001school district. Mrs. Ayani, can you please take role? >> Yes, please respond. Present when I call your name. Mrs. Dio, >> present. >> Mrs. >> Present. >> Mrs. Arn, >> present. >> Mrs. Johnson, >> present. >> Mrs. Pen, >> present. is present. We can now proceed. >> Thank you. We are going to stand for the pledge of allegiance. After the pledge of allegiance, please remain standing for a moment of silence for Donna Palace. 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. >> Thank you. Can I please have a motion to adopt tonight's agenda? >> I'll make that motion. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I >> motion pass. Can I
002please have a motion to approve the board meeting minutes of December 17, 2025? >> I'll make the motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Motion pass. That brings us to tonight's presentation. Mrs. Bosch. Good evening, Board of Education. Superintendent O'Hara. Thank you for having me tonight. I'm happy to hear be here and presenting to you all. Um I'm going to start with our progress towards our goals. Um CES goals linked to district goal number one. Uh in December we had a especially spirited PBIS assembly. We had a new member of our PBIS team, Mr. Hack, who is a new second grade teacher um co-host with me. I did he he did not need a co-host. He was amazing. um he had missed his calling to be a presenter um on an award
003like a game show or something. Um it was wonderful. He had some tricks up his sleeve. He had planned games for the teachers to play. They were balancing a jingle bell on a spatula relay race. The kids were cheering. It was really a lot of fun. Um and I of course am encouraging him to step into the limelight again. um because it really was a fun time. Um and he you know we are always looking to improve and to enhance our PBIS program and um so we were elevator elevator riding on the principal's chair and they spent the day with the chair and were like heroes in their classrooms like superstars. So that was fun. Um CES goals linked to district goal number two. Um we are in our amplify science pilot. It's underway in
004all of the CES classes. We had a virtual check-in with our trainer uh the morning of December 12th where teachers were able to ask questions uh that they had collected during the first half of the pilot. We have another check-in with the trainer in mid January and then a review of the program after it's complete this one unit. Um after the first marking period, we recognize students academic achievements. This is new for CES. Uh students in grades three through five earned honoral certificates for achieving all threes and fours on their report cards in academic and special areas. In grades prek through five, students had the opportunity to earn hardwork hero awards for always putting in their best effort with their schoolwork every day. Um students who received awards were called down over the loudspeaker and
005by grade level because there were so many achievers. um and their pictures were taken with their awards to go in the yearbook. Um all awards recipient names were also sent home in a parent square message highlighting their successes. So um that was something new that we had developed this year and we are really proud of all the students that are achieving such academic success at CES. Uh our community partnerships updates uh in December the first grade had Mr. and Mrs. Pedani visit the students. They talked to the students about being um in the Air Force and how they used what they learned when they were in grade school um in elementary school in their military careers. So um that was a newer presenter that we had in December and I'll continue to update um throughout
006the year um all of our community partnerships. Uh CES had a fun winter spirit week the week of December 15th. Students wore holiday clothes, brought in games to play with each other, dressed up for their favorite holiday, and had a cozy pajama day right before the break, and we were all feeling very festive going into the winter break. Um, goals linked to district goal number three. Uh, the PTA and Sepsa continued to support CES. The PTA hosted the holiday shop in December, which was a success, and both the PTA and SEPSA members volunteered to work this event. The PTA also had some holiday fun for the CES staff with a pine tree pong where everyone had a raffle ticket in the building and um a chance to win a gift card donated by families and
007they stocked the office also with holiday wrapping essentials for staff to grab if they needed that holiday um pine tree pong is a fun event in December. It's like um Bob Barker on the announcements calling down numbers. teachers are running, kids are cheering. They all know the numbers of the teachers. So, it's a lot of fun. Um, and we really appreciate the PTA for continuing to support us and do those fun things for us. Um, the CES broadcast team sent out their first production on December 18th to the school and it was shared with families on December 19th with the dates to remember for January. Um, it was a really great production. Uh, the broadcast team will be joining us next month in our February um, board meeting. January's important dates to remember were included
008in the parent square message um along with the December broadcast and the fifth grade class representatives have been identified through a democratic process facilitate facilitated by their teachers. Eight students, two from each class will be presenting right now. Um I would like to call up our fifth grade class representatives. We have all of our representatives minus one and Miss Pachowski, his teacher, has um volunteered to come and present on his behalf. So when she steps up, she is Liam. Okay, come on guys. Good evening. I'm Allison Winker and I am one of Miss Sinku and Miss Krauss's fifth grade class representatives. I would like to thank the Chester Union Free School District Board of Education members and superintendent O'Hara for having us here tonight to present to you all today. My fellow class representative and
009I will be telling you about our election process. Hi, I'm Adriana Jiro and I'm Allison's co-presentative. The election process was easier than you think. The way it works is that in the beginning of the process, all the candidates start to make posters to encourage people to vote for them, which we will be sharing with you today. Then we would share our speeches to mo motivate people to vote for us. After that, A few people made little index cards to say to vote for them. Then we would put all the candidates names on the board and vote for who we wanted to be class representative. Following that, when everyone voted, the teachers tallied up the votes and then checked off who the class representatives were. Surprisingly, it was me, Adriana Janeiro, >> and me, Alison Winger.
010This was the election process. Good evening. I am in Miss Quackenbush's fifth grade class and my name is Chloe Williams. I am one of the class representatives. >> Hello. I am Alani Boa and I'm in Miss Quackenbush's fifth grade class as well. I am also one of the class representatives. >> Today, we will be describing what it means to be a chosen class representative. >> Throughout this year, we will represent our peers. We will represent their ideas and concerns. We will be open and honest with each other and the other students. We will listen to their questions, suggestions, and opinions. Everyone's voice will be heard. Every student will be recognized, and their thoughts will matter. >> We will also be role models for our students. We'll represent leadership, kindness, and respect. One example will be
011all the representatives, bringing everyone's voice together to make a final decision. We will also show responsibility and be trustworthy. We we will be responsible for being examples to the younger students. You can count on us to make this year the best it can be. We love having the opportunity and being able to take on this responsibility to lead our school to success. Being a class representative means a lot to us and we won't let you guys down. A big thank you to Miss B, the board of ed education and superintendent Miss O'Hara for allowing us to present to you today. Have a good night. Hi, my name is Nia Gala and I am one of the class representatives for Miss Byer's fifth grade class. >> Good evening. I am William Odino and I am Nia's
012co-cl class representative for Miss Byer's fifth grade class. >> Today we will be pres presenting some of our goals as class representatives. One of our goals as a as class representatives is to support our classmates in making sure people are kind to one another. We will be able to we will be available for our classmates to confined in and will support them in conflict resolution when they may disagree about something. Another another goal we have as class representatives is to support decision making about the end of the year fifth grade special events. We will ask our classmates opinions on what they do and do not like. We will make sure everyone's voices is heard loud and clear. >> As class representatives, we are only a few students, but it's our ultimate goal to represent the
013fifth grade as a whole. So, our largest goal is to be the voice of our peers collectively. >> Hi, my name is Liam Vasencio. and my name is Isabella Rodriguez >> and we are the representatives from Miss Pachowski's class. Becoming a fifth grade class representative has taught us how to be better students and leaders both at school and at home. We are learning many important lessons. First, how to be good listeners and work together to do hard things. We are learning that being a good influence matters all the time, not just during our meetings with Mrs. Bosch. We know that it is important to stand up for what is right. >> Most importantly, becoming a class representatives is teaching us how to be confident and use our voices. For some of us, speaking in front
014of a large crowds is challenging, but we are learning to support one another as a team. For example, Liam is a very incompetent speaker in front of big crowds and does not get nervous. He is super lucky. But Isabella is great at answering questions and being very creative. And she helped us to come up with strong ideas even when we were asked really difficult questions. Together, our different abilities make us stronger. Even though the meetings are fun, being a class representative is not always easy. >> We are learning what it means to be a leader. Leadership is not about telling someone what to do. It is about working together and listening to everyone's ideas. It is about being responsible and following through on our commitments like remembering to write our paragraphs for the speech. Most
015of all, we are learning the importance of teamwork to listen, be kind, look for the best in everyone and understand that none of us are perfect. Our differences help make us a great team. Becoming class representatives has taught us a lot. We are excited to make our last year at CES amazing. >> Great job, guys. Oh, don't leave yet. I did let them know that they would remain up here for a few moments because after our presentation, we would ask if there were any questions for myself or for any of the class representatives from the board. I don't necessarily have a question, just a comment. So, um, one of you said that speaking in front of loud large crowds can be challenging. Can I just say that I didn't see any challenge whatsoever. The level
016of confidence and poise that you each have speaking here tonight is just so impressive and they couldn't have picked a better group of class representatives to to be to have. So, thank you for sharing with us tonight. There's one that I'm particularly proud of because I remember when you were in your mommy's arms and you were a little baby. I'm looking right at you, Ally. So, well done all of you. Um, just super impressed by all of you and keep doing what you're doing. You have great goals and it's just going to be an awesome last year for you guys. Thank you. >> And thank you for taking the time to come to our meeting. This is always our favorite part as a board is having the students come in to let us know what
017they're doing in the class. And you guys did a phenomenal job. So, thank you. >> I think we'd all vote for you. >> Yeah, exactly. >> They did. They did an excellent job. Um, they also meet with me often, especially preparing for something that's coming up like tonight's event. Um, and we have great conversations and we talk about things, uh, like their futures and, you know, their potential opportunities to maybe be sitting at this table one day as seniors. Um, and, you know, they really all have amazing things ahead of them. So we are very proud of them. >> Very well done. Thank you so much for taking time out. >> Thank you. >> As Mrs. Neg, it's our favorite part when students come. So, this is a board meeting and usually the board comments,
018but I I just asked if it would be okay. I just wanted to say I was so impressed by some of the things that you mentioned as you are already leaders and representatives of your class uh repres leaders of the elementary school because you are the oldest now in the elementary school, right? Finally, fifth grade. Um, but I loved what you said. I love that you mentioned representing the voice of the group. You mentioned kindness and the importance of listening. So, it's just so wonderful to hear that you've already achieved this leadership role, but you're recognizing how important and and what that means for those that you represent and and listening and kindness and um yeah, so so impressed by how you spoke um and also what you said. So, congratulations and what a wonderful
019representative of the elementary school right here. And Miss O'Hara knows what she's talking about because she was a fifth grade teacher for a long time. >> I was so fifth grade has changed. >> Great job. Very well done. Thank you. >> Well, Mr. Flanigan, once again, you're following the children. >> Thank you everyone. Nice job everybody on your speaking and on, you know, really taking a leadership role at CES. It's very impressive and I I love the the principle for the day that Miss Bosch has over at CES. I offer it to people all the time. Nobody's taking me up on it here. So, just kidding. Uh so, uh thank you for the opportunity to present today. Um just a few things to go over in in terms of my report. One of the things
020uh and I this has been this is not in my report that I've been announcing and I know we we do frequent updates on electronic device earbuds. Mr. Agular always has something in his report but I did announce today uh in the morning and the afternoon. I'll continue to that we are seeing a lot of students that are starting to maybe forget as they walk in the building in the morning with them in. So, as a friendly reminder, and I'll say here in public, we did remind students that when they walk through the doors, those those should be away and in their bags and not on them, that we we would be needing to enforce that if they're coming through the doors with them. So, everybody received that reminder this morning and this afternoon um
021as as a friendly reminder because we all know what the expectation is and that was that was laid out in September. And generally, sometimes with a little reinforcement, everyone's generally been very respectful in terms of following that. It's hard to believe that midterms and and for us midterms in January regents are are here. I mean, they're they're in just a couple of weeks. So, in case anybody hasn't gotten the parent square message or been to the website, all the information for the academy midterms is on the website. Um, all of the uh information has been sent on parent square. And what I'll do with parent square, one of the things I love about parent square is when you can just update the message like you've you've done and I can just keep going on there
022and I'll do that once a week to bring it back into everybody's line of sight as a reminder so it it's it's easier to search and for people to find. Um so we are we're ready. We encourage people to start studying now and being prepared and uh we're looking forward to it to a great uh a great mid turnaround here. Um, today was was pretty cool. Um, this was the second year that Mrs. Sternman's put this together and we had our alumni panel here at Chester Academy where students from last year that graduated came back and talked to students from this year. Brooke, were you there as well? Yeah, it it was cool. We had one period for the juniors and one period for the seniors. So, imagine if Brooke talks about that later at
023all. Um, but I I was really impressed because you can see a lot of the growth in the students that have moved on, but also the advice that they're giving them, the things that you might not have been thinking about as you were a student here getting ready for college. What I need to do, I think it's valuable, and I and I look forward to hopefully being able to do that every year, having the students come back. Just some familiar faces. You would remember our old board rep. Ariana Dowy was here. She was she was part of this. our our uh Carly Cambria, our Vioadictorian was here today. Jojo, everybody knows Jojo loves Jojo Owanin. He was here today as well. Um and and a bunch of our students. We had about nine students total.
024So, thank you to those students for agreeing to come in. And hopefully our seniors that graduate next year will be able to get back in Brook. Hopefully, we'll get you back in here next year, too, to to give some advice for everybody. I received some questions I I sent out to select families. Not everyone will understand, but I'll explain to the board. Um, we were selected, Chester Academy was selected to participate in NAPE testing. And what NAPE is, it's the National Assessment of Educational Progress. So, it is not a New York State test. It is a federal test through the Department of Education. And it's often referred to as the nation's report card. And as a school, if a school accepts title one funds, um they can be asked to take this test. So we
025were asked to participate. Um they selected our eighth grade and then from our eighth grade, we give uh a selection of all the students in the eighth grade and they send back uh a selection of who they would like from the eighth grade to take the exam. So I did send communication to all those families in particular um for February 2nd when we do administer that exam. It is administered by Nate. So they actually physically come in here and uh Miss Penny seems like she she's familiar with this one. So they do come in, they administer the exam, they proctor the exam. Uh they just need us to do the setup for the exam. They are very clear. They they they help generate a letter that I send out that I sent out to families
026that basically goes over the procedure. They do tell families that they they are, you know, they are asking them to participate. if there's something that they are very concerned about, they have the option to not participate. Um, but that's been communicated and I'll continue to once again do that for anyone that's missed the email in that in that eighth grade as well. Um, as it is, uh, you know, it is different. It is the first time I think in in 24 years I've seen it. Um, I know it's been it it kind of works its way around. It's been in certain places. So, um, we are, you know, we're always a partner in education to to people that support children and and we look, you know, we we look to support data and hopefully help
027build the nation's report card. Um, and so I want thought I'd throw that out there as it pretty new to me in terms of, uh, something that we we've received. Tomorrow, uh, a counselor from CEK will be here to talk to our 10th graders. Um, this is one this is really the first step in the process with CEK. Um we do have procedures which we will communicate to CEK families down the road um as stu as CEKers go out on their visits and we'll then kind of say hey you know CEK um is is an amazing program but if students are attending CEK it's very important for us that they're attending CEK because they really are interested in something that's going to help them advance them towards a college and career readiness path. Um, so
028we like to make sure that they're that that that they understand what they're getting into. It's a huge commitment over two years. Um, and that they understand that um, you know, you need to also be a very good student here at Chester Academy to make sure that you are on track for graduation and you're, you know, you have really good attendance because the district makes a tremendous investment in anyone that goes to CEK. Uh, so we will be starting that process uh, tomorrow. Um the Oh, one thing that I I I really love and everyone had a chance to kind of slide through here today is that what a great job by buildings and grounds who worked with our uh our partners in in the the construction I say our construction partners to really finalize
029our safety project and have our new entryway our secure entryway. We're all learning it and how to you know use the phone and press the button. There's all kinds of different buttons to let people in, different doors. Um, but the goal of that is that we create a we create a secure area where we're where we're having people in the building, the doors closed, everyone is kind of in a in a secure space, that we're doing our transaction through the window, we're taking people's ID, we we screen every ID that comes into the building to make sure that everything is always safe and that our students are safe for when they're getting picked up. that we're making sure that this is uh specifically someone that's approved to pick up somebody and that um you know
030Chester Academy who's always dedicated to safety is always just a little bit safer now. So Matt D. Roza and his team I believe were here almost every day over the break um you know except they they they took off the 25th um like many people but were here just about every day and just doing just about everything because they had to be here with the construction. So they were finding other tasks to do in addition to the construction and uh really appreciative of that. So thank you Matt. Um congratulations to to you the board as well and Mrs. O'Hara on the fields project because I haven't been up here since the Fields Project has passed. The Chester Union Free School District Intercolastics athletics project. What an accomplishment. Um, you know, I was here when when
031we had our our last vote and the community, you know, and we're here for the community. We're here to listen to the community and the community spoke pretty loudly of what it was looking for if we were asking for a facility like this. And, you know, and so a lot of Mrs. O'Hara was was great about really looking at those concerns that were from the past and trying to really use information, speak to people, speak to different groups and to formulate a plan that was what people really wanted and and um you know something that was on campus, something that involved a track, you know, something that involves multiple sports being able to play so that you know so that we can play soccer and football and hopefully lacrosse and and have track meets and
032and and it really is an awesome opportunity uh for the community as well to come and and and you know sometimes it's sometimes if you know we have an amazing trail but sometimes you want to train and you want to go on the track and you want to run a couple of month not me but you know others others might um and and this gives you a nice opportunity to train and so we're we're really appreciative to the community for passing that so thank you um it's a great opportunity for our students once again uh to to echo Miss Bosch. Uh Sepsa had an incredible holiday shop here at Chester Academy. I mean, they brought in a lot. I was really appreciative and impressed by by the work. Our students really took a lot of
033took full advantage of getting a little holiday shopping done during the lunch periods. So, we're hoping that's something that will continue to Thank you, Sepsa. Um and then finally, uh not here tonight and with Danny Moshart will be our junior board representative. He's already been approved by the board of ed. Danny has a wrestling meet tonight. He's one of our star wrestlers. He's up at on Auntie Ora. It just happened to fall on a meeting night. He came into my office very serious and professional to inform me that he would not be able to get here tonight and he apologized and that there's only one other meet that will interfere and otherwise he's clear for the rest of the year. So Danny's very responsible. Um I'm really looking forward to him joining the team. get
034one for the guys up here, you know, and uh you know, otherwise we are, you know, Danny's uh I think that he'll bring a great perspective as well, especially as we're moving forward with our our field project and and uh you know, a lot of just of another student view as well. Um Danny attends CEK. Danny's a high achieving uh student in our building and so we're looking forward to him joining the board. He just wanted to send his regrets for not being here tonight. And uh I'll take any questions from anybody. >> Really quick, um two things. Uh you mentioned the buildings and grounds and yes, shout out to them because I know we had like weather during the break and while most of us were at home, the buildings and grounds across, you
035know, the schools were in making sure that things were not falling apart in our buildings while we're gone. So definitely a shout out to buildings and grounds. Um and then just to clarif uh just clarify or just for parents to know if a student is absent on the day of their Nate testing um do they have to do a makeup? >> No. No. >> They're only coming in here once. >> I also have a comment or thought about the CEK program. I know that students have to make a decision on whether they're going to go full-blown academic or go the CEK way because a commitment is, you know, really critical. But just we're living in a in a world where having multiple streams of income or multiple ways to earn a living are important. So
036if there's ever a consideration to have for those who decided to pursue, well, I'm going to I'm going to go to college because that's what's right for me right now, but sometime down the line, I would like to learn a trade or pick up a trade. If there's some kind of conversation or connection that can be had at that level with those students, I think that would be helpful. >> I think too with with the trades, the trades are unmatchable for us to do. can't do construction here. You know, we we can't do heavy equipment. There are certain HVAC. There are certain things that we can't do here. There are a lot of programs and where we involve the education where we'll have a student that might, for example, come in and say, you know
037what, I really want to be a vet. And then they'll look and they'll say, so there's a great vette program. And so what we'll do is we'll sit down and say, okay, so what does a vette do? And let's look at you want to be a vet. So where are you going to need to go to school? What are they requiring? You know, what type of courses are going to help you get there? and we let them make an educated decision based on those requirements. So, it's really all dependent on on what the student kind of selects and chooses and then we we sit down with every student that once they make their their selection and they're interested in going to CEK and we kind of then go through that to make sure they understand
038what that that really looks like or that that's the correct path. you know, one of the ones I I use and there, you know, when students go to, for example, law and leadership at at CEK, there's a lot of avenues you can go in the law and leadership world, whether it's forensics or a lot of things. But if somebody says, "Hey, I really want to be a captain in the New York State Police one day." One of the things I'll tell them is, and some people don't think of is like, "Then you need to be a really good test taker as well. You need to be really observant. You need to be able to understand, you know, what they're looking for when they test you to be a captain in the state police or to
039move up the ranks and how your degree through college also helps you achieve those areas and rank in certain organizations. So, these are things that kids might not think about, but it's important that we are able to as their career adviserss, you know, to be able to say like, oh, you know, it would really benefit you to have a four-year degree at least if you want to go into this particular field or, you know, to uh to understand that that your your higher level, you know, reading or public speaking might be something that benefits you, you know, if you're looking to go into that field. So um or you know or this is the perfect trade because everything you have on the table right now tells us that this will be a great avenue of
040success for you because the trades right now are in real desperate need. There's a lot of opportunities out there. So uh my biggest thing is that just people are able to make the informed decision. >> I actually had a C tech question also uh because I know in years past some of the programs are very competitive. They fill up very quickly. Do we know if now that Boseies is in the middle of completing their own cattle improvement project and they've expanded the campus, do we know if there's going to be more seats available for some of those programs? Have they indicated if >> So Harry, you look like you're ready to jump in. >> Okay. >> Please, please go ahead. >> Never get me to stop talking. Um yeah, Boseies has actually there's going to
041be additional opportunities with programs that they offer. Um but I did want to make mention specific to um entering into the trades. Mr. Flanigan has uh with his staff a significant pro our internship program and actually we had a student who is um now has has joined our facilities team through her participation in electrical internship. So she had done uh she had learned both residential and commercial and uh was looking to go the union route and and is still is uh heading in that direction but getting additional experience following her graduation and and is working matter of fact did the electrical um was on the team that did the electrical for um all the wiring uh for the digital access to our classrooms. So um in addition to CEK sometimes CEK doesn't offer those opportunities
042and Mr. Flanigan exactly in his conversation directs um to to some of those opportunities even with law enforcement. We have internships in law enforcement. So, um it's really that balance of what's what's the best fit to Mr. Flanigan's point >> and which also as you brought up our our our former student Julie who uh who's been here helping us out and and did our electrical internship last year. We currently have now two young ladies who are looking to get involved in electrical internship here already openly speaking with Mr. Jordan who's communicating with Mr. Sutton and which will be really cool. She's kind of a trends setter. So good for you, Julie. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. >> Mr. Agular. Good evening everyone. Happy new year.
043Can't believe it's January. Once again, I'm proud to stand in front of you just to share the greatness that happens here at the academy. Uh in my report, you could see our uh my monthly report regarding our cell phone and electronic device usage. And it's interesting that we had a low number right before the holidays. So, uh it was great to see. But again, I I really thank the students, the faculty and staff here for again promoting and reassuring uh and again the helpfulness of our kids here to understand the the why, but also following through and and that really starts with our seniors, you know, and again, Brooke knows I spoke to Brooke and and Zoe and when you get a a you know, how's it going? How's it going in class? And when
044you hear the reassur, the reassurances from the kids, it's fine. It's okay. And like, okay. And that's great. And as you could see, it's really helped out. I will be interested, you know, after the holidays what we'll look like. But I think once again, our kids will rise to the challenge. In my report, you see uh our thank you Chester event. Brooke had mentioned in our last meeting last time I came up to pres uh to do my presentation. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get it in because of the dates that crossed by submitting my report. But I did want to recognize our kids uh again for helping out. Um as a reminder, the thank you Chester event is just a small way that our kids give thanks to the community and that's helping out
045at uh Shopright of Chester. Kids that came donated at least an hour of their time. And most of these kids, as you know, they're involved in athletics, clubs, and activities. And they came in on one of the busiest days right before Thanksgivings to help out. They help customers, our our Chester community here by bagging groceries, escorting them out to their cars, and helping them place it in their cars, and even collecting carts. Uh, and again, I'm just so thankful that we were able to do this. We haven't done it in a long time. Uh but again for these kids to to give up their time and do something well and just to say thank you to everyone uh because Chester of uh Shopright of Chester has really come through for our district, not just the
046academy here. So I wanted to include that. And then uh this was just a great feat. Uh we call the the the holiday hoops Hamiltonian celebration. And again, I there's so many people to thank and it was great to see CES there as they participated in our ugly sweater contest. Um the the the brainchild of Mr. Marcilio, who always does an ugly sweater game, but we expanded it. We expanded it so much that we included um we had three games in one day, which is very difficult to have, and kudos to Mr. Ducet for organizing it. But we had our boys modified basketball team play, the JV boys play, and the varsity team play. And that just gave everyone an opportunity, including parents, to come in and see their own child, friends, uh, you know,
047participate. But we also included uh, with the ugly sweater contest and and the varsity boys uh, uh, dressed up as they warmed up in ugly sweaters. Uh we had our our guests from CES to participate in the contest and they were escorted by uh my members of the varsity club who helped out and uh created posters and escorted the kids during halftime of the varsity game so that the winners from CES would gain points for their PBIS. Uh I also want to share with you that there's more. Uh kudos to uh head coach Ryan Stove and his team and uh coaches uh where the kids uh faculty, staff, and parents celebrated with a little treat uh of hot chocolate and cookies. Uh this was a great event. I look forward that we do it again
048and that we look for an event to have our girls participate too. And um when you talk about community and having those opportunities, it's an example of this that we can have. So, uh, again, great job. Um, and right before the break, and and it's interesting that we we were able to accomplish a lot in a small amount of time in December, but we had our winter pep rally. And I'm I'm very happy to hear when when when you when you get the feedback not only from students, but from faculty. It was one of the most amazing uh pep rallies that we had. Um, not only, you know, uh, we started off with a bang with Joey Veltry with our national anthem, but with our drum line again. And again, kudos to Paige Niles and
049Zoe Arnette for again leading and, uh, Tyler Clark being the MC for the first time. We had great uh, activities. We had the the tugof-war where the seniors won again. We had our customary uh, musical chairs where the kids enjoyed. We had a basketball skills contest against some of the teachers. and we had a holiday relay race. But the best part was Miss Alvente. Miss Alvente closed the evening, excuse me, closed the presentation with a three song rendition. And can I tell you it it was amazing where the kids had the spotlight on Miss Alente. They focused not only on her but on our logo and even our Hamiltonian dancing uh uh under the under the spotlight. But then watching seeing our kids swaying together, singing together, hugging together in the holiday season, it was
050great to see because that's the school. That's the school that I'm proud of. So again, fantastic job. And lastly, and and I want to tie this in because I I can't tell you how excited I am when I hear about this new complex that again and and Mr. O'Hara knows it's for the kids, mostly for the kids. So, I was able to see uh Mr. Robin invited me into his class and uh wanted to show me again in his CAD class that his kids were already working on in preparation of creating their own signs. Chester Academy signs. How appropriate. So he invited me in. Come in, take a look. What do you think? Again, our students were amazing. uh you know right in the maker space but the presentation again on the 86 in TV
051and watching these kids and again having them explain the process of where did this idea come from and when you hear that they did the research they looked at other schools they looked at other schools locally they looked at schools you know from outside New York State and even one copied used a font for the University of Florida um the Gators, which I shared with them that I always look at them first because I like their style. So, I look forward to the future because again, with the newest addition we now have here at Chester Academy, having them be included in the vision of what they can add, including signage andor branding. So, again, we're setting our kids up again for success and having that commitment again of uh pride. So, thank you again everyone.
052I mean that's that's my report. I I can't tell you how energetic I feel about sharing that with all of you. >> Any questions? >> As always, thank you for sharing the highlights of our students and in this case our faculty. Um much appreciated by the board. >> Thank you. Thank you all. Before we move to our uh first public comments, I want to give the opportunity to our fifth grade student representatives. If you would like to um leave and go home and do homework or relax, um you can do so at this this time, you're more than welcome. We'll take a brief pause. So, you guys >> Great job. Great job. >> Nice job, guys. >> Great job. So cute. >> They did a fantastic job. >> I love them. Why not? >> Mountain.
053grandparents are coming. It's great. It's okay. >> We'll move on to our first public comment. Seeing that everyone has left the building, we will move on to a round table. Turn to the side first. Mr. O'Hara, I'm sure you have something to share in the new year. I do. >> Uh again, just so impressed by the elementary students in fifth grade. Um thank you Mr. Flanigan, uh Mr. Agular, Mrs. Bos, just um team effort on everything and just so appreciative of all you each do uh to bring continued progress and improvement to our district. So, uh, wanted to reiterate our appreciation to the community, uh, following the recent vote in support of the Intercolastic Athletic Facility Capital Project, which has been mentioned a few times this evening. I do want to mention that on the
054website, uh, you'll see a newly created tab at the top. Uh, thank you, Mrs. Zanuzi, for your efforts on this titled latest updates. And so, in keeping with the title, uh, if you click on that tab, you will see the latest updates. So, um, following the, uh, vote passing, our community engagement continues and we will, uh, make every effort to keep you informed as, uh, the project, uh, timeline progresses. So, if you click on that right now, you will see that the next step uh, that was shared in Mr. D. Rosa's recent report at our last budget meeting is tree felling, and that will begin on that's targeted to begin on Monday, February 2nd. and that's in accordance with required environmental timelines. Additional details on that, including dates, uh, such as the bid walk this
055Friday, are included on that website. We're also going to keep open the dedicated email address. So, if by chance uh something arises, a question, certainly more than welcome to give us a call. Uh but you're also welcome to uh pose that question to the dedicated email address and we'll add it to the updated FAQ specific to uh latest updates. Um construction uh Mr. Flanigan mentioned of the new secure visitor entryways at both Chester Academy and Chester Elementary School um occurred as Mr. Flanigan mentioned literally every single day over break. And thank you again to Mr. D. OSA and his team. Um, and this is the first week with the new protocols and we actually have a meeting at the end of the week to as with everything to reflect on uh a new initiative, a
056new safety protocol. Um, is there any opportunities for improvement? How did it go? So that we are constantly pivoting um to advance safety and security throughout the district. So uh very excited about that and that is a reflection of the safety capital project that was approved previously. parent advisory panel. I'll be sending out a message tomorrow for our parent advisory panel group. We have our second meeting scheduled for Wednesday, January 14th. As uh promised, a survey will go out to the group um with regard to, as always, they have a topic where they we seek input on uh their feedback on which drives opportunities for improvement through the lens of our parents districtwide. And then Friday, January 16th, next week is a half day of school for students uh because we have professional development scheduled
057for our staff. And that's all I have this evening. >> Thank you. >> This side of the table, I do uh have an update for Orange County School Board. Orange County School Boards hosted their first meeting of the year uh yesterday evening virtually. There was two presenters who joined us virtually. Brian Fesler was the first presenter. He is NISBA's chief advocacy officer for governmental relations. Brian shared his perspective on the upcoming state budget negotiations and his projections on how funding might look going into next year. Uh compared to where the state budget was at the beginning of the school year, it seems that the state aid cut concerns have subsided somewhat. Uh the state is still projecting a bit of a deficit, but not to the extent that they had initially felt in September, which
058is good news for districts across New York State. Um there was also some questions that came up from Orange County schoolboard members about concerns with regard to uh whether the universal meal funding will continue into next year considering um some of the concerns that came up with food stamp benefit cuts that occurred this past fall. Um however, at this time it doesn't seem that uh there will be any changes to free lunches um at this point, although we won't know for certain until the proposed budget is officially submitted to the state on January 20th. Uh Patrick Longo was uh the second presenter through NISBA. He provided some great information on different student recognition programs that they have available uh through the program. A summary of those programs was sent out to all board members. And
059there's more detailed descriptions available online um if any of the districts uh who are interested would like to submit student nominations. And then lastly, NISBA's lobby day is scheduled for February 11th in Albany. Um, Orange County School Boards provided their advocacy platform to board members and they're looking for feedback and suggestions for board members as they prepare to meet with legislators in February. They're uh welcoming anyone who's interested to join them on lobby day on the 11th. Um, and also for those who cannot be there in person, there's also going to be a half-day virtual option for the capital conference that will be available on February 6th. So if anyone's interested, you can let me know. We can email Karen Meyer if you'd like to attend. That's it. Thank you. Anything else before we move
060to Brooke? >> Happy New Year. Do you have anything to share? >> Oh, yes. Happy New Year. I hope everyone had a great holiday season. So the week of December 15th to the 19th, we had our winter spirit week and pep rally. And as Mr. said the winter pep rally organized by varsity club was one of the most successful and engaging ones yet featuring this element sing holiday carols during that week student council ran hot chocolate sales during lunch periods and the profit will be counted at the next meeting on the 14th but there were so many sales that they ran out of cups so I think it was a success the voice ensemble went on a caring trip to the elementary school on the 19th and then we also did a mystery reading to
061the students so it was very nice time there's a key club meeting next Tuesday on the 13th And over winter break key club and band members did the bell ringing and they also played carols with their instruments outside of shop for the Salvation Army. Um as Mr. Flanigan mentioned earlier we had alumni from last year come in to speak to the seniors and juniors about their college experience and how they've navigated such a big change and this was very helpful to hear I thought as a senior going off to college next fall. There will be a senior class meeting this Thursday to finalize our senior shirt design but we did already vote and it was already selected. We have to start designing the shirt and getting the sales out there. And then lastly, the project
062adventure snow tubing trip was approved and permission slips are due this Friday. The trip will be February 6th at Mountain Creek and it's no cost for the students. >> Thank you. >> Anything else? >> Okay, that moves us to consent agenda. I would like to make a motion to adopt consent agenda items 5.1 through 5.6. I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Consent agenda items pass. And that brings us to our second public comment. Seeing that no one is in person, can I please have a motion to adjurnn? >> I'll make that motion. >> Second. All in favor? I >> motion is adjourned. Um good evening and um please join us for our next board of education meeting on January 21st. Thank you and good night.