to 2026. Dr. Harrigan was the superintendent of the Half Hollow Hills Central School District from 2017 to 2024, previously holding the titles of deputy superintendent from 2013 to 2017, and assistant superintendent from 2005 to 2013. From 2002 to 2005, he was the director of special education in the Farmingdale Public Schools, and he held several roles at the Maryhaven Center of Hope's school age program, including principal and director of educational services from 2001 to 2002. Dr. Harrigan served as an assistant principal in the Middle Country School District, where he also began working as a teacher in 1996. The board welcomes and introduces Dr. Patrick Harrigan. Thank Thank you very much. I'm not sure I've ever been introduced as the guy in confidential attachment A, but
005but that's me. I'm Patrick Harrigan. It's It's really terrific to be here. So So first I I want to thank by recognizing Lori Kennedy. Um I I have you all know her better than I do. I've only just got to know her recently. So aside from taking on the role as interim superintendent, I I recognize that you served 25 years in this community. So So thank you so much. Thank you for your warm welcome, and thank you to the really the entire administrative team who I'm just getting to know, but but I thank you for all the help that you've already offered me. To the Board of Education, our board president, board vice president, and and trustees, um I think in our earliest conversations, we we really started to click. Um and and the thing
006that I thought was obvious to me, and and this community probably already knows, is it's a governance team that that really cares about kids, cares about the faculty, care cares about our community. And and I I kind of sensed in them a mindset of and not or. Kind of that idea of that we can do two things at once, you know, we can recognize our our past our history, and look forward, and look to move to improve. So So I think that's an excellent mindset. Um you know, as is mentioned a little bit, I've got a 30-year career in education. Also grew up right right on Long Island, and not not too far from here. Been married for almost 30 years. My wife is an elementary educator as well. You know, our two adult children,
007we're very proud of them. And and as you mentioned, had numerous positions as superintendent, deputy superintendent, principal, but really started my career as a teacher aid. The one-to-one paraprofessional working with students with disabilities, and that was kind of the beginning of my path in education. And I don't think I've ever really forgotten that real connection with kids. Really just a little bit in terms of my guiding philosophy. Kind of the biggest thing for me is to meet students where they are both academically, emotionally, socially. See see where they are on that given day and then provide opportunities for them to achieve. You know, to pursue their passions whether those are in academics, athletics, the arts. We want to make sure we provide all kinds of robust curricular and co-curricular activities for kids. I really look
008to our educational researchers and probably one of the seminal research is John Hattie and his biggest finding is that when teachers work together to know and evaluate their impact, the effect on student learning is significant. And another piece that that's a big one for me is Helen Keller who once wrote alone we can do so little, together we can do so much. So so I think for for me as superintendent you're going to hear we and our much more than you're going to hear I and mine. That's a big piece that's important for our staff. It's important for our kids. And I I think it's critical that our students are surrounded by trusted adults. I've just started just getting to know folks just just this evening. And this was a pretty good kept secret but
009not a completely well secret. So some people have been reaching out to me. So I'm definitely really excited to expand and learn more from more individuals here in in Pat-Med. You know, one of the things that that I is big that I'll talk to uh teachers about, to administrators about, uh is is the idea of of an instructional core. Um, and that's the content that we're teaching kids and making sure it's relevant and and rich and and challenging for all students. Um, and and enhancing and and building the skill set of the teachers to to deliver that that content uh was really excited to to learn just about 3 minutes ago that that there's someone who really dedicates a large portion of their time to supporting our newest educators, you know, our novice educators on
010that pathway to being uh master teachers. And then the last piece that that connects with those two is how do we get our students engaged? You know, how is that engagement process? Um, and that's through how we treat them. It's through what opportunities are available to them. Um, I spent a little bit of time at the front door. And I don't know if it was a plant, but every single student who was walking by stopped and said, you know, "Good night. Goodbye." Um, so there was just a really nice vibe of of students and and that culture and kids wanting to be here, whether they were uh you know, coming in for athletics or or leaving after a long day of school. You know, it's it's a big thing for me that kids are proud
011of their affiliation with the school. Um, that you know, and I and I've seen and you start to notice a lot of people with with the the PM and the logo and the gear and and you know, wanting to have that pride. Um, and I think it's more than just the social. I I think when kids and when parents and faculty and community feel that affiliation with the school, it also motivates kids to succeed. It makes them feel like they belong and that's an important step. Uh, really comes before achievement. You know, and and when I looked at looked at the district and I'm I'm I'm going to read a little bit something that's that's not new to you, but it but it's somewhat new to me. Um you know, the the mission of the
012Patchogue-Medford School Community is to provide diverse pathways and varied enrichment opportunities that will lead to meaningful learning experiences for all students. And and I truly believe this jives exactly with the uh my credo, with my educational philosophy. And in the vision to inspire curiosity and confidence through creative learning opportunities and cultivate so that so that our student and staff can realize their unique potential. Um and I I think it's critical and I'll talk a little bit more in a minute about how it's not just students who are cultivating and building their potential, but but our staff as well that we're we're putting our educators forward. Um so my goal will be to come up with mission-aligned refinements, not to come in and and change what has made this a wonderful community, but but look at
013what's there and how do we align next steps, that are things that are aligned to the mission and aligned to the vision. Thinking of goals over the next few months, you know, for for myself, I'm definitely be thinking about student achievement. Um and having providing opportunities for kids, whether that's advanced coursework or CTE coursework, whatever is going to help them meet their passions. Uh I think we want to look at truly what college and career readiness looks like, you know, thinking about uh how our students are being going to be prepared for the workforce. Um so that's I think a critical component. Uh in terms of social and emotional learning and mental health, I think it's critical first that we think about and realize that all students have mental health, it's not just something that
014that exhibits when a student has a problem, that we're looking towards building that social, emotional, and behavioral health for all of our kids. In terms of staff excellence, like I said, it's critical that staff know their impact and then that collectively that we know that impact on our kids. Um, so I want us to continuously be talking about and thinking about is what we're doing impacting kids positively. Um, you know, I'm definitely invested in the growth of of educators and a lifelong learner myself. Um, so, you know, us learning together, building those successes together will be a critical piece of what we do. Um, financial and organizational wellness. Um, you know, this is the time of year where it comes to the forefront, where it where school districts are talking about and thinking about finances
015and state aid and cost drivers. Um, you know, I recognize as superintendent your instructional leader, but but this is also a major operation. So, looking very carefully uh at at our funds and and working alongside our business official and Board of Education. Um, and then community community engagement for me starts and ends with the students. Um, so I'm big on developing opportunities for student leadership for kids. I'm also big on voice of students, you know, as as superintendent uh in my prior role and I'd be looking to do it here as well. Uh I'll meet multiple times a year and have lunch with students uh to hear their voice, to hear what they're experiencing. Um, and when you do it for a few years and kids start to get more comfortable, you can really learn
016a lot as as they progress through secondary school. Um, and the same thing for parents. Um, I think in order to build trust, there needs to be some uh built-in structures and action uh where parents have that access. So, I'll be looking forward to meeting with parents, whether it's PTA, SEPTA, or just parents in the community to have some uh set meetings, times, conversations throughout the year. Something I'm I'm a big fan of. Um we also want to reach out to the broader community to see how we can uh both support the community and and have the community support us. In my experience, sometimes school districts not Pat Med, just school districts in general can work in a silo and then there's other things working around us. So so reaching out and and having strong
017community partnerships um and and really for me in closing, um you know, I I see this role as as much more than um the policies and fiscal responsibilities. I I really see it as stewardship. I I really see it as uh this very solemn oath to really take care of our students, uh to work with our faculty, to to support our community. Um so again to to the Board of Education, I thank you for for this opportunity, for your trust, for for your faith. Um I hope I don't let you down. I'm no be should be rest assured I'm going to work really hard for you and and for the community and alongside our faculty and staff and it's really just terrific to be here. Thank you for this opportunity. Thank you, Dr. Harrigan, and
018we look forward to working with you. Um next we're going to move on to the presentations and reports. So Dr. Cohen. I have to follow that? Congratulations and welcome to uh Dr. Harrigan. So once again, it it is uh a privilege to recognize our employees of the month. Uh looking forward to celebrating their accomplishments. Thank you all for coming out to help recognize them. They will each be getting a Pat Haggerty Medford picnic blanket, newly uh a newly uh uh item to our collection, as well as a certificate of appreciation. So, when I call your name, please come down to be recognized. The first person is Nathan Brinkman, Director of Music, Art, and Cultural Arts. Nate, you received numerous nominations from your department, an incredible reflection of the respect and admiration you have During both
019the school musical and the Skemeia Festival, you were right there alongside your team, constructing and rearranging sets, trouble troubleshooting last-minute challenges, and instilling confidence in all those you lead. These efforts allowed your staff to take center stage and shine, and boy, did they. You exemplified servant leadership at its finest, leading by example with humility, dedication, and grace under pressure. The results speak for themselves. Congratulations on this well-deserved recognition, Nate. Over here. Next up, Nancy Poulos, health teacher at the high school. Nancy, come on up. Nancy, we were extremely we are extremely proud to recognize you as employee of the month. You were nominated by students, which may be the highest recognition of all. Your dedication both in the classroom and as Interact Club advisor has instilled in your students a lifelong thirst for learning and
020a deep sense of civic responsibility. Through your guidance, students have come to understand the profound importance of community service and giving back. Your direction and mentorship have left an undeniable lasting impact, a true testament to your unwavering commitment, professionalism, and your passion for your craft. You don't just teach students, you shape them into engaged, compassionate individuals. Way to make a difference, Nancy. Congratulations. Just wait up there, you're neat. And last but not least, Carrie McCabe. Carrie, come on up. Carrie, we are proud to recognize you for your outstanding dedication and tireless support to our school community. Going well above and beyond your usual day-to-day obligations, you proactively stepped into classrooms to model and guide students in the use of Schoology, ensuring seamless preparation for remote work when it was needed. Your exceptional technology support empowered
021teachers and minimized disruptions by addressing potential glitches before they could arise. Through it all, you remained calm among everyone else's angst, which is a very important quality, and consistently brought a positive, encouraging attitude that instilled confidence. We're delighted to recognize your efforts. Congratulations. I invite Mrs. Kennedy and the board to come join me in a picture with our employees of the month. >> Congratulations once again everyone. Next we're going to move on to our ex-officio student member, Ms. Charlotte Mick for her report. Good evening everyone. Tonight I want to discuss a little bit about some recent events in the school community as well as upcoming events to look forward to. This past Thursday, April 16th was the Humanities Awards night here at the high school. It was a very meaningful night celebrating the hard work
022of high school students. Students were inducted into Quill and Scroll, an honor society for students who actively participate in activities like Raider TV or write articles for the school newspaper, The Red and Black. In addition to this, new members were inducted into the National English Honor Society for excellence in English language arts as well as upholding the pillars of the society like service and responsibility. Lastly, many seniors are recognized for recognized for and awarded the Seal of Civic Excellence for completing service projects or specific credits as well as writing a reflection on their project or time spent completing these requirements, ensuring that the student will leave the high school prepared to be a civically engaged member of their community. On Friday, April 17th, students in Mr. Carlson's Generation Generation Citizen Civics class had the opportunity
023to attend Saint Joseph's University 2026 Youth Summit. There they broke into small groups to complete workshops with students from other school districts across Long Island and were able to share their service projects they spent the entirety of the first semester working towards. Civic students spoke to a group of panelists and expressed their ideas and ways to stimulate change within the community. This event was eye-opening, allowing all participants to hear different perspectives on topics such as community service, leadership, the environment, economics, and much more. Mr. Carlson's students whose project focused on road safety won an award acknowledging them for their hard work and knowledge of the situation. This Friday, April 24th, will be the junior prom. The prom will be held at Majestic Gardens in Rocky Point from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. The theme is
024dressed to impress and students must find their own transportation to and from the venue. It'll be an amazing fun-filled experience for all those that attend. Thank you all for your time. Thank you. Next, we're going to move on to the bond barring presentation by Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations, Mr. Frank Misi. Good evening. I just wanted to share some important information about the bond because it was about almost 2 years ago when we voted on this and the community came out and supported this initiative to put forth bond which we hadn't seen in in a great number of years. And I thought it was imperative to do so now to give the community and the board certainly an update as to where we are, but really focusing on the financial piece at this point
025because we just gone through some significant significant events and I wanted to share that out. So I have a brief presentation to go over with you. So just a quick overview what the approved plan was, the projects themselves. It was for the state of the art ventilation and climate control in our classrooms and our cafeterias and in our gymnasiums. That was the first piece of it. That was the overwhelming majority of the project. The next piece was the upgrades to our high school athletic facilities and then the last was to transform our music and theater lighting and sound at all of our secondary schools. So that's what we put forth before the community. The estimated cost is roughly $85 million. We did share at the time that that we as a district get back approximately
02673% of aid on that. But we did share at the time the big question that I got from the community members as I was going through this was what would the tax impact be? You know, we're happy to support this, but we want to know what that would be. And the answer I gave people at the time was I can't tell you exactly, but I can tell you what we think it might be. At the time and the reason was because we didn't know what the interest rate would be. We didn't know how much we were going to have to borrow. We didn't know a lot of things, but we had to ask people to vote then for something that was happening in the future. And that's why I thought it was imperative to to
027get together with everyone tonight. But one of the big things that we did talk about was that our our annual debt uh was going to fall below the current debt levels in future years. And we said that that would happen around 28, 29. Um but the tax impact itself was going to occur in the forthcoming year that we're embedding upon, which is the 26, 27 school year. And that's why I'm going to share some numbers with you. Um but some quick oversights. Um it's important to know as we go through this that when we talk about borrowing is that it's based on when we get SED approvals for our projects. That's one of the big factors. Um we can't put forth anything until we have that, but once we do then we embark upon the
028project and the next thing you see up there is the competitive bidding. Because we want to go out to bid on these particular projects and we as the district have been very fortunate um based on our reputation, based on our excellent pay history to procure uh a lot of advantages when it comes to our bidding. So that's one of the things that I'll talk about a little bit. But the first phase of this project is uh that we're going going out to borrow is $21.7 million. And that was for all of the athletic upgrades, all of the theater lighting and sound upgrades, and then the HVAC work that we're going to be doing in in installments at the schools, but specifically at Bay, Eagle, and South Ocean. Now, the debt service schedule, which will be
029on the proceeding slides, I'll go through more of the the uh the the the more important figures, if you will. But uh it'll be important to note that when we do this borrowing, we purposely timed it so that we could start our borrowing in July cuz that hits the next year and we're only going to pay interest on that and that's significant. The next year after that we'll pay interest and principal, but what I wanted to do is minimize that impact for the taxpayer in terms of our borrowing to let more of our debt fall off, our current debt, and then before we take on the new debt. But the interest rate we were able to secure uh was better than what we forecasted. Of course, we wanted to put something out there before the
030community that was reasonable. We were trying to like I said forecast what would be anticipated 2 years ahead of the time ahead of time. Uh and we got back a very good uh very good interest rate. And a lot of that's due to our Moody's rating. We were on a call, we had a review with Moody's. Uh they were very impressed with what we've done with our existing payments. And they look at everything. Um but they even we even started having conversations about where we're going in the future cuz they saw that we're borrowing 85 million, but we're only looking for 21.7 at this point in time. And that was a very important conversation cuz I'm setting the stage for next year. I'm hopeful that we might get a Moody's upgrade. While we can't count
031on it, the conversation was very favorable. Nonetheless, didn't change our Moody's rating and we're we're going to show you some decent numbers now. So, once again, a lot of numbers on the slide. I've highlighted the columns that I want to call your attention to. But um that third column over there where it says actual at the top, that's for the 2026 bond. That's that 21.7 million. That's what our new debt service schedule is going to look like. The two columns over now we're forecasting because now I've made some adjustments. When we first did this, we had no idea of how much we were going to borrow in that first phase. We estimated three phases. We're still thinking it might be three phases. It could very well be four or maybe five. Once again, depends upon
032how we get these approvals in and we borrow the money as we need it. The actual numbers are in that column. The other two are estimated, but we think the next phase could be roughly 30 million, and then the the balance will be that 33.67 that you see in the last column. But what what this really means now is our projected debt service schedule is actually less than what we talked about 2 years ago for the reasons that I've mentioned. But if you look at those last I'm sorry that this the third to last and the second to last columns if this had a pointer I would do it, but No, I do have one. Let's go. So if if you're looking here, you'll see now we're looking about 931 thousand dollars in terms of
033our projected debt for the 2027 year versus the 1.5 million that we were projecting at the time. That's a savings. That's if you will. That's a difference of us that's down over 600 thousand dollars. That's really important for us. That's important for our community. That's why I wanted to share this information because when we're down in the year that we were most concerned about with our overlap, this is the time to have it. So this is wonderful news for us to be able to go out with. You know, we're still thinking it's going to go down the next year. Um but once again, these are all based on forecast numbers. So I really just wanted to focus on that on that one year. But when we talk about it now in terms of what that
034tax impact is I've revised a lot of the numbers you see on the slide. But if you will, I'm going to call your attention to this one that says column F. The numbers that we were talking about at the time I'm sorry, I'm going to go over to the next one. So 2651. That was the estimated tax impact per 1 thousand dollars of assessed valuation on your homes. Okay? What we were saying at the time for every 1 thousand dollars of your assessed valuation it was approximately 26 dollars in your in in terms of an impact. So if you had a home, let's just say at the average value for our communities, which is roughly 2800, I'm going to round it up to 3000 just for the for the sake of this this conversation. You're
035looking at what? Almost 80 dollars for the annual impact for your taxes to support this bond. And what we were saying at the time is it's going to be that one year hit. It would be less than in the next year and then it would start to dissipate after that. So, what we're even looking to do now is change it from roughly $80 to $35 because that per 1,000 is coming down from 26.51 to 11.70. That's a big difference. That's a change of 14.81. So, that's the number I really wanted to share because that's what the community was really asking me and 26 months later I can answer it. Better late than ever. So, what's next? So, here's what what the next year looks like. Right now, we are continuing our planning for our submissions
036for the next set of schools that we want to do for our HVAC improvements. That would include Tremont, River, Medford, Barton, and Canaan. Excuse me. So, we work on the design plans with our architects. We then send them up to SED for approval. And there's a long process involved with that. Months. Sorry, I'm very choked up. This is very emotional for me. But, while we're doing that, we are still continuing the construction work that is taking place right now. And we are set forth to do that. So, in the summer of '26, we are going to be culminating our work on our athletic upgrades that should be taking place this spring. Our uh lighting and sound upgrades should be finished this spring if not the early parts of the summer, the last school being South
037Ocean. But, that will all be done in time for the new school year. And the HVAC installations are going to take place this summer. As soon as the buildings are vacated, we're going to be in those classrooms, on those roofs, uh helping that to do all those installations. But, while that's taking place, that first phase I told you about, um with our architectural design plans, getting our SED approvals, we're working on that towards the fall. In the fall, we're hopeful to be able to put up all of those projects. And once again, I have to stress it stress it, it really depends upon us getting our SED approvals. And as long as we have that, then I'm going to go out to bid on as many of those schools that you see listed there. And
038the more that I can bid, the better the chance we have getting good results, the better chance we get better results, the more we can do with these monies. So, that's the plan. We anticipate having our Moody's review for that next phase of borrowing next winter. At that point in time, we'll learn, like I said, if we if we maintain our AA3 bond rating or if we're going to be upgraded. Um that will determine everything in terms of our next state phase of borrowing, and then we'll have our new uh the next phase, if you will, of our debt service schedule. So, the last thing I wanted to tell you in closing is I know there's a lot of information I just gave you, a lot of numbers, but this presentation and all the updates
039on the bond are contained on our district website. If you click on the top right, where it says capital improvements, there's a link dedicated to that. It'll open up these three windows. All you have to do is click on bond 2024, and you'll see where we put the narrative updates, we put pictures, and all the presentations. So, all the information is self-contained there, so you can access it at your leisure. And I'm happy to answer any questions you may have at this time. Nope, go ahead. Are we back on track with South Ocean now cuz I'm noticing that that's included in the three here? I thought that we bumped South Ocean and went ahead with others. No, South Ocean had the unit ventilators as part of the 2018 capital reserve. And all we needed to
040do there was install the cooling elements to those. So, those are going to be mostly rooftop in design, but we're working on that. In fact, we've been doing a lot of the preliminary construction work on all three buildings, running the wires, some of the piping that needs to be done in anticipation of the vacation of the school for the summer recess so that we can get in and just do the installation of the unit ventilators and with these new rooftop units. Okay, great. Thank you. You're welcome. Anyone else? I wanted to thank you Frank for putting pictures of like where to find stuff on the website. It's really greatly appreciated. You're welcome. Um and thank you for all of your hard work. I know this was a lot of lot of work um to make
041this numbers work the way they did. Thank you for your work. You know what? It's it's top to bottom team effort. It's not me. I get to be the I get to be the point person who gets to speak to you or when I when I can speak that is. Um but I you know, I'm I guess I'm representing what a great team behind me is doing. Um I got to tell you, Lori Kennedy for our first year in facilities has has dove in and she has been there for everything and really quite knowledgeable in this and has been so helpful to the process. But that's what it's all about. You know, we're doing it at all levels because we want to make sure we're we're hearing what the community says and then try to
042effectuate a plan and bring it to you know, try to realize that plan. Um but we have a lot of good people that I work side by side with and um I'm very fortunate. And this was a lot of years of building that Moody's rating and building this so I'm so happy for to have a team like we have. You know what? The community gave us overwhelming support for this bond and we owed them this. You know, we owed them an explanation. No one has asked me for it. I just felt like we we needed to let them know what's happening because you vote on it in 2024 and then 2 years later, hey, where are we with things? So we constantly are updating that website so they can see the progress that we're making.
043So it's nice with with projects like this cuz it's tangible. But even just understanding that financial piece even just a little bit better to know that hey, it's better than what they thought it was going to be. And I pray that I can say that again next year when I'm up here. Um if not, I'll have someone else do the presentation. Thank you, Frank. You're welcome. Anyone else? I just wanted to say um I had an opportunity to uh go to the high school, the new fields, for youth lacrosse this weekend. And despite the terrible weather, um the fields really look beautiful. And so many parents, even on the opposing team, I could hear commenting on all the new construction, how nice the bleachers look. So, great job. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Anyone else?
044Thank you everyone for their time this evening. Yeah. Okay. I just wanted to share that uh on the agenda um we're approving a new ex officio student member of the board policy. So, we have created some changes to it as we were tasked by uh Nisba, our governing organization, to make some changes, have a policy for it. So, I just wanted to share a little bit about what it's going to entail uh moving forward. I'm not going to read the whole policy though. So, give me a second. Let just look where I can summarize this quickly. Um okay. So, down here just what the qualifications I'm sorry, guys. Hold on 1 second. Okay, so requirements to Sorry, to be an ex officio student member is you have to have attended high school within the district
045for a minimum of 1 year prior to the selection. Be an oncoming junior or senior. One junior and one senior will be selected. So, now we're going to have two. Be in good academic standing. Maintain a satisfactory attendance record. And not reside in the same household as the other selected student member. The selection process will begin in March when ex officio student member application packets become available for pick up. Final selections will be made during the Board of Education's annual meeting in May. The apple Sorry. The applicants must submit the following materials. A letter of recommendation. One letter of recommendation from a non-relative adult who can speak to the applicant's character and qualifications. Could be a teacher, principal, employer, coach, or an instructor. Peer petitions. Signed petitions with 10 signatures each from students in grade
0469, 10, and 11. And then applicants must submit one of the following. Either a cover letter and a resume. An essay, a 500-word minimum. Or a video submission, 2 minutes in length. And it gives you a little bit more about what each of those entail. So, the selection process, the vice president of the Board of Education will convey a committee consisting of at least two additional Board of Education members, one assistant superintendent, and the district clerk to conduct a blind review of all submitted applicants. And this is going to be open to all students that meet those requirements. In Sorry, junior and senior. This committee will identify two prospective juniors and two prospective seniors to advance to the interview phase. The superintendent of schools will convene a separate committee composed of at least three Board
047of Education members, one teacher, one high school administrator, and the current senior ex officio student member. The committee will interview the two selected prospective juniors and two selected prospective seniors to determine the final recommendations. The selected students will be formally announced at the Board of Education's annual meeting in May. So, that's the gist of it. So, I just wanted to make sure everyone knew that. And we're really excited to work with two students now instead of one. Um and to really expand this position of student voice. That's the purpose of having a student ex officio member. So, not only can you hear, you know, from us as board members, but now we're we're really getting a community um a student perspective on all the things we discuss at the table. So, thank you. I'd like
048to add, we were also very intentional about the criteria that we don't want just the highest achieving students to think that like we want a wide variety of students. You don't have to be top 10. You don't have to be uh the the the the uh uh like the highest GPA. If you have a an interest in in in leadership or an interest in in serving on the board, you should you should submit your paperwork. Just going to add, uh we have gone to a lot of conferences and we've met a lot of districts that are new to this process. Unfortunately, Pat-Med we've had a sitting board member, so we were way ahead of the curve. So, we took a lot of what we've learned so that we could tweak it to what we see
049as best practices and customs with other districts. And we really found having a junior and a senior so they can collaborate and work together and then when leaves it's not a brand new position and they can learn from the veteran person. So, we're really excited to have that dual role. Um they're very busy clearly as juniors and seniors in high school. So, if there's two and one can't make it, they can tag team each other and we're really looking forward to the opportunity to have two. Okay, so can I have a Thank you. Can I have a motion to accept the consent agenda? I'll make a motion. Is there a second? All in favor? Aye. Consent passes. Um there are no items moving from removed from the consent agenda. There was no actions arising out
050of exec. Um the policy first reading, the following policies will be circulated for first reading and be included on the May 18th Board of Education agenda, which is 5420 student health services and 54 5420R student health services regulations. And due to the recommendation changes, these policies are being presented for second meeting. And then we if no other changes are made, they'll be presented at the May 18th meeting, which is 6164.7 programs for English language learners, 6164.7R programs for English language learners regulations, and 6165 admissions of non-English language learners. Um next we'll move on to the superintendent and the superintendent's reports. Hi, good evening everyone. First, I'm going to start by congratulating our employees of the month. Each of you um I hold dear to my heart. Nancy, when I started at Oregon Middle School, You
051were there as a health teacher, and I feel you're just as energetic and spunky as you were when I first met you. So, and competitive. If there is a contest, Mrs. Pulis is enrolling her students and winning at least first place, if not second. So, Mrs. Pulis, well deserved. Your energy is infectious, and I'm certainly going to miss you. So, congratulations. Uh Nate, where are you, Nate? You're hiding. There you are. Nate, thank you so much for everything you do. Your concerts and your art shows are just spectacular, and your performances are musicals uh second to none. Thank you for always entertaining my ideas. Every time I come to a concert or to homecoming, I'm like, "Nate, maybe we should do this." And Nate runs away. But, thank you, Nate, for entertaining some of my
052ideas. I greatly appreciate it. So, kudos to Nate. And Carrie, thank you so much for all your assistance. Technology can be quite overwhelming with all of the new changes taking place, and your assistance in our our classrooms and all your little tips that you send out to our teachers so greatly appreciated. So, thank you to all our employees of the month. So, again, I'm going to start off by congratulating and welcoming Dr. um Harrigan to the Patrick Medford School District. Dr. Harrigan and I've already had a chance to connect and chat, and I can tell firsthand his excitement and enthusiasm in his new role is uh very evident. As I shared with Dr. Harring um Harrigan personally, um the students, staff, employees, and Board of Education in this district are the most dedicated, passionate, and
053compassionate group of individuals I've ever had the honor of working alongside. They're not just my colleagues, they're my family. So, Dr. Harrigan, you're not just stepping into a new job, you're being welcomed into something truly special. You're lucky to be leading this extraordinary team, and I have no doubt you'll treasure them just as much as I've done. I wish you nothing but the best in your new leadership role, and I look forward to spending time with you during the transition period. So, congratulations to um Dr. Harrigan. And certainly, uh Charlotte, you um stole my thunder. Congratulations to our uh Generation Citizen, um the class, very impressive. You really outshined yourself and really represented Patchogue with a lot of pride. So, congratulations to our students and also to Mr. Carlson. He is so dedicated to our
054uh class, and the achievement is a true testament of what people can accomplish when they're passionate about making a difference. So, congratulations to all of our students and um Mr. Carlson. So, um a lot of exciting times this year. We have a lot of evenings coming up in celebration, honoring incredible achievements of our students, our staff, and this week we had the privilege of hosting several honor society inductions already. So, congratulations to our newest inductees and celebrations are still to come over the next few weeks. We're also thrilled to announce that our spring concerts begin next week. There's so much to look forward to and I'm honored to share these special end of the year moments with our students, families, staff, and Board of Education. It's certainly a great season the next few months. Like
055to our volunteer recognition night is scheduled for third I'm sorry, Tuesday May 13th at 7:00 p.m. It's an event we look forward to every single year. This is an opportunity for us to honor the amazing volunteers who give their time and energy to our school district. Their dedication certainly makes a difference and you deserve to be celebrated. If you haven't seen so yet, please take it opportunity to read the article in Newsday. I'd like to celebrate ourselves, Patchogue-Medford School District. If you'd noticed, there were 33 schools and 16 districts across Long Island that were flagged in the state's new accountability ratings. What you will notice is Patchogue-Medford was not on that list. So, congratulations. We've officially been removed from the state's accountability list as a school and district in need of academic support. This does
056not happen by accident. It happens because of our dedicated teachers, principals, directors, and most importantly our incredible students. Together we are committed to work and have stayed focused on what matters. This is a proud moment for our entire community and we are celebrating but we know that we're not at the finish line. There's always work to be done and we are still looking to close those achievement gaps and elevate our student performances in all academic areas but I really wanted to congratulate everyone because when I saw that article, wow, what an accomplishment. So, congratulations to everyone. Thank you. Again, Trustee Andrade spoke about the new ex-officio policy. I am going to be sending information out on behalf of the Board of Education through Parent Square and email tomorrow to all of our students, our faculty
057and also parents. So, that information will be going out tomorrow and I also want to thank Mr. Mezi for the presentation, his team and our maintenance and custodial staff with all of these projects taking place throughout the district. It's a momentous task. So, I know he jokes when he's up at the podium and we do love that but really it is a tremendous amount of work to have all of these projects taking place and Frank, you're doing an amazing job. So, thank you for all your support. Um I think that is all of my updates. Thank you to our Board of Education. Okay, next we're going to move on to committee reports. So, buildings and operations, Trustee Krieger. We haven't met since our last board meeting. Our next meeting for buildings and operations is May
0585th at 5:00 in the district office. Okay, next we're moving on to finance. Trustee Gabay. The finance committee had a joint meeting with legislative that Trustee Smith is going to share a couple of notes from and there is no meeting in May. So our next meeting will be in June. Next I'm sorry. So I'll just talk about both of them. Okay. Okay, sure. Um and then we can move on. Um and my thing got stuck. Um so we had a joint meeting on April 1st at Saxton Middle School with legislative and finance. We talked about um um pilots pilots payments in lieu of taxes and what the impact is on the district and how we can continue some advocacy work to try to help make more sense of that and help cuz I know Mr.
059Mazie and we've been trying to get access and figure out how this whole system works. Um we're working on it. We're getting there. Um with new apartments coming in and and pilots being granted it can affect our budget. We had a conversation about requisitioning. We follow the general municipal law with approved vendors. Um so that and and we do that's the business office. If you want to talk about that a little bit Mr. Mazie, I'd appreciate it. Sure. The question came about from the committee to just kind of explain how we go about procuring goods and services for the district. Um and I was just explaining how we always follow genuine municipal law to make sure that we are prescribing to the state mandates. Um many of the items that we do procure are on
060contracts. They might be state contracts. They could be piggybacking from county contracts, BOCES contracts, uh but we're always looking for the best price. They're vetted out by those um those organizations, uh and then we want to take full advantage of them as a district. Where we see it to our advantage, we want to certainly do competitive bidding. We will advertise for it because as you heard me mention earlier, uh we've been the benefactor of that kind of bidding in um in the past, so we do do it wherever we have the time and the means. Uh and then the um last piece, I believe, uh was the um I'm sorry. Yes, project, thank you. The project labor agreements because um that's a big push. Now, we have to make sure that, like I said, that
061the the contracted vendors that we uh utilize are subscribing to the Department of Labor laws. But, we don't have to police them, but we have to monitor them, meaning we've got to make sure that they're supplying the the correct paperwork. But, um there's a big push for them to go to PLAs. As it relates to the district, you know, we're just constantly keeping our eye on the impact it has on our dollars because um people have heard me say this more often um than they care to admit, but you know, we're subject to CPI inflation with everything that we purchase. Yet, our budget that we are putting out before the before the community can only uh stay within the tax cap. So, it's really important that when we see these things like PLAs come down
062the line, um or um other mandates that really uh are without outside of our control, but they have a direct impact on us. It's very, you know, it's it's very important that we're not just following the law because it's the law, we're following because we need to stretch the dollars further to get as much as we can for the dollars that we have to make this district run. So, that's really that was the the essence of it. Thank you. Uh there was some discussion about the zero emission buses. Good idea, but it's becoming a it's it's it's becoming a problem. Uh there there are two mandated timelines that we're talking about. Um in 2027 according to the current law next year, all new new purchases need to be zero emission. The conversation is around electric
063buses. Um I don't know if we if we mean if if if uh gas buses mean the same thing. Like natural gas buses, if that's also a zero emission. Oh, yeah. Um and then 2035 full fleet needs to be zero emission. We have a few buses, not a lot. We uh have a bus in contract. Um so, we did not put in a waiver because we're not in danger of meeting the 2027 deadline. There's a couple of waivers that you can be put in place, and they're timed. So, Mr. Mazie is timing these waivers so that we can take a full uh benefit of the 2-year waiver. Um currently, um we have nine district buses. The new electric buses will cost between 3 and 400,000 dollars each. Um versus uh 170,000 for a diesel bus.
064Um bigger concern right now is vendors. Um uh which is a conversation for another time. Um uh we have been having we've gone to legislative events um and all of our local uh legislators are are are not in favor of maintaining the timeline as it is. Um uh but so far there's been no movement in Albany. Uh and we're hoping that somebody makes a movement somewhere because this is going to be very expensive. Um and that's about it. Um our next meeting uh we have one in uh May 7th. Thank you. Did I miss anything? Good. Thank you. Thank you. And moving on to your district-wide technology. Uh district-wide technology has not uh met since our last board meeting. We will be meeting on May 14th at 4:30. And we just got a text from
065Mr. Rifkin, who I think might be out there in the audience. There he is. Yeah. Okay. He just texted us to to let us know that our technology plan was approved by the state. So, that's very good news for us. Progress. Thank you. Um next we move on to extracurricular, in which we um talked about making um some signs, maybe more for you know, athletics and um really maybe the gym and auditoriums. Um we also talked about the separate art show. They're going to meet again cuz they didn't get to meet um this time to go over um putting it into motion, where it would take place, and to continuation on that. And then we talked about um our pep band, and um a fight song, which the students are putting together. So, hopefully we'll
066have that soon, and we'll kind of um see what they come came up with. And then we talked about our mas- um mascot costume, whether we should have one or two. And then that would have come um out of the um budget line of equipment. And then we're not we're going to meet in June. Then next move on to instructional and student support. Trustee Salazar. Also uh we have not met since our last board meeting. Our next meeting actually is this Thursday, uh April 23rd at 4:30 uh in South Ocean conference room. Okay. Thank you. Then move on to community I'm not community reports, board discussion update, which is a Farmer's Fridge vending. So, Mrs. Kennedy, do you Sure. So, I have had the opportunity to meet over the last few months with the wellness
067committee and one of the things we've spoke about bringing in is the possibility of another vending machine that really is to service our students for meals when they're here for long periods of time. So, one of the things we invited in was a company called Farmer's Fridge. They are known throughout the country. Most recently, they've been in several school districts and it does offer an option for our students. It is a vending machine that would sell wraps, salads, bowls, and it does give students the option of even pre-ordering them on an app. So, if they're staying for athletics or musical or any extracurricular activity, the vending machines would be open after school or before the school day starts where students can pick up food. There are gluten-free options, vegetarian option, vegan options. So, it seems
068like it had a lot to offer our students. The cost for the meals I thought were pretty reasonable considering what we spend on Chick-fil-A and Shake Shack, this is actually pretty cheap. It was, I think, $7.75 for an average meal and if it had protein, which would be chicken, it was a little bit more expensive, but it was still about $13, which we thought was very reasonable. The uh vending machines, they come in a minimum twice a week to stock the machines, but they would come in more frequently if the meals uh sold out. It's an also an opportunity for our staff here at the high school. They would have the opportunity to also purchase from the vending machines. They did speak to us about the shelf life. Nothing stays in the machine for more
069than 5 days, so they're constantly, you know, coming and taking out expired food. And again, what's nice is for anyone who has allergies, families can go on, see all the products, and see the ingredients in there. So, it does give a lot of options. Um I could turn it over to Trustee Smith and Trustee Andradi. The one thing I will say is they offer different levels of service. Um this is no cost to the district unless we do not sell the minimum number of meals each week. So, they come in, they put the vending machine in free of charge, and there's different levels that you could contract. If you do do not make that, then you actually have to supplement the cost. Um the the lowest level is $625 a week in sales. The nice
070part about this is it's it can be turned on and off. So, when school is not in session, we can tell them not to deliver food, and we do not have to cover the cost of the meals that week. So, I think it's a great opportunity. We are looking to see if the board, um other trustees would be interested in us piloting it. We can bring it in as early as May and get a feel to see if our students and staff like it and then from there we can kind of decide what level would be most appropriate for our students. So, did want to turn it over to the other trustees if they want to add to that. Diana and I have been advocating for roughly a decade to get better food in the
071vending machines. Um Um and we're thrilled with this potential option. I think it's worth it to give it a trial. We're going to have people here all summer long. It's It's effective for the kids and for the faculty and staff. I think we're not going to have a problem at all selling $600 worth of um healthy food out of a refrigerated vending machine. Um so I'd like to Do I make a motion? Wait, do we You want a conversation. We can talk about it more later. I just wanted to add that we got to try at the wellness committee we they brought the food and that would be in the vendors and it was it was really good. These these machines are also in the airports I think so you might have seen them in
072the airports. Um the hospitals yeah it was it was really good and I think for anyone any of these kids staying after school, it's going to be really great for them. It's it won't be operating during cafeteria hours so that's one thing that it won't be on the machines will be off so it really will be like for right before school starts um and then after school. So, I think I'm excited about it. I think it's worth trying. I know May we might not get the most accurate reading because a lot of the sports have ended but I I still think that the kids will get a taste of it. This the faculty will get a taste of the food and I think it could be something that we might end up needing two two
073vending machines and who knows we could even And we go above and beyond it could be something that generates revenue, also. One of the things we discussed potentially, which I guess is up to um um the department that will be handling the the the machines is uh maybe have one machine that's available to faculty, and that could be all day long, and one machine that we have to shut down during cafeteria hours open that would be available before and after. And as a child of not of as as a parent of three non-sports ball people, um they would have used this a lot. Um um but the the the sports ball kids are going to love this, I think. Charlotte, do you want to chime in at all? What do you think? Um I definitely
074think that this would be a good addition, especially with recent changes. Now that float site um for homecoming is at the school, I think that would definitely be something good, cuz I know students always would try to DoorDash, or they would want to leave to go get food. So, I think that having something like this would definitely be a good addition to our school. Oh, I'm losing my mic. I know I'm hot. Um I'm looking out in the audience, and I'm three seeing my carpool moms. We have four moms that carpool to musicals and glee, and we actually not only drop our kids here, but then drop them crappy food, and take their McDonald's orders when they get their phones back at 3:00, and drop them back food. So, this I know my daughter, when
075she's here late at night with uh musicals and stuff, would really appreciate being able to get a Caesar salad, and us as well, who are here very late, kind of starving. So, uh I think it's good for all the students that are here in and then we're giving them another option, so that's great. Cuz a lot of the kids don't eat during the day is the problem. They forego their lunch, and they're running all day, and they haven't eaten anything since they left home at 6:30 in the morning. So, to get to 7:00, 8:00 at night is really not good for them. Great. And I I know um I'm going to work with Mr. Mazzei cuz it is part of um they're a third-party to our current vendor um Canteen. So, it's very easy for
076us to get it here. Um and again, if we're unhappy with it, they take it out. So, you you know, you're not locked into it if you just feel it's not for you. I do believe if I remember correctly, um they're in Sayville, they're in Smithtown. He indicated that they were going to be introducing it in West Islip, and I do think uh Smithtown um has and Ward Melville. So, there are uh local districts that are actually um in the process of bringing it in in or have it, and they found some great success in their in their buildings as well. So, good opportunity to um really give students yet another choice so they don't have to leave school property to go get food. If this works out in the high schools, is something that
077we can then bring into the middle schools? I think we just have to look I think the only I Certainly, you can bring it to the middle schools, but I I do think we have to look at the activities after school because that's when it's going to generate its its revenue. So, at a middle school, you know, three middle schools, you know, the high school brings everyone together. So, I think we would just have to make sure we're covering that 625 a week. Um and then if if we are, then that's not a problem. It's when you've fallen short that it it becomes a financial impact on on the district. I mean, maybe when we monitor the faculty usage as well, the faculty in the middle schools might make up for some of the times
078that we don't have students. >> So, I think we started at the high school, and we can expand from there. Okay. All right. Next, we're going to move on to public comment, which is limited to 3 minutes per person. Good evening, Pam Peterson. I just want to piggyback on what you're saying right now because I think it's an incredible great idea. I just have a few questions. Will there be fruit in there? Where will it be located? And how do the kids pay? So, we're looking to bring it close to the auditorium here. That's our initial thought, at least the first one. One, you can use an app, but you don't have to. If If not, then the kids do use like a debit card. They could use that. So, the app, some schools are
079using it, but he recommended maybe not starting with the app because if you if you order it, then you go to the vending machine and someone orders it before you, it looks like it's sold out. So, I think for us, we're just getting a handle, but you can introduce an app where they can pre-order. Okay. And will there be fruit in there, too? Fruit was an option in like a You had the oats and Yeah, so I was just wondering like, you know, before games, sometimes like a banana >> Yeah, I don't think it was as much as it was wraps and salads. Yeah. We can look. It was mostly salads and wraps. They did have I had hummus with like pita chips. That was delicious. And they do have breakfast sandwiches as well. So,
080that was also an option. I think it's a great idea, especially when the kids are here in between. It's really good idea. Um Okay, so before I I just wanted cuz we didn't have the the presentation comment part, so I'm going to try to get it on. Um congratulations to all of the um educators and staff who who won tonight. Um especially to my friend Nate who uh puts up with us at our extracurricular meeting and he's so kind and patient and he's wonderful. Um Frank, I the bonds like that was such a great presentation and I really feel we need to get that out there more. Going from 80 to 35 is huge and just looking at the fields outside and things that have been going on here, it's just so exciting. Every time
081I see like one more part of the stadium up or something else, it's just it it's so nice to see that all of the hard work that was done and and passing the bond, like you see it. It's not 10 years and we're still waiting for it. Like it's happening and it looks phenomenal. Um and the idea about the two um the two students, love love love that idea and I love that we've been doing this for years, so we're in the forefront of that. And I would like to welcome you and congratulations. Um we'll get to know each other. I'm very involved. I'm grew up here. Um involved in a lot of the committees, PTAs and things. So if there's anything you need, please let me know. But welcome. Thank you. You ready? Hi,
082good evening. Sherry Costello. Uh first, I'd like to welcome Dr. Harrigan. We're excited to have you and uh we have a very prestigious group of people here who quite involved. They put a lot of time and effort and energy and I know you're going to get to know them very very well. I thank you, Mrs. Kennedy, for all you've done taking over the spot, and Dr. Jones, and some of the other people who've been able to help get our budget um balanced and bring all of the important things that Mr. Mazzei discussed. He's very humble, but he's really hard working, and the team that he works with, they do amazing things. So, thank you for that as well. One thing you mentioned, and I think it's really important as we come into budget season, when
083you talk about the $3,000 portion of the home assessed value, that's the school budget portion, right? Because most people hear that, and they want to say, "Well, my house is assessed at much higher." So, can you just speak to that a little bit? Sure. So, the your school taxes are are predicated on the assessed valuation that the town of Brookhaven assigns. There's a value that they assign for for each different property and house. We use 3,000 just as an example, because the average home for our communities is roughly 2,800. I don't know how they calculate these numbers. It's certainly not the value of your home, but this is the what's called the assessed valuation by the town. And I I do have that property tax tutorial. If you ever want to go there, you can
084click and find out where I can find my assessed valuation for my property, and determine what your tax impact is with the budget. But, I use that that same framework when I put this into perspective, so people understand how this could be impacting them specifically for the bond. Also, I want to say that I took a brief tour of the facilities outside. I think they look amazing. I'm excited and hopeful that all of that will be in place for graduation this year. I have a question about our new ex officio system. Will the junior carry on for a second year? Is that how that was discussed? It was kind of stated that way, and I'm not sure. You have one more turn. It's a one-year term. Okay. Today it's been a little frustrating for me
085as we still do not have Wi-Fi available to community when they come in here. As we're moving to a lot of paperless things including our our agenda for today, it's very difficult. So, I'd like to again put out there if there's any way to help support that. Not only Wi-Fi uh cellular signal, but if we could maybe do something that helps support us better with Wi-Fi since we know cellular is something we're very limited with and are not able to get here. With regard to the new food, I'm excited about it. I have a couple questions. Uh does that company have a non-compete? If there are other companies that want to put in vending machines and those types of things? I realize we have to meet a minimum of 80 meals a week. That's what
086$625 would be and I'm a little worried about that, but if we find that other companies are coming around, can we bring in other vending machines? Ms. DeMasi, um I would turn it over to you, but um at this point we have to go through Cantina which is our contract. So, they are third-party. So, no one else could come in right now unless we did go out to bid. Is that correct, Ms. DeMasi? >> That's correct. Yes, that's correct. And so, Cantina, that's who does your cafeteria food as well? No. This is just just we have a a bid for yes, for our vending machines which provide the beverages and snacks that we have now. I am wondering if our current lunch time vendor also could provide, you know, kids could buy second wraps at
087lunch or go in and get those kinds of things and have that as well. Having healthier good options available and I haven't been in the high school here to see lunch in quite a while, but I know that from my own experience in schools, lunches we used There should be a salad bar. I'm not sure if there is. There should be a wrap station. I'm not sure if there is. There should be opportunity for kids to get fruit and be able to buy bananas and apples and oranges and all of those things throughout the day to have. And with our contract with our current vendor for lunches, I wonder if students could access a lot of that stuff as well, in addition to upping what's available after hours from a healthy fresh company. But we
088talked about farm to table and all the things at the greenhouse and the in Tremont and those places would be able to bring us. So, finding ways to implement what we have as well on top of that would be great. So, again, welcome to the community. Thank you so much. I really look forward to you bringing some of the the vigor and the the exceptional things that, you know, our community is incredibly diverse. We have a large group of multi-language students. We have a large group of special ed students. We have a large group of diversity in our financial scenarios across the board, academic, linguistic linguistically, all of our goals. And I look forward to see how you're going to be able to help bring all of that, you know, even a step further than
089we've been able to do. So, thank you very much. Any other comments, questions? Nope. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Nope, never mind. Peggy Felice is from Methuen. I was just wondering, traditionally, I thought that this is the meeting at which you would introduce the potential candidates for the upcoming year school year. Um is that something that's done tonight? No, that's done at the budget hearing. At the budget hearing. >> Yes, which is May 7th. >> Okay. But they all had to have their petitions in as of today. So, they were finalized to whoever it is had to have them in today. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay, next we're going to move on to board comments. Trustee Kubota. Okay, I want Oh. Sorry. Um I want to start by saying congratulations to all the employees of the
090month. Um I want to thank Mr. Mazie who always makes complicated financial information easy for me to grasp. So, thank you so much. Um and I want to welcome Dr. Harrigan. Um this process has been It's been truly a privilege to have been able to be a part of this process of selecting our next superintendent. Um I want to really here thank the other trustees. Um I've sat in these seats far longer than I've sat um in this one. And it can be very nerve-racking as a parent just, you know, hoping that decisions are made with our kids, our staff, taxpayers in mind. Um and it was just an incredible opportunity to go through this process with all of you just seeing um how dedicated we really all were in making sure um we selected
091the right candidate. We had just a ton of meetings and conversations and um you know, the everyone else doesn't really get to see that. Um but I can assure you that we, you know, we worked incredibly hard um and we're just very excited um you know, for this next chapter. So, I just wanted to thank everybody here. And yeah, have a have a great afternoon. I'm going to reiterate many of the things Trustee Kuban said. Now I know what it's like being the second person, not the first person. She takes all my words. So First off, I'd like to thank our employees of the month. Your contributions um you know, everything that you do for our district is is noticed. So thank you. Um Mr. Mazie, thank you for your contribution and presentation tonight. It
092shows your diligence and the follow through, which is very important I think for us to see. Um And lastly, I think I'd like to of course congratulate Dr. Harrigan. Um we look forward to working with you and um you know, seeing all you can do for our community in the future. And like Trustee Kuban said, this was a process. It was very um interesting process. It was uh rewarding, I found. It was very thorough. I just want the community to understand that, too. And we worked our hardest to make sure we included all the stakeholders, and when we did hear the voice of the community, so everybody that participated as well, thank you very much for your input, and it was we did hear it and listen to it. So, thank you. Okay. So, ditto
093to everything they said, and I just wanted to welcome you, and we look forward to working with you, Dr. Harrigan. Um I want to say a special thanks to all of our staff for all of the hard work that they do behind the scenes day to day. To have all 11 of our schools off the New York State list is nothing short of amazing, um and a long time coming. To have the reports from Mr. Mazie regarding the bond projects and the proposed budget proposals coming to us when other districts are struggling is a testament to every department's fiscal responsibility, and we truly think out of the box here at Pat-Med, and we really know how to get the most for our taxpayers dollars, which is amazing. Whether it be um our own building and
094grounds person building classrooms and painting and saving that money or the way we save money to have a full building being built without taking out a bond for is really truly amazing when you watch the news and you see where other people are these days. And then I'm just looking forward to all the year-end concerts, sports activities, the election, the budget, and this time of year flies by in the blink of an eye before we know it it'll be summer. So I know, shh. But um that is all I have to say. You're up. Thank you, Dr. Harrigan. I We're so happy to have you on board. We really are. Um Lori, we're going to miss you. Um we'll say more another time, but thank you for all of your years of service. Um I'm
095not going to go into all of that other stuff, but uh this search process was um comprehensive and months-long and the uh and and uh the the quality of the candidates that we got to meet was was uh fana- fantastic. I mean, there was super high-quality candidates and we asked to see and a wide all the diversity and that's what the search team the search firm gave us. Um and we were we are so thrilled to have made the decision that we made. Thank you very much for joining us. Um uh Mr. Mazie, thank you very much for your work on all of that budget stuff and making it make sense to people who don't do numbers. And um uh I wanted to remind everybody that there is a tool on the website that Mr.
096Mazie invented that you can plug in your address and it'll tell you what your taxes will do based on the budget when when it passes. Um thank you very much. Uh Maycember is about to hit. Um deep breaths, nice and slow. Breathe. Thank you. Okay. I'm going to just say ditto to pretty much what everybody said. Welcome, Dr. Harrigan. We're very excited to have you here. Um Laura, we still have 2 months till we can say goodbye, so we're going to save that and just have a great night, everybody. Thanks. Yes, congratulations to all the employees. I want to say congratulations to all the students, too. Um last week was seemed a a lot for all the honor societies that they all got inducted for all their hard work. And then, um also to the
097Hall of Fame that they inducted a lot of people on Friday night, which was a great night. Um congratulations to Dr. Harrigan. We look forward to working with you, and I agree it was very extensive period that I think we've all bonded and hung out late nights and had a deep conversations and Friday nights. Friday We did Friday and Saturdays, yes. So, yeah. We did that um deep conversations, and it was very insightful to listen to everyone and work together. And um thank you to everyone for your hard work and dedication shows by getting us off this list that we've been working very hard hard for. And it was awesome to see that in the paper that we weren't um named. And so, and then thank you, Mr. Mazie and your team. And it will
098be ready for graduation. Graduation will be here. Um which I'm not ready for, but it will be here um before we know it, but it the graduation will be here on our stage, and it will look awesome with all our new bleachers and the press box um up there, so Can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? I'll make a motion. I'll second. All in Aye. All right. Meeting adjourned at 8:26. Thank you everyone for coming.