001Heat. Heat. Okay. Good evening. The board has returned from executive session and there were no actions taken. Can I have a motion to open the meeting? First, Lisa, a second, Alex. All in favor? Let us all rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. >> Each meeting we hear from the students from different buildings about all the wonderful events going on at their locations. Tonight we are pleased to welcome our students from Westside ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. SO MUCH. OKAY. This is Is that my turn? Turn it off. >> All right. What do you say? >> Thank you. >> Good evening. I'm Timmy Wallen and I serve as
002the Westside School student council president. Thank you for inviting us to speak at this month's board of education meeting. It's an honor to be here this evening. I'm joined by Brett Goodwin, our vice president, Lily Palace, school secretary, and Nora Davis, school treasurer. On behalf of this year's officers and all of our student council class reps, we thank Miss Ryan and Miss Santoro for serving as our faculty adviserss. November was was our school's gratitude month, a time to pause and reflect on the many things we are thankful for. our families, friends, teachers, and school community, as well as the comforts and opportunities we take for granted. From running water and warm homes to the food we enjoy at school and at home, gratitude helps us recognize how fortunate we are. Choosing gratitude reminds us that
003there's always something to be thankful for. My name is Brett Go. and I serve as a student council vice president. During gratitude month, we held our Thanksgiving food drive to support the helping hands rescue mission. This reminded us that showing gratitude is not just about saying thank you, but also about taking action and giving back to our community however you can. By sharing what we had, we can make me a meaningful difference in the lives of those who are in need. Not only did we collect a great amount of food and money to help provide turkeys, but we also held our annual turkey drive. Students decorated t-shirts with Thanksgiving themed designs. If students wanted to vote for a classmate shirt, they brought in winter weather gear like hats and gloves or baby supplies such as
004wipes and diapers, which were all donated. Gratitude can be shown through kindness, generosity, and taking action to support others. Hi, I'm Lily Palacei. I am student council secretary. December was Westside's acts of kindness month. We were focused on spreading joy by encouraging community members to do simple acts of kindness. We celebrated gestures like holding the door open, writing a letter of thanks to a school aid, sharing someone or purposely saying something kind to brighten someone's day. When one person does something kind, it often inspires others to do the same. This is called a chain reaction. Even the smallest acts of kindness can make a big impact. Acts of kindness month is celebrated in December, but we continue to practice kindness every day in order to support our school's mission to create a culture of kindness
005where all Westside students feel a true sense of belonging, acceptance, and inclusion. >> My name is Norah Davis, and I serve as student council treasurer. We joined Guso Primary to support one of their students who was bravely fighting cancer. On December 17th, we held a special EBT community spirit day. Students and staff wore their EBT shirts or wore colors to represent his strength and to show our schoolwide support. We wanted to do even more and launched our snowman pencil sales. One of our student council Quest representatives, Ian, came up with a great idea to encourage students to buy them. If we raise $1,000, Dr. Bar runs would have to sing karaoke during morning assembly. Each student was given the opportunity to purchase a gram for $2 and write a message to a friend, classmate, or
006staff member. We sold over 300 snowman pencil grams and made over $1,000. 1,027 to be exact, of additional funding with the sales, totals, and generous cash donations collected. Since we broke $1,000, Dr. Barnes sang for us and did a wonderful job. It was amazing to see everyone come together as a team rooting for him and to and to remind EVT and his family that they are not alone. Before moving into 2026, I would like to mention Michael Gallagher and the Dartmouth Roberts for coming to visit us in December and entertaining the whole school with their amazing and talented voices. We also wanted to thank Miss Rodriguez for leading the spelling be this year. We had a fourth grader come out on top. We also congratulate the fifth and sixth graders participating in the Lion King
007Jr. which was also launched in December. Finally, I would like to congratulate Mr. Abley for his victory this in this year's faculty ugly sweater contest. We also thank all the staff members who entered this year's competition. Always such a hit and so much fun. We did many exciting things in January, which is our school's inspiration month. We started off of the month by doing our annual New Year's ball drop during the morning assembly and revisited the importance of having a positive mindset. Miss Leam worked with students on training their brains for success. Dr. Barnes also introduced the seven habits of highly effective kids with us focusing on habit one, being proactive. We spent some time unpacking the difference between being proactive or reactive. Proactive people take responsibilities for themselves and make sure never to blame
008anyone or anything when things don't go the way they wanted. A reactive person works to control a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding after it's too late. January 27th was Holocaust Remembrance Day. During the week, we studied the timeline of when it began, watched a video about life in the ghettos, and learned about Mr. Aaron Morocco. We were very lucky to hear our grade six teacher, Miss Jenny Buckner, talk about her grandparents, Ruth and Joel Turak, who are both Holocaust survivors. Miss Buckner read us a powerful letter written by her grandmother years back when she spoke to a group of pe of students who were learning about the Holocaust. In the letter, she reminded us that inclusion is is better than exclusion, tolerance is better than ignorance, and peace is much better
009than war. We held our annual and beloved soup herbal super drive. The deal was if we collected one layer or touchdown of cans, we earned jersey day on the Thursday before the Super Bowl. If we collected two rows of cans, we earned pajama day on the day after the Super Bowl. We knew this would be the best motivation for kids to bring in soup. and we achieved it. We had a far farmed for a great cause and definitely enjoyed the February bonus spirit days. February is our school's friendship month, a time where we focused on building strong relationships with one another and recogniz recognizing the values of health, supportive, and positive friendship. Our month begins with us learning that Patatonyi Phil saw his shadow in a special visit from two very cute and adorable furry
010friend dogs from the Northshore Animal League. We learned how dogs are working to bring joy to schools, hospitals, and in places where people do not necessarily imagine a dog even being allowed. We were given the opportunity to hear and ask questions about their working dogs in schools. It was a great experience for all and we all felt the warmness in our hearts despite the colder weather we've been having. February is is Black History Month and the theme is a century of Black History Month honories. This February marks the 100th anniversary and celebrates the many contributions of African-Americans and the impact they had made in our society. We look forward to learning more more throughout the rest of the month. We can continue learning about the seven habits of highly effective kids and began looking at
011habit 2. Begin with the end in mind. A dream is a wish and a goal is a target. In order to meet a goal, we have to plan out the steps and efforts needed in order to ensure that we are setting ourselves up for to be successful. We would like to thank the CSH as an educational foundation for sponsoring this year's Steam Manny's night. It was so much fun and we all had the best time exploring all the experiences. All the teachers made it so fun for all the te the kids. The teachers really got creative this year. For our February activity, the student council will be encouraging students to make donations to the Ronald McDonald House, an organization that supports family through difficult times. This is a wonderful way for us to show friendship
012not only to each other, but to also to our larger community. To inspire participation, each student who brings in an item will enjoy a lifesaver light. This activity we are look are all this is an activity we are all looking forward to after every break. And we are excited to spread friendship, generosity, and smiles throughout our school. We are also about to celebrate our 100th day of school. Excitement is in the air as we celebrate 100 amazing days filled with learning, friendships, and fun. We have even more in store for student council, Westside School, and our community. Please be on the lookout for upcoming fundraisers and activities that Westside will host as we continue to show that together we can make a difference. Last but not least, if you did not get enough of the
013Westside this afternoon, you can come and join us at family bingo night. Thank you for allowing us to present at this evening's board of education meeting. At this time, we are happy to open the floor to field any questions, comments, or inquiries that you may have. Your feedback and engagement are truly appreciated. Thank you so much. >> That was great. >> That was amazing. I can't believe how busy you are and this is um good to know all that's going on. I actually learned a few things. So wonderful. Um what's your favorite thing so far? Uh being a Westider. >> Um my favorite thing um is definitely um Wait, do you mean for student counselor or just >> anything you love about Westside? Um, probably going into school and just seeing your friends every day
014and definitely morning assembly because we all get together and we celebrate birthdays. Um, if anyone did something like good, you know. >> So, I agree with Timmy, but also just like waking up and knowing that I'm going to school with a bunch of amazing people who are super nice. Um, my favorite thing about school is probably being in student council because I feel like it's kind of special cuz not a lot of people get to do it. >> My favorite part is probably after school, the clubs and like the teachers too. >> Amazing. Thank you. Guys, >> thank you. >> Yeah, thanks for having us. >> Sorry. Cut everything out. Oh my gosh. President of exciting and meaningful items, staff, we are grateful to accept thousands donations from nicer co which held sympard to support
015our steam man event held last week at the junior senior high school. I attended the event with my sixth grade daughter and her friends and they truly enjoyed it staying from beginning to end. I would also like to thank the education foundation for their sponsorship of this special evening and express our appreciation for their continued support and making these enriching experiences possible for our students. On this agenda, we also will be accepting two generous donations from our education foundation. One supporting the don't press send program which will help staff, students, and parents navigate an increasingly complex digital world and the what's in your box grant which supports handson woodworking engineering projects at the elementary level. Together, these grants represent more than $61,000 with direct support from the Education Foundation to enhance student learning and growth
016across our district. Also on tonight's agenda are several instructional and operational items, including field trips, the adoption of a new AP pre-calculus mathematics book, and the review and revision of our professional development plan by our professional development committee. I would also like to take a moment to recognize the retirement of two junior senior high school teachers. English teacher Miss Lynn and social studies teacher Miss Ethanasio. Thank you for your many years of service to Cole Spring Harbor community. It's greatly appreciated and we will hold a retirement ceremony later in the school year. This evening, you'll also be voting on a memorandum of agreement with our administrators bargaining unit which includes our building level administrators, principles, and directors. This marks the third bargaining unit with which the district has reached an agreement for the 2526 school
017year. As previously shared at the January board of education meeting, the district has met with the state appointed factinder to assist in negotiations with the HTF on teachers bargaining use. Both parties have agreed to a final submission date of March 10 for all documents related to the negotiations with an independent factf finding report expected in early to midappril. Once issued, this report will become a public document. predict the district has been and will continue to be open and committed to meeting and negotiating with the HDA in good faith to reach an agreement that supports both our students and our staff. Thank you, and I hope everyone enjoys a relaxing and welldeserved winter recess. When we return, I hope to see you at Westside School's production of The Lion King Jr. March 6th and 7th in
018the pack. I have been working with the director and the Westside School Theater Association on the costumes for the show and they are colorful and fun and it has been an absolute pleasure to see the excitement smiles this week as the students prepare for the performance. That's it. Joe, I'll turn it over for you to your superintendent. >> Thank you Heather. Good evening members of the board of education, students, staff, families, and members of our community. Welcome to the February 10th board of education meeting. As we head into the President's Day President's Day winter recess, I've taken some time to reflect on the many incredible accomplishments across our district over the past month. It truly has been a period filled with learning, creativity, and community connection. Kindergarten registration is underway this week, and we are
019excited to welcome our newest Seahawks to the family. Our aquaponics lab is officially up and running, providing students with hands-on opportunities to grow plants and raise fish together within a sustainable recirculating ecosystem. This innovative learning space exemplifies real world interdisciplinary learning. We're also thrilled to host our annual humanities night where an estimated 800 students, parents, and staff came together to celebrate science, history, creativity, and the arts. The evening included a recap of our Normandy trip, artwork, 3D design, karaoke with Dr. Barnes and Mr. Edley, and so much more. Both the aquaponics lab and esteemed man's night were made possible through generous support of our education foundation, which we are deeply grateful for the continued partnership. I'm also happy to announce that a full set of fish tanks in the wet lab are up and running.
020The marine life are being added to properly balance the tanks and we expected additional rows of tanks to be operational in the coming weeks. This past weekend, our students once again impressed us with an outstanding production of the music man. Their dedication and talent were on full display and we could not be more proud. Across the district, students have been excelling in academics as well. We held geography and spelling bees. We are proud to recognize students accepted into the wall county art exhibition. Congratulations to May Verer, Julian Julia Alexander from Lloyd Harbor School, Amelia Spanos and Elizabeth Willenbacher from Westside School. We we also continued our commitment to professional growth with staff development sessions led by Miss Libertini, our assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction at the high school. Congratulations to juniors Alan Wank and
021Katherine Canali who earned awards. >> Alex >> Oh, I'm sorry. You're right. Alex, I have Alex Wer too. My my apologies. Who earned awards and co as co-delegates for the United Nations at the UN commit at excuse me, co-delegates for the United States on the NATO committee. Early this month, we celebrated National School Counseling Week and I want to once again thank our school counselors for their essential support they provide our students every single day. Other highlights include Colonial Day at Lloyd Harbor School, Global Play Day across the elementary schools, supporting students cognitive and social development through free play, book fairs, speech and debate honors, expanded elementary clubs, and a sixth grade transition friend sixth grade transition presentations as students prepared for the junior high. And that's just a snapshot of all that's been happening.
022We're also looking forward to celebrating our 100th day of school this Thursday as many exciting events are ahead of us this month. Later this evening, Dr. Selantano will be presenting the first of several budget presentations for the 2627 school year. Tonight's presentation will provide an overview of the budget development, funding considerations, and role of state aid. As we head into recess next week, I hope that everyone is able to take time to rest, spend time with family and friends, and simply be present with one another. Thank you for your continued partnership and support. I look forward to the important work ahead and to celebrate many more successes together. Thank you for being here tonight and for being such an accepted part of the close family. Please take care of yourself and if you can take
023care of somebody, >> this is the first discussion section of our agenda. I open the floor to any other discussion items from members of the board of education, but we do have three items um that are up for discussion. UPK electric buses and regionalization. So why don't we start with those? >> So speaking of regionalization and um the electric mandated buses um just going back to the regionalization cold harbor we did opt out of regionalization although we really only opted out of the planning part of it when regionalization was passed recently. So, it was passed in the state. We now have to, which we did, craft a resolution saying that we are officially opting out. So, that's where we stand on regionalization. Um, I'm going to get it a little bit into the electric buses.
024Um, last weekend, Alex and I and Joe went to a New York uh it's the New York State Board, Coalition Board. I'm sorry, I might be getting the title wrong, but they had a coalition. Um the coalition had a legislative breakfast breakfast and it brought brought together school board members from across the region and there were also several state and local legislators there for a thoughtful discussion on public education governance and the role of locally elected school boards. Uh, one of the primary topics that, um, we discussed with strengthening communication between school boards and legislators, particularly when they're drafting these types of legislation like regionalization or mandating electric buses, a lot of times we don't really know that it's happening until after it happens. So, they're suggesting that we should come to some of the
025lobbying days and be more in the know of these mandates that are coming down from the state. Um, let's see. We also talked about the impact of a lot of these unfunded mandates like electric buses, how they may impact school district operations, governance, and funding. Um, board members emphasized um I'm sorry, the importance of being aware of relevant legislation. I already went through that. Sorry. Um, let's see. Okay, so going back to the electric buses, that was kind of one of the big topics there. Um the electric bus mandate from New York State was it it's it's tough because it is it's going to significantly impact our budget. It's going to be very expensive. Um the timeline is short and what was I learned at this meeting, what what was upsetting to hear is that
026the state actually gave themsself a five an extended five years on their vehicles having to be electric, but yet the schools were left out of that. Um so I kind of feel like they're putting our kids in harm's way by having us implement these electric buses before they're actually going to do it. it's going to cost us millions of dollars and it's a safety issue being that a lot of these electric batteries have gone on fire. Um, so that mandate could cost the district millions and of course raise serious safety issues, especially given reports, like I said, of those batteries going on fire. It's important for the public to be aware of these concerns and to know that school boards are actively working to address and whenever possible push back on mandates that may negatively
027affect students, staff, and taxpayers. So just >> thank you. Yeah, I think one of the concern major concerns that people brought up about um the electric buses too is that in a number of school districts it's so cost prohibitive that they would actually have to get rid of educational programming to pay for the buses. And they also there's no plan to have the buses built in time. And there's school districts like Garden City who have their own bus fleet and then they'd have to abandon the bus fleet which also is not really environmental. Right? So there's all these all these major issues. But really the worst part I think is for the school districts who really struggle already to meet their financial budgetary needs just to get kids educated, fed through the school day, teachers
028paid and they are now going to possibly be bankrupt by these bus mandates that the state has exempt themselves from. >> I mean it could cost upwards of $10 million to give you like a an estimate. It's not like a hundred,000. And the idea really behind the coalition is that all these different school districts, we've come together in different issues and it's really strength and numbers, right? So it started here on Long Island, but we're starting to see people from upstate come to the meetings and we were laughing that >> all of us I'm a native New Yorker, you know, Westchester is not upstate, but there was one person from Westchester who said she could consider herself from upstate. We did we had somebody from Rochester write in at one point that there's actual upstaters
029who are are interested in getting involved too. So, we're trying to make it a statewide push to make sure that there's still local control, that our kids are still getting what they need, and that the reason that you elect school boards is so that we can make sure your voices are all heard, which is why many of you are here tonight, but your voices are all heard um as we plan and um provide the best education for our communities. Okay. >> It wasn't passed, right? That the >> correct. Right now, the governor's proposal. >> Oh, sorry, Mark. Did you have a question? >> On the buses, when when does >> the mandate when does the mandate start? >> Um, what was it 20? >> It depend >> 20 I think it depended on uh I
030can't remember what they said now. I haven't written down. >> They were phasing. It has to be by 2035. All buses have to be electric. >> But what was the first date? >> 27 31. And there are dates that can be pushed off by various variances and the like. So there's no clearcut date. And to top it off, there is not enough power to >> to for the buses. It's estimated that there were 12,500 buses needed and the furthest anyone can go on a single charges 100 miles. So we would never have a field trip to New York City again. >> Like the weight of the buses. They're also talking about the infrastructure like the bridges and the tunnels, the roads, like how they can even handle buses that way. This one there's so much
031that goes into it to just throw down a mandate like that and give us a date with no plan and no funding. It's just >> and they have to be parked 10 feet apart >> because of the fire >> in case they catch on fire. So there's not enough room. That's real. I mean really what we're dealing with and there's not enough room for the in the bus depot. >> We um I think a year ago signed a five-year contract right on the busing. So what what coverage do we have in that in terms of if the mandate goes through will they in that contract be obligated to provide electric buses to the district? >> Yes, they they would have to provide electric buses to the district or go bankrupt. talk about multiple buses not
032being able to to we would >> take their buses to another state. >> We wouldn't have to incur it incur an additional fee if they have to convert. Is that in the contract? >> There's no doubt and part of the charges and increases that many school districts are facing by these especially uh outside bus companies. Or is there a plan to ramp up? Now, if the mandate goes away, I don't think we're going to see >> in our contract. There's language that if they have to buy an electric fleet, then we will be No. >> No. So, we're good for the next four years at least. >> It's still their response. >> It's incumbent upon them to get the buses. >> And then as far as housing the buses, we don't they come and go,
033so we don't have to >> We don't have to house them. The bus companies like they won't have the real estate to house. >> No, I get it. I'm just thinking for us, we're good for four years at least. >> Unless they problem. >> Uh, right. I'm just trying just figuring out next >> and our and our neighbors >> one day at a time. >> But yeah. Um, okay. Good stuff. >> Well, not really, but I know everything. >> What I mean, it's not a it's not a today, it's a very soon problem. That's all. I'm just uh >> yeah, I think the point was really more that this organization of all of the school boards coming together to help each other and protect districts where it may be even a bigger problem. >> Yeah,
034we have to work together >> is really important. We have to work together and we're working together to make sure that we all remain in control of our own schools, too. So, there's a lot of talk about going up to Albany and getting more involved and just making sure that they know that we're here and we're loud and we're not going to just accept things like this moving forward. >> Try to discuss like what the real potential impacts would be on us. You know, I a lot of these lawmakers, they're they're not, you know, they're not here on the dayto-day. No, they need to hear from us and >> bubble, >> right? We need to we need to get more involved in that. No doubt. >> Okay. >> Does anyone have anything else they'd like
035to >> Well, UPK is still on the list, right? >> Yeah. >> You do that and then I'll So, in the governor's current budget, the proposal is to have $10,000 per student. Whether that holds or not, we shall see if it comes out in the budget with some discussion about requiring UPK uh in two to three years going forward. again depending upon what gets passed. Uh some of the difficulties many uh school districts have is simply space not having enough space to house the UPK programs and secondly how that money is allowed allowed to be used. Currently you can't use it for transportation and there's lots of other restrictions on how that money is spent. We're looking to lobby if that money stays at $10,000 to be able to use it more flexibly uh in
036each district for what's best for what they need, right? As opposed to local what we might need and you could get is different what someone else might need for you get. So we kind of want there to be more flexibility and control from school districts on how they use the money. >> That was the big discussion. >> Still very vague on the state's desires here. Couple quick housekeeping things. Um, start with an easy one. So, we instituted a male opt out and I put one child in the no mail and one child in the mail. I haven't seen a difference yet and I'm a little concerned like what is not being sent through the mail. Um because I even got that honor roll letter which I can't imagine that's legally required to be sent through
037the mail. That's a complete waste of money. So I had one both kids got it and both went through the mail and one is signed up for paperless. So what's going on with that? Please >> I I would have to look. I mean I know we have the list of who opted out to receive paper. I I would have to check that. Let's Let's make sure that's really working because we were trying to save money on that. Um condensate I'm starting with the easy ones. Condensate tanks. Um Eric, any update on that? Are we going live soon or? >> Yes, as soon as weather permits it. So, they've got the stuff and we're just waiting on them to confirm and with us when we feel comfortable with the weather and the temperature for them to
038do this. >> Has the weather been bad? So, um, during break it's not going to be done. I guess >> April realistically, yeah, but February, no. >> No. Okay. They're in though. They're just waiting. >> From what they told me, yes, they have their their equipment in. >> Um, very good. Uh, >> and we can see why we ordered them. I think we're five or six months out from the initial order. So, we can see it takes quite a long time to get this equipment in. Are we going to discuss it next this meeting? Next meeting um a therapy dog at Westside. When is that happening? >> We could talk about this. >> Okay. Is it Is there going to be a presentation or do we have to approve? I guess we have to approve
039it. >> It it depends on how we go and what we can and can't do. We've been in contact with Dr. from Barnes to Westside PTG and trying to find ways to work out to get a a therapy dog into the district. Um, some we've worked with our insurance company. There are some things that the the dog can't take the test to be could be to be certified as a therapy dog until it's one year old. Currently, the dog Midnight, am I correct with the name of the dog that we're looking at, is six months old. So, at this point, if this dog is donated to school or another method that we're possibly looking into, we can't at this point say we've adopted a therapy dog because it hasn't taken the test, nor is it
040eligible to take the test. So, one one parent asked me this question. They said their kid is extremely afraid of dogs. They won't go to homes that have a dog in it. If we have a student that's afraid to go to school, what do we do? We would work out uh and Dr. Barnes, if if I miss anything, please please tell me. We would work out on how if it's in the class, obviously wouldn't go for with that student. Uh if it's used during recess, the student does not to be there or library. So, we would work out ways for the dog not to uh be with the student. Two weeks ago, we had a dog come in. Uh Dr. Martin said no one he sent out a message to the community. No one asked
041to opt out. there was a student or two who did not like dogs and the like. One of the parents discussed this with Dr. Barnes and actually was happy to help get over a fear of having a dog. They stayed towards the back. Uh I have to say I was there that morning. It was really nice. Uh from second grade all the way through sixth grade. The students were very very engaged. Boys, girls, everyone really enjoyed having the dog there. It was really nice to see. And this is one of the things we discussed about as being one of the steps to seeing how a therapy dog would operate within the building. It was really nice to see. >> So maybe next. So it sounds like we have six months to figure this out cuz
042it's that's the dog we're going to go with then. >> It's a little bit more challenge that because they're a business and they want to quote get rid of the dog and get their money and if they hold on to it for another six months, there's a a fee for them to keep the dog. So, it's it's not as easy as I think one would think it would be. >> So, what happens? The dog is adopted and Dr. Barnes has the dog. Is that right? And then the dog continues with training to pass the exam. And then if the dog >> I mean, I can't believe a dog educated at Westside would not pass an exam. But let's just say on the off chance he has a bad test testing day, >> right? >> They
043can retake the test. >> Can they retake the test? >> They do makeups. >> Okay. Okay. And then what if he really he's just a poor test taker? Then what? >> The these are all things we're trying to work out. And one of the things as we discussed is if the dog is donated to Dr. Bronze, it is in violation of New York State policy on the dollar amount. >> We would have to work that out. >> Uh so this isn't as donate him to the school and okay >> and that's a little different to donate to because it's a living we joke if this was a swing set it would be a 15-minute conversation be done we've spent hours and the PTG and Dr. Barnes and everyone has been so dedicated into trying to
044weave and work and find an appropriate way but it's not an inanimate object which is so much easier. It's a live animal and there's so many other layers to this. Uh it is challenging but again it was truly wonderful to see how much every student there enjoyed the dogs >> I guess. So to Mark's question though like what's the timeline on this then for us as far as We we've been working with our council to try and find a quick It it depends. It depends on how we go about it. Um we've looked at other avenues. There are organizations where we could have a dog come in once a week and it's their dog as a possibility. Um there is a couple of schools around on the island where they have a I'm going to
045say therapy dog. Don't quote me exactly, but that's what the dedicated handler who is an aid or assistant say in the library and the responsibilities are for that dog. If Dr. Barnes is, that poses a challenge because he has his responsibilities as being the building principal and all that goes with that. So, it's it's a lot of work. How many >> things have changed, right? My head of school's dogs just ran back and forth across the second floor of my school when I was in high school. >> Yes. There was one district said, "We have a dog. It was there before the current administration came in. He just >> was there moving on. Um, so it's it's >> how many how many districts have dogs? >> Uh, as far as I know, two on the
046island. There are some districts that have, as I mentioned, a dog from an organization come in once a week, once every other week, once a month or so on and so forth. um which obviously is much easier on us, but we're trying we're really really trying to work this out. >> Maybe start with that and then until we can get a dog. Is that is that the way to go? >> That might be. >> I mean, are are we going to have a formal presentation or like just trying to get a sense? >> Well, you know, as we went down this path, it's an onion. You know, the more you look into it, the more things pop up as as we think about it. >> Very good. Um, terms of sports tryyouts, we just got
047the email, they're coming up. Um, there was questions about the tryyout process. Has are any changes being made this year, specifically to the tennis or the golf process or any other teams that we any No, because there were some parents that had issue with I'm sure you've heard that, right? No. Okay. So >> yeah with the tennis >> with the tennis you know some parents said if you have been through the process before you know how to work the process you make the team and we shouldn't have systems where you can work a process and also golf is on the honor system. So, some kids were told by their parents, you be honest. And they came back to me with complaints about that cuz they were honest. And uh I I just um I don't
048I'm I'm kind of surprised it hasn't been brought to you, but maybe it's something we we should look at because we're in tryyout season coming up and um we we we so many kids in this district participate in sports. We want to get that right. I I think Majin may have been taken up. I mean, we had discussions about let's talk about golf at first. They're they're playing four or six per hole. I guess it's four. And we don't have a coach at every location. And students are on the honor system on how many strokes they have per hole, >> but they keep the score for each other. So, like if you and I are playing, I keep your score, you keep my score, >> right? And at the end, you both have to agree
049to >> you have to agree to that. >> But that's how it works in competitive kids golf, too. Like my kids play golf tournaments and that's that's how it is. >> I don't want to get into these stories on but I I heard that some kids felt this system. Um anyway, if that's something we can at least look at, maybe it is good. Maybe everything is good. But if if if there are ways we can improve, why not try? Um >> can I add something more to the discussion? I just want to mention this real quick. I know we want to move on, but um some parents were um bringing up the topic of recess. I know I brought this up before and there's been a few emails and some meetings that have gone on.
050Um we currently have what 15 minutes of recess, 20. So the the complaint is is that by the you know the kids by the time they line up and get outside they're getting like 15 minutes of recess. So there is a bill in Congress right now they're trying to mandate a minimum of 25 minute recess which I agree with and I know a lot of parents do. Um so I just you know I just want to put it out there. I'm advocating for that myself. Um, and I think that it's a good uh it's something to consider now when making the schedule for next year that if we could implement another five minutes into our recess, I think it could make a big difference in some, you know, in in most kids days. You know,
051they do a lot of work. It's, you know, in my opinion, I'm a teacher myself. I feel like the curriculum that's kind of like second grade curriculum now I feel like first graders are doing like it's really become rigorous which we appreciate and I think our kids are getting a great education but I think um some more air fresh air running around getting out their their energy benefits the kids and the teachers you know I think we're doing a great job of keeping our classes smaller class size smaller the ICT classes I think we're really doing so much to benefit the kids I think this could be an added an added thing to if I could. And on top of that, it's not just five more minutes recess, it's those brain breaks or stretching or
052movement activities in addition to >> during the day where if they've been in academics for two hours and lunch isn't there yet or something, giving them those opportunities. So, it's in addition to seeing how we do that and make sure we're consistent across the board. We actually discussed that earlier today. >> I actually had that on my list is something and what I was I'm gonna I'm gonna propose a very unpopular thought. So, doesn't Jericho have three more teaching days than we do? If we add another day >> and they have longer recesses, >> you can uh add more recess because we have a whole new day of teaching and then you don't lose that time because it's spread out over an extra day. So, there's your five, six minutes and that idea will go
053over like a lead balloon. But um >> well, didn't in elementary didn't we extend math too? >> Math is long. >> Math is quite long, I think, at the elementary level. And I'm wondering if we need to look at whether or not there we're seeing the results there. It just seems like developmentally that's a really long time for elementary kids to be seated in a math class when they do learn by playing at that age. and that's so important for them also. So, I'd like to look at just the time spent there as well because I don't know that we're seeing and and I could be totally wrong, but I don't know that an extra 15 minutes in math as opposed to an extra 15 minutes outside. I I think the mental health benefits might
054outweigh the math test score benefits. And I know we're very focused I'm one of the people who's very focused on test scores, but kids mental health is important, too, and their physical health. So, um, I'd like to look at that, too. >> Sure. I mean, I can I can just say there's there's always challenges whenever you're it's not just simply adding five minutes to one period because we have multiple lunch periods. So, now you're asking about adding multiple five minutes across the four or five lunch periods that we ask. You know what I mean? So, like so that that that then structures the elementary day differently. It's often can impact then busing and and other things. So, we want to make sure we are in the process of looking at scheduling. We've examined multiple options.
055Uh considering a recess is one of them. Examining math. I also do want to say that we're bringing in illustrative math uh next year in the three through six band. Uh that is not a stationary math model. It is a math and movement model. It is centerbased. It is not just sitting and and doing math. So doing a direct comparison between the results that we're getting now versus what will happen next year with a new program, there's a lot of different moving parts and so therefore it won't necessarily correlate directly. So that's just important for us to >> That's a great point. Thank you. And it's excellent that you're bringing in a new map that gets them up and moving and more engaged. Yeah. >> Can I ask your um so PE is mandated just
056thinking about getting the kids moving in K to3? It's mandated 120 minutes a week. Is that correct? Are we giving less to our kids? >> So, we meet the state mandates in in all of our grade levels, but we actually give our five and six actually gets more time uh based on uh the PE because they get PE three days a week as opposed to two days a week. Um so, that is important, but we're meeting the state mandates across the board in all in all grades >> because I thought four to grades four to six had to be a minimum of three times a week. >> It is not a minimum. So, and and it's always based on the block, right? So it's based on the the total number of minutes in your block
057and then we examined it and we you know uh Mike Bongino has as you know prides himself in the fact that we exceed what it is that the state mandate is um in our grade levels and that we've we've examined that um >> so last year we voted on new math book right um and is that that's been rolled out >> so uh so that was upon my arrival here we rolled that out in K to2 for this year I remember it was a phase roll out. Um, so we did that in K to2. Uh, for this curricular year, it will be 3 to six. For next curricular year, we've already begun training the teachers in the 3 to six band. Uh, as of last week, uh, they received their first introduction to illustrative math.
058Um, and then we have subsequent uh, trainings throughout the remainder of this curricular year with the intention of curriculum writing uh, throughout the summer to onboard the teachers and be ready to go in in September. >> How is that new book working? I I like it a lot. Um I think when we looked at the gaps that were existent in our state data and we were examining you know the students ability to uh discuss and write about mathematics and use mathematical language to describe their thinking. Um I think that was a gap where we had identified and I had highlighted in um in our score reports. I'm finding when I pop into math classrooms and look at uh illustrative lessons, the ability of our kindergarten through second graders to have mathematical discussions about their conceptual
059understanding is impressive. >> Excellent. And it is truly remarkable to see them and they enjoy talking with each other about math. And we've had quite a few parents comment about how when they come home and they talk about what goes on during the school day and talk about mathematics and how to solve problems. So it is it's been going very well. >> Any progress made on the district um writing grants or hiring or >> so we we are currently we just did get the nicer grant. I know it's small, but that's a start. And >> uh we uh Eric and I um are going to be working on a record storage grant uh together, but it hasn't been posted yet. Um so we're kind of in that lull right now where there aren't a lot
060of uh grants open at this at this time, but we are beginning to actively monitor them and looking into whatever opportunities that we have to bring outside funds into the districts. And how big is the grant for the storage you're looking to? >> I don't personally know because it hasn't been released yet. So what we did is we we made sure that we signed up for the notification. I was in email communication with the group. Um but in all honesty have not had time yet to look into the past recipient winners which would be the next step. >> And we we're just we'll be voting on to accepting the grant from the education foundation. uh and we have more in the hopper that was sent to them uh that they're very excited about. >> And
061then we were going to um take more time to chase down some of the loose ends in that allowance report like the koi pond and where we stand on that. >> Yes. So we had a meeting um and we received some updated information, some more details. So, uh, what I my plan is, um, after we finish this budget presentation is to take the report that was started, um, by Joe Draone and add to that so that there's more detail that we've been uh, we've been provided with and, uh, my hope is to have that to the board on Friday. Did we get an answer to the question I asked last meeting that if the architect made an error in the design plans, that's actually on them and their insurance, not for us to make up
062the difference. >> We >> if you're looking for sorry, if you're looking for legal response, I I think the advice of council should come in executive session, but I'm happy to provide that to you. >> But we have an answer. >> I do have an answer. >> Yeah. Excellent. And then uh almost done. So only do have to do this in public. So uh interest and review. Oh, so school insurance. Um we've been talking about having it looked at for let's call it a year. Um you're new, but is that on your list? is I um you know I I would like us to have that reviewed by other um potential providers to see if we're getting the the best policy we can for the district. Is that on you? >> It is absolutely on
063my list. Um I already reached out to uh Dennis's office and uh learned that we do have to go out for an RFP. Okay. Um, so we're right in the midst of budget season and I did speak to Joe about it. Um, our plan is to construct an RFP this spring and uh, collect the responses to consider um, if if a future change is warranted. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. >> I think Dylan had someone had a question for discussion. >> I just have a quick question. Sorry. So, I was wondering if there was a long-term plan regarding the new locked door policy because being in the classroom, I've noticed that when students are going to the restroom, it's very disruptive and distracting for teachers to have to stop their lesson to open
064the doors for them. Also, I've heard people bring up the safety issue of many students being locked out of their classrooms during passing periods, waiting for their teacher to get back to the classroom. there there is no onesizefits-all in security and in working with various security organizations Suffach County NASA county police their recommendation across the board is classroom door should remain locked at all times um they say that without fail oftent times there are contradictory information from various law enforcement this is one that consistently they I won't say all but everyone we've spoken with is lock doors save lives And that's why we we switched to that procedure. It unfortunately is a little inconvenient. Absolutely. Um but that is their universal recommendation. Lock doors and save lives. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for jumping in.
065>> Anyone else? The only thing I wanted to say is I know we have a number of people here this evening and I see that we still have budget and committee reports and then audience to visitors. Would it be >> I think I take a motion. I think Dennis is right to move it up. If you want to take sure if you like to take the switch to the agenda. I thought it was normally earlier. Is it normally the meeting or is it always after the I think it's after meeting just in case people have questions about the presentation, >> but we do have a catch wall at the end anyway. I think it could be. >> Yeah, I think the original idea when we put it in a few years ago was that it
066could be for people who like arrived and then >> just move it tonight. >> Yeah, let's just move it. But so I'm going to take a motion to move the audience section up until this um moment. Can I go first? Alan, a second. Mark. All in favor? We will now we will now continue with our first audience to visitors. The Cold Spring Harbor Board of Education and Administration welcomes your attendance at board of education meetings. Audience to the public affords residents an opportunity to address the board of education on both agenda and non-aggenda items. Each resident is allowed to speak for three minutes. This is not a forum to discuss student or staff specific issues. Please contact the district separately on these matters. Anyone like to speak the podium? >> Good evening. Uh, Trisha Avidano,
067um, 20 Van McLean, my address. Uh, I am speaking tonight to request a formal review of the leadership decisions surrounding the recent High School Musical. One individual was assigned three major roles: director, musical director, and technical director. Positions that each require significant time, expertise, and oversight. Concentrating all three responsibilities one person created serious challenges for the production and more importantly contributed to an environment that many students experienced as stressful and emotionally difficult. And that's saying it lightly. Our extracurricular program should be places where students feel supported, respected, and set up for success. I respect respectfully ask that the board to review how these assignments were made, evaluate the level of supervision provided, and consider establishing clearer guidelines to ensure that leadership responsibilities are appropriately distribute distributed in future productions. And based on the experience reported
068by students and families during this uh production, I also urge the district to carefully cons reconsider future directing assignments to ensure that student well-being remains the top priority. Thank you. >> Anyone else like to speak this evening? Hi, my name is Shelley Kleinberger. I live at OneFiddler's Green Spur. Um, last year a number of students wrote to the board of education and I'm assuming that you all get these emails. Um, I have permission to uh pull quotes. Um, one of the quotes was >> we just we have to Dennis names. >> No names. Absolutely not. No names. >> Let me know Dennis if any. >> Sure. >> Yeah. Resorts to aggressive behaviors. One that brings about distress, sadness, and overall negativity. Feels threatened. The loudest, most aggressive tone ever directed at me. >> I think
069we're going to need to stop this. This is if If these quotes are referring to any member of the staff, it would be improper at this point. If it is they're referring to something else, then um >> this is most certainly referring to a member of the staff and letters that were received by the BOE and there was no response to these students other than a form letter. Many of these things talk about harm, about their fear, about their aggression towards them and there was no response. So my question to the BOE was, was there an obligated DASA filed because you have an obligation to do that? >> We're going to need to if you have a specific question about specific staff members, you need to direct that specifically to >> We have done that
070and got no response. >> Okay. And you're going to follow up with superintendent. This forum is not the public forum is not the place for to discuss specific staff members uh or any allegations towards specific staff members. You have to make those uh you make the make the allegation for your comments in writing to the superintendent and he will follow up. >> Great. I have done that. May I also ask does the board of education have an obligation to submit a DOSA report if any of these words have been submitted to them? Is there a mandated obligation to do that? And if so, can I receive, if I have written one of those letters, what the findings of that report have been? >> Can you answer that? >> Um, as far as well, I typically
071don't answer questions from the audience, but but the board would like me to provide a specific response. >> You may want to use What's that? >> You may want to use a microphone. So, >> as far as far as DASSA complaints, generally uh if you had if you personally had made a DSSE complaint, you should have received an outcome letter or an outcome determination letter. Um, but more than that, that's just generically. I can't talk about any specifics of any particular incident. >> My understanding is the board of education board of education and the administration are mandated to file a dossa complaint if any of these things are flagged. Can you confirm if that's true or not? I believe that that's true in the state of New York. As far as anytime the the I
072don't want to um you know offer a legal opinion as far as whether anything uh you know any any past um you know event that you are referring to. Uh generically if a DASA complaint is made uh the district is um you know obligated to investigate the DASA complaint uh and make a determination as to whether or not DASA was violated. So, what you're saying is it is not the board or the administration's obligation to file a DASA complaint if any of these words are flagged for them. >> I'm not sure what you're referring to as by file. Uh, when you say file, but again, this is not the forum to get into a back and forth. >> Thank you very much. >> Would anybody else like to speak this evening? >> All right. So,
073we're going to go back to our agenda and you will know that it was and we will now invite Dr. Allison Offerman Selintano to present the first glance budget. Alison Okay. Good evening. Thank you to the uh board of education and the superintendent for this opportunity to present a first glance budget review. I also want to extend a thank you to the entire central administration, building administration, department leaders, and Joe Draone for all of the hard work that they did to uh help get us here to this point. Tonight's presentation is an early highlevel look at the 2627 budget. It's not a final proposal, but it's a starting point for discussion and feedback. Our focus is on aligning the budget with board goals while maintaining fiscal responsibility. We will continue to refine our work as
074we receive updated state aid and enrollment projections. This is also an opportunity for the board to share what they're looking for in our upcoming budget. This slide outlines the timeline for budget development, review, and adoption. The process is designed to allow for transparency, board input, and community engagement. The calendar ensures that we meet all statutory deadlines while allowing for thoughtful decision-making to occur. This uh calendar will also be at the end of the presentation as well. The budget is built directly around the board's established goals. These goals guide decisions related to programs, staffing, and fiscal management. And every major budget budget decision is evaluated through the lens of these priorities. and this ensures consistency between governance direction and financial planning. Our primary goal is to maintain and enhance student programs that support learning. We prioritize
075health, safety, and student well-being across all buildings. Financial transparency and accountability remain central to the process, and the budget reflects a balance between educational excellence and fiscal restraint. New York State requires school districts to build and adopt a balanced budget. We carefully align projected revenues with anticipated expenditures, which involves evaluating assumptions, monitoring cost drivers, and planning responsibly. Balance is achieved without compromising core instructional programs. We don't build or produce physical commodities. We invest in the growth of our future citizens. Please keep in mind as we go through this presentation that the majority of our expenditures roughly 60 to 70% are for personnel salaries and related benefits which are contractually negotiated. The information that follows is a draft as we're still obtaining pricing including Bosey's cost. We're also typically waiting on the state to provide accurate
076projections for state aid. First, we're going to take time to examine the revenue side of the budget, which consists largely of the tax levy governed by the New York State tax cap formula. It also it is um a part of it is state aid and other sources of revenue such as pilots which are payments in lie of taxes. The tax gap is governed by a state defined formula which has not changed since its inception in 2011. governed by the basic principle that local governments and school districts may not adopt a budget that requires a tax levy that exceeds the prior year's levy by more than 2% or the rate of inflation whichever is less unless they override officially the tax levy limitation. Given exclusions, adjustments, and other nuances, the cap may not be 2%. Adjustments
077and ex and exclusions can raise it. Low inflation can lower it. If a big business moves out of a district, everyone else's rate and bill could rise. Similarly, if a big business moves in, the opposite can happen. Equalization rates between towns within the same district can also fluctuate from year to year. So, we are now in year 15 of the tax cap uh requirement. And right now, according to the state office of the state controller, for the purposes of setting the tax cap, they're using a CPI number or consumer price index number of 2.63%. Which means that for us, we are now set at 2% before exclusions. And this framework significantly influences revenue planning. It's also uh important to note that our taxbased growth factor is lower this year than last year. This year it's
0781.0056. 0056. Last year it was 1.0091. And this lowers our uh potential levy by approximately $250,000. So this is a detailed look at the tax cap calculation as it stands right now. It's a preliminary calculation as we're still determining what we project to spend next year on capital projects. Our tax cap calculation has to be filed with a New York State controller by March 1st, but we can still make modifications after that date if needed. So, I'm going to walk you through the calculations. And as you can see, we begin with the tax levy from the prior year and multiply that by the taxbased growth factor, which I just explained. And that's provided annually by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. We then take the adjusted tax levy and add in the
079pilot payments received for this school year and subtract any tort or judgment exclusions from this year. So those are any expenditures that arise out of tort actions that exceed 5% of the total tax levied in the prior fiscal year. We then subtract the capital tax levy from this year to calculate the adjusted prior year tax levy. And we take this number and multiply it by the allowable levy growth factor which is 2% for next year. subtract our estimated pilot payments for next year. And this results in a total levy limit before exclusions. And just to note that when you're looking at the tax cap calculation, when it says prior year, that actually means this school year because it's the tax cap calculation for next year. So just in case because that can be a little
080confusing when you're looking at this uh formula. So for the coming year, we don't have any tort exclusions. We have no teacher retirement system exclusions and no employee retirement system exclusions. So our only exclusion is related to principal and interest on debt service and any planned capital improvements in the budget. So the board of education has requested different levy scenarios starting with a 0% increase. So here we've presented each scenario increasing the levy from this year's amount by 0.5% increments up to the preliminary maximum allowable tax levy of 2.6%. Our expenses would need to be adjusted to equal our plan revenue depending on the levy the board of education chooses. Here is Cold Spring Harbor's tax levy history. And as you can see from the table, we've never pierced the cap. Over the last 14
081years, we've levied up to the maximum 50%, so seven years. And we've levied below the maximum allowable levy for the other seven years. Roughly 7% of our revenue comes from state aid. We are what's called a save harmless district, which means that the state has initially allocated a 1% increase in our foundation aid. Most of our state aid comes from what's called expense driven aid, which is aid that's provided based on what we're spending either with Boseies or on special education students here or in private school or in specific categories such as textbooks, software, library, hardware, technology, transportation, and building projects. High tax aid in New York State is a specific category of state education funding provided to school districts where residents pay a relatively high percentage of their income in property taxes. This aid
082acts as a subsidy to help districts with high local tax efforts. However, it's been frozen for many districts, including ours, for quite some time. So about 5% of the revenue side of the budget is comprised of other revenue and funding sources. We earn interest income for revenue received that's in the bank revenue from lost books or Chromebook damage and our pilots which again are payments in lie of taxes. We can also utilize fund balance and restricted reserves to help balance the revenue side of the budget with the expenditure side. So here is a summary of our reserve funds as they stand right now. Uh I did not include the capital funds because they are not we're not able to use them to offset any of our expenditures. Um and what you see are the restricted
083reserves which are the employee benefits acred liability which can be used to pay for unused accumulated leave time which are uh which is required by some of our contracts to employees. We have two reserves for the two retirement systems, employees and our teachers retirement system. And those reserves can be used to offset the district required contributions to those systems. We have a workers compensation reserve which can be used to pay for actual claims related to lost wages, medical expenses, loss of use awards and self- insurance administrative costs. And we have an unemployment insurance reserve which can be used to reimburse the state unemployment insurance fund for payments made to claimants when a school district elects the benefit reimbursement method which we do subscribe to. We are also able to use unassigned fund balance and this
084can all help to build the revenue side of the budget. If we use the suggested funds for this fiscal year we will have approximately $26.6 6 million in reserves that we can allocate towards offsetting the budget. So, now we'll move to the expense side of the budget, which is drafted for the board's consideration. We're currently projecting a 4.2% budget-to-budget increase, and that's with all of the requested expenditures included in the budget. Comparatively, we had a 1.58% budget-tobudget increase. When you compare 2425 with 2526 here, it's important to note that the state aid row is not depicted accurately as when we plan for budgets, we have to use the preliminary estimates. And when you're comparing budget to budget, you have to use those same preliminary estimates. Even though when we look at our current state aid
085runs, the state has actually lowered the amount of aid that we're getting for this school year by about $23,000. So when you compare this slide to the state aid slide you will see a slight difference but remember we have to use the number that was used in budget planning when we use budget when we compare budget to budget. So additionally for the purposes of our discussion we've utilized the same projected excuse me the same projected figure of fund balance in reserve use as this year for next year. So this results in a $ 1.5 million shortfall on the revenue side of the budget. Again, that's with every expenditure requested included in the budget. When you look at the budget lines that follow, please keep in mind that each year we endeavor to build a better
086budget. We make adjustments to maximize our expense-driven aid through our various budget lines such as Boseies and textbooks. Each year, Boseies places more items under their umbrella, enabling districts to move items to a Bosey's line for future earned revenue. We also make adjustments to create more accurate account codes. For example, we created supply and equipment account codes for our various departments that now have administrative leadership to provide more clarity about how these various items are utilized for our students. So over the next few slides, you're going to see our draft budget at a glance using the major account codes. The bo the board has received uh much greater detail in last Friday's notes. So, it's important to know that there may be adjustments. Again, I'll repeat, may be adjustments as we move forward. And this
087is a draft. When there's a small change, when there's sorry, when there's a change to a small budget line like district clerk, you're going to see a large percentage change. And I'll review some of the significant increases in a later slide. And the department and building leaders will be providing more detail in future presentations. So here you see the budget codes for the board of education, district clerk and meetings, superintendent's office, legal public information services, the business office, and the human resources office. On this on this slide, you see buildings and grounds, security, technology, professional memberships, and both these administrative costs. Here you see budget lines for curriculum and instruction, library, guidance, nurses, clubs and activities, special education and athletics. And on this last slide, you see transportation, district contributions for the employees retirement system,
088the teachers retirement system, social security, life and disability insurance, health and dental benefits, and other employee benefits. We also budget for workers compensation, debt service on the bond and int and tax anticipation notes and transfer to capital. We wanted to provide the board of education with an overview of some of the bigger expense items that have been added to the budget for your consideration. Details about these budgetary requests will be provided by the various department and building leaders when they provide the budget I'm sorry when they provide the board with their budget overview in future presentations. We have made an effort to reduce other budget lines based on the specificity requested from the administration team this year. And again, this was a tremendous amount of work from the administrative team to really go through their
089budgets and put those meaningful notes in to explain why they were requesting those particular expenditures. So, you may notice that the total of bigger expense items is actually more than the current budgetary shortfall of 1.5 million. This is Eric's current listing of projects under transfer to capital, and we'll be discussing these projects, our updated building condition survey, and our proposed 5-year facilities plan at the next capital and facilities committee meeting. So, as promised, here are those major budget drivers that are currently in our budget. So, the district meeting line uh has gone up considerably because Suffach County uh has invested in new machines and they are no longer supporting district school budget elections. So, this is the last year that we can lease their machines which we have elected to buy and we have them
090on site now. But normally when we would use Suffach County machines that would come with support, it would come with programming the machines and training and that's no longer available after this year. So we had to budget for an outside company to be able to provide those services to us if we elect to use the Suffach County machines that are now in our possession and will remain on site. If we're lucky, we are a district that also occupies part of Nassau County. So, we may be able to use Nassau County machines, which would considerably lower the cost, but we have to budget for that anticipated expenditure even though we may not need to use it. The personnel line will be explained in more detail on March 31st by Brian Taylor, but he is looking to
091modernize his department with new digital platforms. Very exciting. The maintenance of plant line and the last line transfer to capital. uh maintenance of plant. We're looking to invest in a couple of new vehicles and transfer to capital. As you saw in one of the previous slides, we're looking at new plan projects which may change again based on what's discussed at the committee meeting coming up and that will be presented on March 17th by Eric. Central data processing is under the technology umbrella and Rihanna is going to give us more detail about that on March 17th, but we're always looking to maximize Bosey's aid. So, you'll always see Rihanna's lines going up, even if we're not ma uh investing in new technology because we're always looking to move items into that um expense driven aid line.
092Both these admin administrative costs, we haven't actually gotten those yet. We've gotten predicted uh values, which are approximately a 15% increase. So, that may change as we get uh better numbers over time. Uh the next two are Kim's lines uh curriculum development and supervision and inservice training and instruction and she's always looking to innovate with new no new programs increased program support and she'll provide us with more detail at the February 24th meeting. Transportation as Mark shared we are in year two of a 5-year contract. So we have contractual increases and that more detail about that will be shared on March 31st. So, we have now completed the first in our budget development series. The next one coming up is on February 24th where we look forward to hearing from Goose Hill Elementary, Westside Elementary,
093Lloyd Harbor Elementary, athletics and curriculum and instruction. That will start at 6 PM. Uh, and we're looking forward to examining that detail for the board's consideration. So, thank you. And uh I'll open it up to any questions at this time >> if I can. I first I just want to thank you Allison and everyone for putting this in. Uh it's a tremendous amount of work and Alison I think is like literally day 30 for you here. Uh taking away someone building part of the budget. We did something new this year. All of the entries for building the budget are in our Envision financial system. So it provides a lot of detail. That's a lot of work this year, but it will definitely help next year because all that information will be in there. Uh, as
094I mentioned earlier, just as we were coming in, not in the public session, our kindergarten registration is very strong and it may even change already on the number of kindergarten sections we have. So this may have uh may have to change and also uh in putting together the amount of work u paving and the like. The weather is wreaking havoc uh on lots of parking and streets and like I'm sure you could see just the local streets. It's great we're going to get some thoring coming on, but unfortunately when it thaws during the day and then freezes back at night, it causes a lot of damage. Uh and it's expensive and we won't be the only ones in this boat. So, I'm going to imagine that there will be some shifting going on, especially when
095we look to see what is under all this snow and ice. Again, thank you, Alison. And then questions from the board or statements. Um, so if I follow that based on what we want to do, even if we go up to the tax cap, we're still not there, right? We don't have enough money. >> That's correct. If we have everything that's currently in the budget, if that remains, we have a $1.5 million shortfall. And that's if we use the same planned uh use of our restricted reserves and our uh fund balance to help balance. >> I think it's pretty much I'm sorry, Al, I stepped on you there. I thought you were definitely It's like pretty much as we had said out the LA last year, everyone's wish list. Uh there are some things we
096could put off, some things we may be able to do uh out of um with the construction money, but this is the wish list is here. >> Okay. Cuz uh I'm just I got to say I'm very surprised because last meeting we approved the money 50% rebates on trips because we had the money for it. We don't have the money for it. I I said we don't have Make sure we have the money and we don't have the money. >> No. No. This is next year's budget. We absolutely have the money in this year's budget and we've budgeted for part of what's in the part of what's in the expenditure side is 50% >> funding of the trips. So, we absolutely have the money. >> What we've done is we've we've done a lot of
097work to try to um really budget for the expenditures that we think that we need and that we hope and wish for, but as everybody knows, you don't always get everything that you hope and wish for. So, what if we have the money this year, but then we have a shortfall next year, why can't we pull forward some of those expenses? >> We don't know at this point where we're going to end up overall with our fund balance. So we are going to be examining that and we may be able to put money into reserves at the end of the year but that happens after the budget has been adopted. So we can we can certainly pledge money from reserves and fund balance projecting that forward. But if you look at last year's budget presentation
098at this time, we had a $2.7 million shortfall in the initial stages of the budget because we do an allin for on the expenditure side and then we make those decisions about what we are and are not going in and this meeting we're told we don't have enough money and we're going to possibly have to pierce the tax cap and then by the next meeting we have enough money and then like three meetings later we have extra money. So, I wouldn't panic yet. >> Does that sound right? I mean, that that that's every district or do we do it special? >> Uh, every district does it differently, but we um wanted to present a budget to the board of education with everybody's >> wish >> everybody's wish list included. Knowing again that not everything was
099going to remain in the budget, we wanted to present it for the board's consideration and allow the various department leaders and building leaders to explain why they were looking to add these items to the budget and then we would have to make the decisions to make sure that we presented a balanced budget to the voters. So, and then it's we we did this process last year and I was concerned that um we spent the vast majour on approximately $2 million of the 80 $81 million budget. We spent all that. We never questioned whether 79 or 80 million is being spent properly. you're new here. I mean, is there any uh reflection? We just take the current budget, slap on some new projects, and then figure out how much we're going to tax people. Is that
100how how it's done? >> No, we actually ask the administrators to to build their budget from the bottom up. So they they put all of their requests into our um digital system which is called Envision and we asked them to provide detail about why they were looking to budget for those planned expenditures. So uh we actually approached it quite differently this year and um Mr. Monasterero and and before I got here uh Mr. Done and then myself, we conducted extensive budget meetings with each of the building and department leaders to ask questions about each of their line items so that we could make sure that we were budgeting with clarity or as much clarity as you can because there's always going to be unanticipated costs. A >> a absolute sea change in presentation from last
101year to this year is you have every single request has been shared. In the past couple years, there was a slideshow with pictures on it. We went back to what was done in the past different that it's electronic. Uh but every single request, we were here last year and there was a request to what is your dream? What are you asking for? And this is what is your dream? What are you asking for? It was asked to do that. That's what's in here. And it's the dream. I I it would be great to say the dream came in at flat, but it didn't. There are costs there as we said there are contractual costs we have here and there is no we understand there's not everything here but it was asked for you to see
102it all and then to have a decision on what we keep and what we don't keep and that's what you see here >> we did we sorry they did provide us with a an expenditure sheet that was broken down pretty extensively you know like through postage and copies and um you know so kind of where that you know where those yearly checking costs are >> right now. We're asking the administrators to ask for things, but they're not responsible to really determine if they're getting the right price for things. What that would be the business office, right? So, I'm I'm just trying to figure out, do we actually go back and and look and see if we're getting the most or there's costs in there that um shouldn't be uh it's different from a wish list.
103It's just are are we being efficient in our purchasing of services of of the way we contract like is there a process that that does that? So when when we asked each building and department leader to build their budget, we actually asked for a a pretty detailed specificity in in what they thought the costs were going to be for what they were asking for. Um and so you don't see a lot of round numbers in the expenditure because our administrators worked really hard to cost out as accurately as possible what they thought it would be next year. Now, we always have to be a little careful with that because we want to budget as closely as we can in reality, but not under because then we wouldn't have enough money for what they were budgeting
104for. >> And there most certainly will be estimates for fuel, oil, gas, like we we don't know what a barrel barrel of oil will be a year from now, what a gallon of gas will be. So, there are definitely some estimates. We look at what we spent over previous years. Uh this has been a particularly cold year. So it's going to be more fuel used to keep our buildings warm during the school year. Uh so there are some estimates and would you say you you if you think it's going to be the past years we spent $45,000 in oil for a particular building. This usually number you want to make sure you have some little extra because you can't run out. You got to have enough oil. You need to have enough gas. And it's
105not an exact science, but we provided every single item and some of this is getting pricings for stuff that we won't purchase for 6 months uh for a year. Uh I know working particularly with technology uh the items we have to wait for pricing. We purchase from Boseies. We purchase from Boseies because we get state aid on it. Uh we don't have it yet. So we give an estimate on what that increase would be and then as these come in we make adjustments as we know. Um, that's what we can do. >> And the price is better from Boseis when you take the state aid back out. Is that the >> Definitely. >> It is right. It's not like we're not overpaying and getting money back, but could be getting a better deal somewhere else.
106>> I I would say on net >> Yeah. >> We are working at Am I correct? We're roughly 50% back on Boseies. >> Yes. Yes. >> So, we're roughly So, you know, we we spend a thousand. We're roughly getting 50% of that back so everything works out. >> Great. Right. Minus the administrative costs because Bosey's has to have there's a fee. But we're still getting a better deal because we we then get that aid back the next year. It's it's like an investment in the revenue side of the budget and uh we do get we do get really good pricing through Boseies because they they offer the product in bulk to theirs to their districts and you can cross contract with other Boseies. So it's in a it's in a vendor's best interest to offer
107a discounted price to Boseies given the volume. And speaking of technology, uh that side of the budget is still being worked on because the Bosey's pricing is rolling in right now. So that first expenditure report that you saw in Friday notes with the 17 sheets within the spreadsheet broken down by department and building some of that is going to change and actually go down because we're now receiving the Boseis more accurate pricing for next year. >> There have been years where things have gone down, things have come up, but they tend to even out. We always hope they're down by the end, but we don't know. Well, the new building report could be a brace for impact, you know, type of situation. Absolutely. How much did um in facilities? We didn't have I think it
108was less than $2 million was it for projects next year? >> Right. We have we have projects right now that are in transfer to capital and I do really anticipate that some of those are going to change based on our upcoming meeting and and Michael Mark's analysis of what is going to be most important now. But um also we have uh money in the capital fund in the H fund that has specific projects that have been delineated and the voters have approved. So even though you may not see the money in the budget, there may be items that we can take care of from the building condition survey through voterapproved projects that have a broad umbrella like if it says heating, ventilation, AC. So if anything that Michael Mark comes back with that is under
109that umbrella, we may be able to do some of those projects with existing money that the voters have already allocated to previous budgets. >> $8 million reserve from that pool. You're saying >> um the capital reserve so that there's there's different reserves that the we have capital reserves and right now we're not planning and we could this could change but we we can always vote to allocate money from those reserves. That's capital reserve three and capital reserve five. Uh and we have approximately $10.4 million in those two reserves. With the ability to continue to fund capital reserve 5, capital reserve 3, we can't fund that anymore that the timeline has run out. And we will do a whole budget trans uh excuse me, a budget presentation on capital projects. But in the H fund right
110now, which is the fund that holds the capital money again that the voters have already approved for projects, including the 2019 bond, we have approximately 11.5 million sitting in there right now. So even though you may not see the money here, we're in we're in pretty good shape. um you know as far as trying to take care of some capital work for next year >> and we anxiously wait for that report from Michael Mark on what needs to be done >> by the next um facilities meeting. >> Yes, that the facilities meeting we picked that date uh because he said he would be done with his report of that time which I believe >> yes is the 23rd >> 23rd >> of Feb. Yep. Very good. All right. So that'll be done by then and
111we'll know where we stand for the next meeting. >> Thank you very much. >> You're very welcome. >> Any other questions, Paul? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Alison. >> All right. We will now move to committee reports and the work that has occurred since our last board meeting. The policy and technology committees met after our last public meeting. Um I was present at the policy committee meeting. So I will share out what happened then. Um the meeting was held on January 30th during which several policy updates were reviewed and discussed. The recommendation of council we updated policy 2121 board member qualifications to include new language for the state permitting convicted felons the opportunity to hold a board seat. We've also drafted a new policy, policy 8121.2 related to automated external defibrillators, AEDs. The
112policy ensures the district will provide and maintain AED equipment for use during the cardiac emergency at approved curricular and extracurricular activities held at district facilities in accordance with the cardiac emergency response plan contained in the district school safety plan. In addition, revisions were made to policy 8505, charging meals and other food items. Updated language was necessary because the previous policy included provisions to prevent students receiving free lunch from being shamed in front of peers as school lunch is now free for all students. This language is no longer applicable. Finally, we updated policy 8520, free meal services. Changes were made to reflect that applying for the free meal service is no longer required. The revised policy outlined the district's part participation criteria for the federally funded meal program and the associated state data reporting requirements and
113I believe those policies are on tonight. >> That's correct. Hi. Can I ask a question? And maybe I'm not allowed to ask this question, but um there's a policy that says that if you are convicted felon, you can run for a board seat. Is that something we can push back on as a board? I mean, >> it's a required change of push back on it. >> Can you look into that a little bit for us? I mean I that makes me feel like it's something we should dig into a little bit more maybe. >> Sure. But absolutely. >> Okay. Squeezing perhaps when I first read. Yeah. >> Um committee. All right. Um the tech committee met on January 22nd. Heather was there also. Uh we met in the old computer lab in the high school
114library that's library that's now been converted into more of a meeting space uh which is great. We discussed um elementary student access to programs uh like class link which is basically a platform that has different apps on it that the kids use. Um I had no idea about it and it's pretty great and um so Dr. Folultton has been working on removing certain program, removing different apps, adding apps, you know, as the uh students need them. We also talked about the larger options for new Chromebooks, 11 in versus 14 in, and it turns out that for 14 in, the cost would be close to $1,000 per device. So, we probably aren't going to do that. Uh we discussed different options for the cases. They think, you know, kids think they're really bulky. um they have
115to be bulky because we use a stylus and the kids like using the stylus on their computer. Um there's also an option a lot of kids uh can go to the lab and get a mouse. So some kids use a mouse on their Chromebooks uh which also I didn't know. Um we also talked about the tech plan for 2026. We talked about goal number three. This is a tricky one. uh we will need to develop a system to evaluate the effectiveness of our technology professional development development plan. We reviewed a few different methods um and we brainstormed ways for harbor to provide technology professional development and collect data to evaluate the effective integration and use of technological programs. Uh we also talked about the value of having teacher mentors to work together by modeling ways
116to apply new technologies in the classroom. Um, and that was pretty much it. Our next meeting will be February 25th. >> Thank you, Lisa. We now move to approval of minutes on page two, January 13, 2026 minutes first. Lisa second, Alex. Any questions? All in favor? We now move to personnel recommendations of the superintendent. We will terminations, resignations, and all appointments on page 2 through six as a slate. Nam first, Bruce, second, Alex. Any questions? All in favor? We now move to accept the donation from nicer for humanities and gold harbor educational foundation for the two grants don't sand program and what's in the box introduction to the report and the corresponding budget adjustments on pages 6 through 8 we have first a second Alex any questions all in favor we now move to business
117recommendation We will take budget transfers and claims reports on page 8 through nine asleep. We have our first Alex. Second, Lisa. Any questions? >> Just um can we go through the transfers for a sec? So 19,000 stove and oven repair. That's straightforward, right? and got a we have a broken stove and oven and some schools. >> Oh. um and two >> when I saw it on me that's first I saw it because no one from the kitchen said anything I'll have to get back >> okay um and then uh what's this athletic uniform transfer or buying new uniforms? Yes. Like did they transfer to buy new uniforms? >> Yeah. What's the question? Which teams were just purely >> it's baseball brand new coach wanted to uh start him off that way and uh the boys
118crush uniforms most of them that was a damage they were damaged and reconditioned on the way back that's why >> thank you >> also girls lacrosse and wrestling >> well yes but those were already built in to the number >> it's in the paper I'm just clarifying for the >> wrestling already had because we needed the singlets for ALS and so it all had to do with seat transfer. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> All in favor? We will now take additional business matters on pages 9 through 10. J first. Any questions? We move to special education reports. We will take CSE and CPC um approval and contracts on page 10. We may have first Alex the second. Any questions? All in favor? We now move to other matters on pages 11 through
11913. M first second. Any questions? >> No questions. So these are adoptions of textbooks. Are these new textbooks or just replacements? >> So uh this is for ABC. This is a brand new >> a new course right this year. So uh we were using an outdated uh program based on the collegial circles uh that we had held here at Spring Harbor. We had an AP pre-calculus uh collegial circle. The recommendations for various uh textbooks were then explored. We held a textbook committee that evaluated three of the primary books that other um area teachers were recommending and this is the one that came. >> So the board was shown the math textbook. Um these we don't we don't do I'm just curious what why did we look at >> it went to the board. >> Oh
120this one we were shown >> the copy was yes and the copy was placed in Joe's office and then the I linked the uh textbook review uh to the notes completely uh missed it. Sorry about that. Thank you. >> I mean I can send you the book if you want to brush up on >> Well I probably >> I wouldn't that's not my thing. So what what AP what textbook were they using previously? >> So they were using precalculus book but it was not based on the AP uh spoken sequence and it was a little bit outdated. They wanted you know more you know project so there was some other additional um problems that aligned more directly with the AP. So um there precalculus >> right there there were some there were some issues with
121the roll out of the AP pre-calculus class a lot of students dropped the class um that a new regular pre-calculus class was started. Do you think the textbook might be part of the I maybe that's not even a question for you to answer other but okay >> I don't I'm not that was not the issue >> okay but I think that we wanted to make sure we had a book that >> okay all right thank you any other questions in favor >> oh I just wanted to point out this fall in other matters, right? That this also in it includes our regionalization opt out resolution as well. We have um four policies on agenda for first read. The first one of which is 2121. So I'm going to take a motion now to take that
122separately. Can I have a first? Alex the second. Any questions? All in favor? Okay. Um so I'll take I guess we're going to take take a motion to the first reading of that first policy 2121. >> Sure. Um, can I have the first? Um, Bruce the second. Lisa, any questions? >> So, we're taking it separately because we're requesting that we take another look at it, right? Before we >> move it forward, right? >> Yes. That was my So, I mean, you can move >> if you want table it, you can do that. >> That's I would I'd prefer to table it. I think about that. Okay. Thank you. >> All right. So, let me do another. >> Yeah, cuz waving the first read, I think, moves it to the next step as opposed to tableing
123it. Okay. >> Okay. So, I'm going to have a motion to table policy 2121. They have the first, all the second, Bruce. Any questions? All in favor? Okay. Now, I'm going to move on to the three other policies. 85, 8520, and 8121.2. Um, may I have a motion to wave the reading of those policies? A first, Alex. Second, Lisa. Any questions? All in favor? Next, there are two policies 2342 and 9620 and a regulation 9140.1R on for a second read and adoption on pages 13 and 14. May I have a motion to move the reading from these policies in effect? First, Alex. Second. Mark, any questions? >> What can you just hit the highlights what was changed? >> Let me see if me and Lisa can remember. Now you're going back further in time. So,
124which one are we talking about? We're looking at policies that were second reading. Is that policy 962? >> Uh, yes. Child abuse and educational setting the first. >> Yes. >> So, it looks like the only thing that was changed was um uh that report of allegations would be made to the assistant superintendent for human resources because that's the name of our department. That's the name of our administrator as opposed to the assistant superintendent for student services and human resources. >> And then at the end pursuant to the law we changed and we took out this section. >> I don't know what we take out, >> right? We added that the president or it was added that the president of the board would be notified by the assistant superintendent if an allegation for human resources if
125an allegation is made against the superintendent of schools. So, >> so this is so we always have this policy nine child abuse in educational setting. >> So the board recognizes that children have the rights to an educational setting that does not threaten their physical and emotional health and development. Children >> um >> I mean we can request it. >> I kind of want to read it. I I kind of don't want to read this. >> Can you hear me out loud, please? >> I kind of want to read this. I don't want to table this. >> Just want to go back to the policy for three. You >> listed you mentioned in your comments three policies over on the actual core policies. You set aside 2121 >> uh for me to look into. But I
126only see two other policies mention three. >> I think they're three on you. There's the charging school meals, the free meals. I'm going on my computer and the AED for the first and then for the second read, I said there was two policies in Iraq regulation. That's just the wording I was given, but I only see two. We updated one today. Remember we had left >> under which one? I'm sorry. We're talking the first read and 8121. >> We have four on this. >> Okay. You have I just want to make sure that it's clear >> on the agenda that was in the back of the room. I have four. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Sorry. >> So, going back to this. So, I took a Did I take a motion? No, we're in the
127question section. So, all right. So then how do we do this when we want to read the status? So all in favor of doing it without a first read, Kate wants me to read the 9140.1R in its entirety. >> 9620. >> No, 9620. Do you want me to read all three or do I have to make a motion to second? >> We can take a motion to wave the reading and then the board can decide if the if the boards to the reading then wait. However, if board members want to hear the policy read, then >> I'm going to have to take it individually. >> You're taking a motion wave to reading. If the motion fails, then you have to read the polic. So who's in favor of reading the policies in their entirety? >>
128Paul just do the individual. >> All right. So then I will take um a motion to wave the reading of policy starting with 2342. We have the first mark. Second Lisa. Any questions? All in favor? Okay. Now moving on to regulation 9140.1R. A motion to wave this reading. Can I have a first mark? A second. Bruce, any questions? All in favor? Okay. I'm going to take a motion to wave the reading of policy 9620. Can I have a first? This is a motion to approve. If someone's in support of being a motion anyone >> so we make a motion then vote against it if we want it right >> if nobody if the motion doesn't go through if not to >> oh okay >> to wave it so does anyone want to move to wave
129it no okay so then now can I just read it >> yes >> okay the board of education recognizes is that children have the right to educational setting that does not threaten their physical and emotional health and development. Child abuse by school personnel and school volunteers violates this right and therefore strictly prohibited. Allegations of child abuse by school personnel and school volunteers shall be reported in accordance with the requirements of article 23b of the education law. Required reporters. Any person holding any of the following positions shall be required to promptly report written and oral allegations of child abuse by an employee or volunteer in educational center. School administrator, teacher, school nurse, school guidance counselor, school psychologist, school social worker, other school personnel required to hold a teaching or administrative license or certificate, school board member.
130For purposes of this policy, persons holding these positions shall be referred as the required reporters. Definitions: Administrator or school administrator shall mean a principal of or the equivalent title in a public school, charter school or board of cooperative educational services or other chief school officer. Educational setting means the building and grounds of the school, the vehicles provided by directly or by contract. The school for the transportation of students to and from school buildings, field trips, co-curricular and extracurricular activities, both on and off school grounds, all co-curricular and extracurricular activity sites, any other location where direct contact between the employee and volunteer and a child has allegedly occurred. Child means person under the age of 21 enrolled in a school. Child abuse means any of the following acts committed in educational setting by an employee or
131volunteer against a child. intentionally or recklessly inflicting physical injury, serious physical injury or death, or intentionally or recklessly engage engaging in conduct that creates a substantial risk of physical injury, serious physical injury or death, or any child sexual abuse is prohibited by sections 130 or 235 of the penal or the commission or attempted commission against a child of the crime of disseminating indecent materials to minors pursuant to article 235, the penal Employee means any person who is receiving compensation from a school district. Additionally, for the purpose of this policy, one whose duties involve direct student contact and is receiving compensation from any person or entity that contracts with the school to provide transportation services to children or is an employee of a contracted service provider or worker placed within the school under public assistance employment
132program pursuant to title 9B of the article 5 of the social securityities law or by such services performed by such person involved direct student contact. Law enforcement authorities mean any officer or office of municipal sheriffs or division of the state police department. Parent means either both of a child's parents or other persons responsible for the child. School generally means any school district, public school charter, school, non-public school board of cooperative educational series or special act, school district and additional entities as defined by section 112510 of educational law. Volunteer means any person other than an employee who has direct student contact and provides services to the school or school district which involve direct student contact and who provide services to any person or entity which contracts with school to provide transportation services to children. Reporting requirements.
133In any case where a written or oral allegation of child abuse by an employee or volunteer in an educational state setting is made to a required reporter, the required reporter shall promptly complete the required state education department report form. Personally deliverance to the principal of the school in which the child abuse allegedly occurred. If the allegation involves a child who was allegedly abused by an employee or volunteer of a school in another school district, the required reporter must promptly forward the report form to the superintendent of the district of attendance and the superintendent of the school district for the abuse allegedly critic different. If an allegation is made to a school bus driver employed by first or an entity that contracts with a school to provide transportation services to children that a child had been
134subjected to child abuse by an employee or volunteer in educational setting, such driver shall promptly report to his or her supervisor. If an allegation is made to a supervisor of a school bus driver, by a person or entity that contracts with a school to provide transportation services to children that a child has been subjected to child abuse by an employee or volunteer in educational setting, such supervisor shall promptly complete a written report on the attached form 96 20-e.1 and shall personally deliver it to the school district superintendent employed by the school district for child abuse occurred. If an allegation is made which involves a school that is not a school district or public school, the appropriate school administrator administrators in addition to any appropriate superintendent school shall be notified of the allegation. Upon receiving a
135written report, the principal shall determine whether there is reasonable suspicion to believe that an act of child abuse has occurred by an employee or volunteer. In those circumstances where the superintendent receives the written report directly, he or she will responsible for making the reasonable position determination. In any case where the employee the al where the employee the allegation is being made against is the superintendent or the administrator, the report of such allegations shall be made to the assistant superintendent for human resources. The president of the board of education will be notified by the assistant superintendent for human resources if an allegation is made against the superintendent of schools. If the principal/s superintendent determines there is a reasonable suspicion to believe that an act of child abuse has occurred, he or she shall promptly notify the
136parent of the alleged child victim, assuming that the parent is not the person who originally reported the alleged abuse that an allegation of child abuse in an educational setting has been made and promptly provide the parent with a written statement setting forth parental rights, responsibilities, procedures prepared in accordance with the regulations of the commissioner of education. If the person make an allegation of abuse other than the child and the child's parents, the principal superintendent shall contact the person making the report to learn the source and basis for allegation. The principal shall also promptly provide a copy of the written report to the superintendent and send a copy to the appropriate law enforcement authorities. In no event shall the principal delay in sending the report to the law enforcement because of its inability to contact the
137superintendent. The superintendent shall send to the commissioner of education any written report forwarded to the local law enforcement authorities or the employee or volunteer alleged to have committed an act of child abuse holds cert certification or licensed by the department. Rights of employees and volunteers. Any employee or volunteer against whom an alleged allegation of child abuse has been made and against whom the district intends to take adverse action shall be entitled to receive a copy of the report and to respond to the allegations. In addition, such persons are entitled to seek disclosure of reports involving them under the freedom of information law confidentiality. All reports, photographs, and other written material pursuing submitted pursuant to this policy in article 23-B of the education law shall be confidential and may not be redisclosed except to law enforcement
138authorities involved in investigating the alleged abuse or except as expressly authorized by law or pursued to a quarter subpoena. A principle Superintendent shall exercise reasonable care to prevent unauthorized disclosure. Wolfful disclosure of a record written record required to be kept confidential to a person not authorized, received or review such record is a class A misdemeanor. Penalties. Woolful failure of an employee to prepare and submit a written report of an alleged child abuse required by article 23-P of education law shall be a class A misdemeanor. willful failure of any principal or superintendent to submit a written report of alleged child abuse to an appropriate law enforcement authority as required by 23P of education law shall be placing misdemeanor. In addition, the commissioner of education may follow may following an administrative determination imposes civil penalty of up
139to $5,000 on any administrator fails to submit child abuse to an appropriate law enforcement authority. The law further prohibits any principal or superintendent from agreeing to withhold from an appropriate law enforcement authorities, the superintendent or the commissioner of education or appropriate allegation of child abuse in an educational setting on the part of any employee or volunteer is required by the law in return for the resignation or voluntary suspension of the alleged perpetrator. Violation of this prohibition can result in a class E felony charge of civil penalty up to 20,000. Record retention. Any report of child abuse by an employee or volunteer that does not result in criminal conviction shall be expuned for the records kept by the district with respect to the subject of the reports after five years from the date the report was
140made or an earlier time as determined by the superintendent training. The superintendent shall be responsible for establishing and implementing an ongoing basis a training program for all current and new required reporters on the procedures required under article 23-B. The program shall include at a minimum information regarding physical and behavioral indicators of the child abuse and malreatment reporting requirements including but not limited to when how report must be made, what other actions the reporter is, can and should take, the legal protections afforded to reporters and the consequences for failing to report and any other elements as specified in the commissioner's regulations. Further, all persons employed on or after July 1st, 2019 as a school bus driver employed by any person or entity that contracts with the school to provide transportation services to children shall be required
141to complete two hours of coursework or training from the approved provider regarding the identification and reporting of child abuse and all treatment. Force report training shall include information regarding physical and behavioral indicators of child abuse and maltreatment reporting requirements including but not limited to when and how report must be made. What other actions the reporter is can and should take the legal protections reported reporters and the consequences for failing to report. Each employee in such a title shall pro shall provide the school administrator of the school with documentation showing that he or she did the required training. In addition, each school bus driver shall provide such contracting person or entity with documentation showing that he or she completed the required training. The department shall be authorized to request such records on a periodic basis and
142may publish a list of persons or schools who are not in complian to the subdivision of this website. The course worker training required by this section shall not apply to those persons already required to undergo course worker training regarding the identification and reporting of child abuse and malreatment pursuant to the law. References education law sections 1125 to 1133 of the penal law sections 130 235 263 8NYCRR section 100.2 HH reporting of child abuse in an educational setting. Appeal of SS 42 EDR from 2003. Adoption date November 8th, 2011. Amended date January 14th, 2020. >> So I read it. Okay. So I'm going to take a motion to approve this polic. First, Mark second. Lisa, any questions? All in favor? Okay. The agenda includes financial reports on page 14. And these reports are forformational purposes. No
143volunteer any questions from the board of education and public. Feel free to call her office. We now conclude our second audience to visitors. Would anybody like to come up to speak? Hello, Scott Kleinberger live at Green Spur. Um, my question is is well, I guess I'm I'm wondering about process here. I've heard a lot of policy today about emotional support dogs, safety with doors being closed, policy that was just read about abuse, child safety. And my question is this. When this board and other administrators in this school district receive letters about child safety, is it not the responsibility of the board and the administrators to look into these things? I would say probably yes. And I would probably say that you as a board, responsible people have probably done that. So my question is this.
144What is the follow through? The appropriate followth through by the board, never mind the public, but for the people that are involved in these things. But as a board, what is your responsibility to see something through? If this board gets messages from the constituency and pass, I don't expect this board to be going into the school and doing other people's jobs. Everyone has their role. There's people that are supposed to be doing certain things, but you have an oversight responsibility. So my question is this. When something as serious as child safety gets put on the table, what happens next? Where is your follow through? And how much followthrough do you do? And when someone comes back to you maybe with a a message and said, "That was nothing." Is there is there a report that
145gets done? Do you vet the report? Do you look into it? How deep do you go? Because we're talking about some serious issues here. They were alluded to before. And I know firsthand that I don't feel from the feedback that I've received that these issues were taken seriously because there was no feedback to me or my family. Sir, I just have to interrupt you. If you're speaking about anything specific, you're going to need to see that. >> So, I'll keep it a little bit general. I think you got the idea of what I was saying before. Where is the follow through? Who follows through? What happens if you get an answer back and that answer back turns out to be incorrect? Who gives you that answer? How do you find out it's incorrect? And what
146happens to the people that gave you incorrect information? There's people that have a role here and are they doing their job? And did you do your job? I don't know. I can't ask you that question about something specific, but you're all listening to me and I think you understand the seriousness of issues that that we're talking about child safety. So, that's my question. And it's like, you know, I know I'm not going to get an answer back. This is just me, you know, speaking to you and it's not a two-way conversation, but I think that there's some things that have to get talked about here and how this loop gets closed because I heard a lot about dogs, not about my kids. Thank you. general response that the board when we receive emails we do
147respond them respond to them or we're appropriate refer to an appropriate administrator so I can only answer generally. Anybody else have any other questions? >> Good evening. Adrian divinity at two Hollow Road Arbor. Um, thank you. Those are some really nice things this young said about the Westside School show and it sounds like it's going to be a really good show. U very much looking forward to that. also timely discussion about the the new policy and the topic of harassment uh and abuse of students by faculty. Um, I want to ask some I'll actually direct it to you. Um, questions on process. No specifics. Um, just process. If a teacher is hired and then students and parents submit emails to the school and district administration and to the board of ed about um abuse by
148this teacher the children again it's generic it's generic totally generic process question. So, I'm looking at my rights. Um, then the teacher receives tenure. Then the teacher increases verbal abuse on students. Then the teacher adds physical abuse to multiple students. On top of that, still generic questioning. >> Sorry. >> Yes, it's generic. Then what is the district's responsibility to the general set of students, the children who were the recipients of said abuse and those other students that may have been a party to the abuse from the outside and themselves feeling almost abused or harassed because they're uncomfortable with speaking out about it. possibly they were abused themselves but did not feel safe enough to disclose that abuse. What does the district do to protect the children so that they feel that they are in a
149safe environment if such a situation were to occur? How can I It's hard. >> There's no real way to answer that question. This is not >> absolutely there is this forum. There is this is not >> should the students not receive some sort of a psychological >> what's the forum >> should a a trauma a trauma response from the district to support the students that were potentially abused by staff >> it's difficult to answer a question like that without being able to get into specifics of the situ >> we just talked about this great policy which I totally agree all the policies that touch on this. There's a few >> look it up. >> The the board needs to consider the the comments of the the visitors uh have a discussion and then you know
150come to the appropriate answer and then respond. Um this is not the form for back and forth between the visitors and the board. So, you know, you can the visitors can post their questions, residents can post their questions and uh the board can take it under advisement and then at the appropriate time can respond. But to get into an offthe cuff back and forth, >> I don't want a back and forth. I want a simple answer on district response to children of abuse by staff if such a thing were to occur. >> Yeah, I don't think I can give response unless I have the opportunity to look into the policies and give you a We'd like to know what the forum is where where we can have that forum. And we'd also like a definition
151of what is >> sorry. Sorry. >> No, I was saying she could come someone from the audience who's speaking. The microphones do not pick it up. So she have to come up. So just within my experience um valid very valid point because I I think it is important to note that uh abuse under New York state law and laws in general uh does include both verbal and mental and behavioral abuse in addition to physical abuse. That is something that needs to be noted um in case there were chances that verbal abuse was not reported as per policy. But that is something that everyone here should understand. Verbal abuse is abuse. It is a form of bullying and harassment covered by law. >> So do we have a policy on >> generally what's the I guess
152mean he's asking like what's the next step like what's our policy to show them what their rights are? I would have to I just don't know at all. >> Sure. >> I think what would be consider the the comments of the visitors the audience visitors have a discussion session and then prepare an appropriate response and then can provide that response at the next meeting. Um it is is often better to take these comments from from the consider them and have a have an appropriate response. >> But we can do it before the next board meeting, I'm assuming. >> Sure. And and and that can be communicated to any, you know, if the general like give his information to the superintendent. I'm sure the superintendent can contact him back before the next board meeting, but to
153engage into, you know, rapid fire answer questions off the rapid fire, just a simple answer. Thank you very much. Do appreciate that. Uh and yes, timeliness is an important thing. Um you know, especially if there are students that would potentially, let's say, take their own lives because of the abuse that they succumb to, >> right? We do want to make sure that there's some policy in place so that we can quickly respond because we already have the playbook. >> Thank you very much for your time. >> Would anyone else like to speak tonight? Uh, Shelley Williams, Kleinberger again, one transfer. Um, I have two children in the high school. Um, I know as board members you've taken an oath to protect our children and I know that you take that very seriously. I hope that
154you never feel the need to go to the school every day and stand in the gap to protect your child in the school as I have the last week. I hope that you never have to feel what I have felt and heard from my children. And I hope that if you were ever in this situation that the people in charge will stand up for them and do their job and stand in the gap that the children aren't forced to advocate for their from the for themselves that you do your job. The kids need you to do their job your job. They are hurting. They have put been put through so much. And I have been writing letters for a year and a half. And at this point, all I can say is you are complicit
155because it is only gotten worse. Thank you. Does anyone else have any other questions? All right. This is the second discussion section of our agenda. I open the floor to any other discussion items from members of the board of education. I kind of want to just go back to the DASA question. Can the board file a DASA if it didn't actually happen to their child? Like just as a board member? Um so I you know ideally I would prefer to give advice to the board in executive session to answer your question. DASA is a you know independent uh stat you know the obligations under DASA are independent of any other items for discussion. All right. Can I have a motion to adjourn um for to executive session for purposes of personnel legal? We have a
156first Alex. Second, Mark. All in favor? The board has returned from executive session. No action was taken. May I have the motion to return to public session first? Alex, Mark, all in favor. Could I have a motion to adjourn this meeting? A first second. All in favor. Thank you.