Cold Spring Harbor BOE 10/14/25

001Good evening. Um, did I have a motion to um move into executive to open the meeting? Amber first. >> A second. Lisa. All in favor? U may take a second motion to enter into executive session for the purpose of um legal personnel. May I have the first Bruce? Second. Eight. All in favor? The board has returned to the executive session. No actions taken. And I have a motion to the meeting. A first bill. Second, Lisa. All in favor? Let us all rise for the pledge of >> 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. We'll start the meeting with Busky recognizing the commended and semi finalist students in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program. That's too

002many. >> That me? >> No. Okay. Uh good evening uh faculty, staff, families, uh board of education, and most importantly to our honored students here this evening. Uh tonight we are here to recognize a very select group of students and celebrate an achievement uh that places your names among a select group of scholars nationwide. It truly is my privilege to recognize nine of our students who have been named National Merit Commended Scholars and two who advanced to the semi-finalist level in the National Merit Scholarship Competition. These recognitions are not earned lightly. Each year, and this past year included, more than 1.6 million high school juniors nationwide take the PSAT National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which serves as the qualific qualification exam for the National Merit consideration. From that pool, just about 50,000 of the highest

003scorers nationwide earn pro program recognition, meaning they're either designated as commended students or as semi- finalists. To be designated as a commended scholar means that you rank roughly among the top 2 to 3% of all students nationwide who took this exam. While commended students do not advance further in the competition, this recognition alone marks you as one of the very strongest academic performers in the country. And you deserve to be recognized for this accomplishment. Even more selected is to be designated as a semi-finalist. Out of the 1.6 million students who took that exam, only about 16,000 students or roughly the top 1% of each state reach this stage. From there, semi- finalists must apply to become finalists. And out of that pool uh we are informed later in the academic year who has been identified

004as a finalist. What this means is that this recognition of your accomplishments is no small feat. To have your name associated with these honors is a join is to join a national cohort of scholars whose diligence, intellectual curiosity, academic discipline over the years through rigorous courses, exams, projects and challenges have truly set you apart. It is my pleasure to introduce you to our nine commended scholars and two semi-finalists. But before we do, please allow me to say this. It's not just your performance on a single test that earned you this moment. It's your sustained excellence over time. Your teachers, your mentors, your community, you all we have all had the privilege of watching you learn, struggle, refine, and succeed. And tonight, we get to celebrate you. So, Mr. Mon, if you want to join me

005with the certificates. Um, please join me in recognizing our commended scholars, Genevie Koko, Lena Dley, Ethan White, Alex Lombardo, Gran Lynch, Joshua Stimple, Sarah Thatcher, Luke Vicaro, and Captain Zel. Also joining us our two semi semi- finalists Warren Weey and Elizabeth Z. Thank you. And I hope you will all join me in congratulating Mom, dad. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Each meeting we hear from students from different buildings about all the wonderful events going on at their locations. As we begin the 2526 school year, we are pleased to welcome students from the Westside School. Good evening. I'm S the Westside School student council president. Thank you for inviting us to speak at this month's board of education meeting. Our senior staff is led by me, Brett Goodwin, our vice president, Julia Palace, our school secretary, and

006Nora Davis, the west side school treasurer. Each month we have meetings where we meet with Miss Ryan, Miss Santoro, and elected student council home room class representatives. We thank Miss Ryan and the Sano for for their leadership and ongoing support. My name is Bre and I serve as the vice president. The Westside Council generates all of the ideas that we put into action throughout the school year. During our monthly student council meetings, we prioritize the areas of focus based on the initiatives and causes that matter most to our student body. Each class has two representatives that play a crucial role in this process. The reps then report back to their home rooms and are tasked with rallying support and schoolwide participation. Representatives also bring ideas from their classmates to our meetings. And we also invite

007students with suggestions to share their thoughts directly. Our goal is to ensure that every voice is heard and and that our actions reflect the needs and interests of all students across the entire small but mighty school community at Westside. Our message this year is let's work together to make a positive impact. >> My name is Palachi and I serve as student council secretary. The student council is tked with promoting and connecting our monthly schoolwide themes. We believe these themes help to continuously foster a sense of beauty and excitement throughout the school year. This slide shows how this slide shows our 205 206 monthly themes we have planned for this year. We can't wait to see how these themes inspire our students and community. Hi, my name is Nora Davis and I serve as student council

008treasurer. September is designated as a setup for success month. All community members had a chance to visit the habits of mind in order to achieve success. It certainly helped us kick off the year with enthusiasm and focus. We look forward to sharing some of our takeaways from September set up for school success month. as people at any age can benefit from the miners. >> With Westside turning 236 years old this spring, we also had the thrill of being one of the school's most beloved traditions, the ringing over schoolhouse bell to commence the school year ahead. Our new school historians, Miss Santoro and Miss Ryan, performed a live reenactment of a special visit workers received while constructing the first side schoolhouse in the late 1700s. We had George Washington, Miss Anto, and the same leg wearing

009friend, Miss Ryan, who shared the story of George Washington helping the workers raise one of the roof rafters while he was traveling from Huntington to wester. In addition, we held a special moment of reflection on September 11th, Patriots Day, to honor those who lost their lives on that tragic day in our nation's history. We also were inspired to celebrate the ways in which people came together with courage, kindness, strength, and resolve. Especially the first responders, emergency workers, students, and staff where Redway and Leo signed respect for our country and to honor the important 24th anniversary of 911. As part of our setup for success month, we learned the importance of going to bed on time, using our agenda book and school planner to stay organized, eating a healthy breakfast every morning, coming to school on

010time, establishing homework routines and rituals, adopting a solid and consistent independent reading schedule to support nightly reading and limiting distractions in electronics. Breakfast helps you get ready for the school and gives you energy for the day ahead. A good breakfast should include at least three out of five groups, fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, and dairy. It is recommended that people provide themselves with a mix of protein, fiber, and healthy fats. For example, a healthy cereal, milk, and a banana will make a good a solid breakfast choice and hit a three out of five goal. When you don't eat a balanced breakfast, you might feel retired or grouchy. Eating a healthy breakfast after getting a good night's sleep can help people have an awesome day. Breakfast gives you energy, helps you grow strong, and keeps your brain

011ready to learn. If you eat sugary foods, you might feel you might get a stomach ache or sugar high followed by a crash. But if you choose healthy food, you're choosing to take good care of your body and setting yourself up for success. We learned a few of the importance of sleep. Sleep is very important because it affects your mood, helps repair injuries, fights off illnesses, kills bacteria, many other amazing things. Sleep helps you focus on your school the next day, can even affect your overall happiness levels. Before bed, a cozy bedtime routine helps you relax and get a good night's rest. Doing the same nighttime routine every night tells your brain it's time for sleep. Getting enough sleep helps your memory, build up strength, and recharge your brain while you rest. The next time

012you want to stay up late, remember that sleep refreshes your brain, gets you ready for the next day. Council of the board of education and district administrators are able to get a good night of sleep after an evening board meeting because the culture of kids and district community needs you all to get your personal best being sleep. In September, we learned about how to limit distractions that could get in the way of us being successful. In a kid crumbling video, we watched a boy named Lucas kept getting distracted by his electronics. He always said just one more round. It became harder and harder for him to stop playing and soon all he could think about were his games and said his responsibilities like cleaning his bedroom and taking care of his school. In the video,

013Lucas found himself on a path that represented focus. Eventually, when he learned to slow down, take his time, he reached the treasure of focus. Lucas learned to set a schedule, homework first, then five minutes of a game or a small tree. With his mom's help, he stayed on track, got his work done faster, and still had fun. This story teaches kids how to stay focused and stay accountable, work towards a better work towards better habits and growth. September was also a time for connection during our school's fourth year of participating in San Diego's Promise Start with Hello Love Week, a national initiative aimed at fostering new friendships and creating a sense of belonging among the youth. We kicked off the week with with an inspiring assembly led by Dr. Barnes and Miss Lea. To encourage

014new friendships, students spent the week learning and spark about sparking conversations, building connections, and developing their hello smile style. Through small, big, or giant actions, students can help out out their peers simply by being empathetic and inclusive. We love engaging in various hello activities and projects. And the lovely videos we watch promoting kindness and community. On Wednesday, we green to symbolize our collective unity. We conclude this the week with a kindness chain and wrote letters to our teachers expressing our appreciation and enjoyed book readings and other fun activities. When a doubt start with hello, we took a moment to honor our beloved member of the best arts community, Mrs. Heidi Asher, who passed away 10 years ago. Her legacy continues to inspire us all to commemorate her memory. Students and faculty who wore bright colors

015and tie-dyed shirts celebrating the joy and warm she brought to our school. Miss Astra's spirit lives on the hearts of those who knew her. And we are grateful to Miss Ba for teaching us about Miss Astra and learning about them. and neighbors around our school committee. >> We join forces to stomp out bullying, blue shirt debt, and to help kick off October's bullying prevention month. We continue to identify what bullying is, the types of bullying that students are confronted with, and ways for students to report bullying safety safely. Sorry. The big theme of the month is to encourage students to serve as upstanders instead of bystanders. Through this month, we will continue to remember that it only takes one person to spark a change for the better. We can all impact a culture of kindness,

016being empathetic, inclusive, and accepting. We held our first meeting of the school year. It was a productive session filled with exciting ideas and collaborative discussions. After thoughtful deliberation, the council unimously decided to launch a fundraiser to save St. pond. We're thrilled to contribute this important cost. Students will get creative and showcase their artistic talents by creating Halloween themed diaras. Each entry will help raise funds. We can't wait to see all the student body's creativity shine for a great cause. Student council will be selling benefits on October 23rd to October 24th in support of breast cancer. We are happy to support the Susan G. Kman Foundation in this worthy cause but school will also go pink on October 24th. >> Thank you for allowing us to present in this evening. We are happy to open the

017floor to any to field any questions, comments or inquires you may have. Your feedback and engagement greatly appreciate. Thank you so much. >> Especially loved your suggestion about getting to bed early tonight and how important sleep is. One of my favorite suggestions we've gotten. Does anybody have any questions? >> Question. You guys did you're doing a fundraiser to save St. John's pond. >> Yeah. >> What's wrong with it? >> Um I think it's kind of um I don't know exactly what's wrong, but I think the water is kind of like going there's not as much. It's kind of eroding and it's just a really important part for like the Cold Spring Harbor and it's like when it freezes over people skate on it and it's really nice to have the view when you're driving by.

018Um, but I think it's kind of just eroding, but you know, I think it should be good to have there. Save it. >> Thank you for bringing that to our attention. >> Question. >> I just wanted to tell you that was an excellent presentation. You all did a great job. There was so much detail and seems like you all getting great time at Westside. So, um great to see. >> Yeah. Thank you very much. >> Can you kind of share what your favorite part about being an elected official is? >> Um yeah, I'll go first. Um my favorite part of being an elected official is how um you get to showcase your ideas while being with Miss Ryan and Miss Anto, awesome teachers. Um >> and and how anyone's idea is a good idea there.

019And it's how it's very accepting and it's just a fun place to be in. >> I agree with Timmy like everybody's like every like ideas are accepted and I love just like working together with everybody. >> My favorite part about being elected official is probably um just getting to like work with different kids and like being able to just like practice stuff and you know Yeah. Um, I like being um I like it because I get to be with my friends Beck and Nora and it it's fun and it's funny to me and it's nice to hang out with the drums. Also, it's like not everyone gets to do it, so it's kind of just a special needs. Dr. pencil just like else. Thank you. Moving on to my president's award. Good evening. I hope

020everyone enjoyed the Columbus Day weekend despite the rainy and windy weather. Congratulations again to our National Mer Scholarship semi-finalist and many students. It's a pleasure to see them recognized this evening for their outstanding achievements. It also is my pleasure to extend our congratulations to Dylan Savarice who has been selected by her peers to serve as our first exeicio student board member. Um, exeicio student board members serve a one-year term attending public meetings to share student perspectives and act as a liaison between the student body and the board. Although Dylan is unable to join us this evening, we look forward to welcoming her at our next meeting. This evening's agenda includes three presentations. First, RS Abrams, our external auditors, will present a review of the 2024 2025 external audit. Next, Kim Libertini, our assistant superintendent of

021curriculum, will share a data presentation that includes information on regions AP and grades three through eight assessment results. Finally, we will hear updates on progress towards our board goals which were established at our August meeting. These updates will be presented by Kim Lertini, Brian Taylor, our assistant superintendent of human resources, and Janette Elamir, our director of guidance. Project, sorry. Progress updates will be provided periodically throughout the year to highlight the ongoing efforts of our administrators and staff as they work to advance and achieve our board goals. We are also looking forward to a spirited homecoming week culminating in what promises to be a wonderful celebration of school pride. I wish all of our athletes the very best in their upcoming games and matches and I look forward to joining our community and celebrating their accomplishments.

022On a personal note, I will be attending my full spring 25th high school reunion next weekend. So this month in particular, I find myself filled with school and seaw Joe, now I turn officially turn the meeting over to you for your report. >> Thank you, Heather. Good evening, members of the board of education, students, staff, families, members of our community. Welcome to our October 17th board of education meeting. It has been incredibly busy and exciting month for us Coulson Harbor School. one filled with community spirit, academic achievement, creativity, and compassion. First, I want to highlight that homecoming is just around the corner this Friday, October 17th. Festivities begin at 5:00 p.m. at the junior senior high school fields. We feature backyard games, a petting zoo, DJ, face painting, tattoos, and a dump tank with yours

023truly and Mr. Van Busky taking turns in the tank. Uh sure to be a great evening for families, students, and alumni to come together and celebrate our community. I'm just hoping for warm water in the town. Throughout the past month, our schools have been busy with activity. At Gusu Primary School, students participated in fire safety week where members of the Colos Harbor Fire Department provided lessons on fire prevention and gave students a chance to explore a real fire truck. Our pink eight games worked together. the girls field hockey team, swim and tennis teams to raise awareness for funds for breast cancer research and support. A powerful example of student combining athletic competition with meaningful support. We proudly recognize the National Merit semi-finalist and committed students. This evening, 25 talented students were inducted into the Triumph

024Music Society honoring their commitment to music performance and leadership in the arts. Last week, our school participated in the World Day of Bullying Prevention, reinforcing our just required commitment to kindness, respect, and inclusion. Students in our leadership classes organized donation drive to support children in need, reflecting the generous spirit of our student body. And of course, the beloved hurdle visit delight of a young at Hill, a tradition that brings smiles and curiosity every single week. This fall also marks the roll out of our new math program of mathematics which places student thinking, discussion, problem solving the heart of every lesson. Teachers and students alike are embracing the shift towards deeper mathematical reasoning and collaborating and learning. From academic innovation to community engagement has been full of inspiring month across close school. I look forward to

025sharing even more good news as the year continues. Next week on Tuesday, October 21st, we will hold our first work session of the year. This session is dedicated to the budget process and transparency. All welcome to attend the meeting at the boardroom and district office starting at 7:30 p.m. And on Friday, October 24th, Closeman Park will be hosting a civics panel at Nassau Community College titled Civics through Normandy. At the event, the current seniors who attended the Normandy trip last spring will provide perspective on the trip and learning via experiences. Then the students and staff will answer questions from the audience. This is going to be an amazing event for students to share what they learned and also we just learned this afternoon three students were awarded the town of Huntington Hispanic Task Force Scholarship

026Sunella Christo Ramirez and Zara Ventur will be honored tomorrow night for this award starting at 7 p.m. at High School. Congratulations to them. They're being thank >> discussion section of our agenda. Yeah. So, I wanted to ask about um as you know, we have a New York has a new full ban on electronics in the learning environment and we've had a policy already for a year prior to that against cell phones. So I was interested in how compliance is going and how people are adjusting and any challenges we're facing. I mean so far we had as of the 9th which was last week was the 25th day of school at the junior senior high school. We had 73 instances where cell phones were seen and were taken away brought to the main office and this

027uh came to 39 unique instances. So on average about per day overall. I know I was one of them. I was walking out one day. The student thought I I did turn away and I turned back. I saw his eye. Overall, I I think it is pretty good. Uh our students I definitely see lots of conversations in the hall. You're going to see tonight uh for board recognition week. We have students I I I'll let them speak. I don't want to give it away. Mr. Mr. Dusky, do you want to add anything to the conversation about what we see in the building? >> So, I think as Mr. Rolman said, um the fact that we had a little bit of a head start on this compared to the rest of New York State, um certainly

028gives us a leg up in this. Um you know, I definitely think compared to this point last year, we are seeing less infractions. Uh when we look at the infractions, we don't look at just the sheer number. Our focus really is try to identify recidivism, kids who are repeat offenders. Um and and by and large when we drill down into that data we have less than 10 students who have been repeat offenders. Um all 10 of those students are currently on what's called the administrative hold which means that when they come in in the morning that we hold their phones for them. Um we have a safe in the main office that we take the phones and we lock them up in the main office and return them to them at the end of the

029day. The typical administrative probation period where we do that is two weeks where they turn in their device and if they are caught from this point after their phone will be held until a parent comes to get it. Um, by and large when we break down by grade level, ninth and 10th graders predominantly are being caught because either they forgot the yarn pouch or they're self reporting that they forgot their yarn pouch. Um, by and large our administrative hold is concentrated among 11th and 12th graders. Um, and then the use of phones in the class and hallway really has been minimal compared to the two. Um, you know, grade nine the most frequently among our forgotten pouches. Grade 10 and 11 is a blend of forgotten pouches and inappropriate use. Uh in grade 12, most

030of our administrative holds are 12th grade students, which if you think about a program, they they spent four years in this school where phones were acceptable and accessible and then in their junior year, the phones are no longer accessible and acceptable. Um so it certainly is an adjustment, but good to see that in the students who entered the school with this uh rule and now that it's a statewide ban that there are less and less infractions in those grade levels. So we think about that longitudinally and what that will look like in four years in terms of overall compliance. Um certainly uh myself the assistant principles are constantly looking at the the list for compliance interfactions uh and identifying if we need to have any any elevated tier interventions uh for any of our >>

031One more question. Has there been issues with other devices like smart watches? I know kids sometimes like >> Yeah. So we the vast majority of students, I mean, we have we have compliance students. So, the vast majority of students, if they have their their smartwatch on, a staff member tells them, "Take your watch off, you know, we often see them coming either to the security desk to unlock their pouch and put the smartwatch in there." Um, with respect to other devices, we have we've had three, I believe, three instances where MacBooks have been uh have been addressed and and by and large, it's either the teacher taking the MacBook away and bring it to the office or the teacher, you know, directing the student. Um, one was a teacher who directed the student not to

032the MacBook out and the very next period the same student took the MacBook out and that teacher walked on the device to Mrs. to come pick it up. >> So, if it if it becomes a repeat offense, that's the type of thing where we would ask the parent to come pick it up because it obviously warrants a deeper conversation. Um, but out of all the interactions, we literally have three devices other than comput. >> Well, it means different things in different classes. Um, I know for example, um, you know, the actual state law and and our board policy says the only acceptable use of any internet capable device is the school issue Chromebook. So teachers are enforcing that if they see it, they'll redirect students. If it's an issue and it comes out again, they

033confiscate the device. Correct. I I want to point out to the board that our policy uh states that even the mere display of the device is a violation of the policy. So a child can have their MacBook in their backpack. they can pull their MacBook out to get their calculator at the bottom of their backpack and the teacher can confiscate that MacBook and the administration has no problem with that. So >> I think that's why you want you want that to be >> um the display of it. No, the use >> the use no to take it out and use it. We don't want that. Although the administration the same thing. >> No, this is not a phone. This is a MacBook. Say >> the same. When I had said off the way for phones,

034that wasn't enough. So, how is it different with the I don't understand with the computer that's off different? >> No, that's what I'm asking. Is it are we okay with say your calculator is at the bottom of your backpack, you slide your MacBook out to get your calculator and just the mere appearance of that? >> But what if your in your backpack. >> If your phone has off, >> it's turned off. It's powered down in your backpack and the teacher sees it. Is that different to you? And I'm just wondering because >> if the phone I don't follow you, >> what do you mean you don't follow? If you have your phone and it's not in your pouch, but it's shut down in your backpack, >> right? >> Is that different to you? >> If

035it's in the backpack, Yeah. >> it's supposed to be in the yonder. >> Yeah. But so the MacBook's supposed to be at home. It doesn't say you can't be in possession of it. Say you can't display it. >> Okay. So, MacBooks are fine to use, but not I'm just trying to understand because I I I was I felt like kids should just be responsible for keeping things off and away. And I'm trying to understand what the nuance is here. >> The nuance is if your calculator is is at the bottom of your backpack and you pull your MacBook out to get your calculator, the mere display of that is a violation of the polic. We're trying to >> but you're not supposed to have MacBooks in school, right? >> I don't know. Is that >>

036I think under the state policy posted right >> during the course of the school day only approved internet capable devices a Chromebook or another device issued by the school district >> for use or possession because there's a lot of kids that bring MacBooks to school. I don't know if you're missing that but there's a lot of kids that have MacBook. I think they should they're they're away. It becomes more of a challenge for a teacher to were they using it? Did they just have it out? Was it flipped open? It should be away. >> I think some kids are depending on their >> Sure. >> Right. I could see you taking it out, but if you're reaching for a calculator and the mere sight of it, >> you have the rule or you don't. across

037the board in the hallway. I don't think it >> I don't know. I know the phones are supposed to be >> when you're teaching a class and you have a lot of students in front of you >> sounds like that seems like a very specific parent not a whole board level discussion >> I mean I interpret I interpret as as a teacher who's is getting prepared to give a teacher lesson who may already be engaged in teaching lesson is not going to stop instructional time to conduct an investigation as whether or not a device is being used. The message that was delivered to the staff at the beginning of the school year was as this state law changed that the only internet capable device permitted in school is a schoolisssued device. Okay. So there's been

038three MacBook confiscations I think you said. >> Yes. So there's virtually no MacBook possession except then at the school because there's not a lot of um doesn't sound like there's a lot of confiscations. They're easy to see. They're not in their face. So, that's interesting. Okay. And then um the uh >> can I discussed last year the possibility because a lot of kids like to use MacBooks. Um, we we discussed it blocking and and there is software that allows a district to block apps on a MacBook. Is that something we just decided not to do or I know it was going to be looked into? >> I think the challenge comes into that a student can turn on their phone to use as a hot spot and we have no control whatsoever about what they're

039viewing and doing. uh if they're using their Chrome device that we give them, they're going it's blocked on the device. So when they're using their own personal device on their own personal Wi-Fi, we have zero control. >> Okay. So that's that's >> very good. All right. So I guess no Mac, right? To my knowledge, when a teacher sees it, they They bring it to the office. Okay. Very good. Thank you. >> Can Can they see Gmail on the phone? >> They we have they have a school account which is fairly restricted for obvious reasons because we don't want inappropriate things sent to students once that you know your name gets out there to share. So we uh students can email within our domain a very limited amount of outside uh email addresses >> right but

040but things like college board registering for >> we we white list or things allow them to do that >> but they they make you use a non school account >> but it's it's it's a Gmail account >> she's saying can you use like your personal Gmail Oh, no. >> Correct. >> They can log into their account. They just can't receive >> the after. >> Okay. All right. That's helpful. >> I'm sorry. >> Thank you. >> And remember this ban is K12. I reached out to principal not at the beginning was weird but they seem to be taking care of a quick discussion and really personal crisis was never much discussion. >> Yeah. Um I was told we have to discuss this in public. So the letters we've been sending to the community regarding um for

041example the paper option it was called a survey. Is that a survey we're seeing what parents wanted or is that the actual letter that will determine whether they get paper or not? It was selected. would they rather receive paper or electronic communications? So that is the determination. That is the Okay. And it was called a survey. Um you I I was hoping we could maybe change the the outreach um to talk about really what we're trying to accomplish would be to save money and and talk about how much we spend on mailings. Talk about the environment. of not mailing things of that nature and talking about some things need to be mailed. But we we wrote a letter that called it a survey and and it didn't really even go into the benefits of doing

042that way. And I'm wondering um even with the facilities letter, we kind of wrote a general letter rather than asking for specific skill sets. Um and the the the feedback is we have to as a board like write these or or change them and I I don't understand um >> so I think if we send out like we're doing a survey of the electronics we're going paperless versus saying the district is offering an option to parents due to the cost of mailing the environmental impact for and give you the option to go pay for it or not instead of calling a service like there are some people that were like what exactly does this mean? We did get a response but a survey indicates you're trying to get like a poll versus um an indication

043of permanent switching. So do you want it to be called like opt in opt out something like that? I think that makes sense to your point. Like I might ignore it because I personally wouldn't >> but one might ignore >> I appreciate. >> Yeah, I agree. and and and even on the facilities when we call out for specific skill sets. We have so many people in the in this community and if you have a background in following areas and we write these generic letters and I feel like um we can do a better job at them and when the point is right is nothing gets done and >> well I think it used to be and correct me if I'm wrong people who've been on this board a long time but um which is relative

044because we're all relatively new board members but you know what I mean um I think we used to any email that came out that was like from a board initiative like a mailing or like a board level committee was usually sent to the board for review before it went out. Um does that seem right things that came out of discussion like that weren't just sent out just to make sure that just like in any big meeting that everything that was really said is reflected. You can't have everything on taxpayers email. >> No, I'm not saying put everything on the email. What I was saying is before emails are sent out like the email saying do you want to have emails too? >> Do you want to have an email or no emails that come from

045the board that say from a board meeting? We've decided we may or may not like if you'd like to not receive mail opt out here. The email itself, the body of the email from the board was sent to the board for review before being sent to the community. Same with the board committee and then actually the committee in addition to the letter the committee was connect contracted without the board signing off on that this time. So I think there needs to be more when something comes out of a board discussion and is reflective of a board initiative perhaps the board. What we used to do, I think, is say you have, you know, 24 hours, whatever it is, just to keep things timely and then we have multiple discussions about this actually at one point.

046Um, and if something was really, really timesensitive, the superintendent would send a text and say, "I'm about to send out this email or this letter. Please call me." >> Yeah. So, these couple things I think Mark brings up a really which is they came out for discussions and then in really good intention the emails or messages were sent out to families but there could have been like one more word or sentence added in that would be more reflected what would it would have taken maybe a minute for somebody >> yeah I agree I think I think we've gotten we we used to do that more freent Yeah, I have a discussion which is if we're comfortable moving discussion. >> Okay. Um, so I just a quick regarding the required music in junior high and I'd

047like to stipulate first that I was in both the chorus and magical in the high school but if you are a child who is taking chorus as an optional class in the junior as a required class in the junior senior high also required to go to additional music lesson which could be during instructional time during your lunch time during time where you're getting extra help in other classes and I'm just not sure why this is a requirement at that level. I think once you've opted in and you are highly committed to chorus, then of course it could be a requirement for higher level chorus students or it could be optional in the junior senior high school. I'm just it it doesn't make sense to me as we're trying to get these kids to mastery in

048subjects and if they're enjoying singing but not don't have the bandwidth to also take all of the sudden accelerated science and perhaps an accelerated math and they've just stepped up academically and they're coming out of elementary school and now we're saying and also you have to give up time to do extra singing when singing necessarily wasn't even your choice. It was fit into your schedule. It just doesn't seem it's not making sense. >> Um I'm I'm sorry. So is this new? This is not in the last few years. I've never heard >> Yes, that's correct. Because I I don't believe my >> I don't know actually my older I don't think this is even a state requirement, Lisa, for our older kids to take >> it's not just instructional >> I I have to say

049I'm not sure about the elementary it's junior high here at the elementary Chris John right? If they're doing like NISMA or something, then sure, go to the extra lesson. But I just think, you know, if you've got a kid who's just trying to stay float academically instead of an eighth grade, and then you're getting zeros on your progress because you're missing a chorus lesson. Seems like we're putting extra pressure unnecessarily on kids who are already academically anxious. And listen, I think singing is a great stress reliever. Again, I'd love to But I just think this is something that should be looked at because certainly, you know, we're not saying in other areas that they have to go do small group instruction. I I honestly I'd rather have extra small group instruction in something else if

050if that's what the time is going to be spent on, but otherwise I didn't want my child going to extra help or maybe like eating a proper lunch. >> Alex, can you I Can can you explain this to me so I can try? I really honestly what it only came to my attention. >> I I think we we can look into I find out what what exactly how often might be better than >> Okay. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. >> I do know it is and it is an added stress. I know my daughter is in the band and she loves it. She takes it very seriously, but so she has a band period that's on her schedule, but then she also has to do miss a certain class to go to like a small

051group and it's something just that just puts them over the edge sometimes, right? But they miss. >> So it's like biology rejects to go to a chorus lesson. >> I I understand that for band and for orchestra, you know, maybe they need to have the small group instruction, but Of course, if you're a serious singer, I think you actually probably should be having the extra instruction. But I'm just saying for kids who are taking these as a >> yet there are students who are taking course because they're not inclined to and then they their lessons are actually scheduled during their school day by >> by their you know like soprano and then it could be literally during your biology regions eighth grade class, >> right? Because we don't even like a non musical music class

052anymore. >> Right. So they have to take they have >> no >> music theory. >> That must have started recently as well. >> Yeah. >> My understanding is that that's pretty demanding. Is that correct? the music theory that it can be tricky, I think. >> Maybe. >> And then do they get So they have to go to school early in in sixth grade, right? So they're going to their parents joining them to school early, but then they're still getting pulled out, >> right? That's right. At the elementary school level, >> just school, >> is it that they're not pulled out right now? Is it So they could be pulled out go down in fifth and sixth grade. >> That being said, there I think they once looked at if they are there something pressing with

053core instruction at the elementary school us being smaller there is flexibility in terms of making sure that you're not the big test and I think it happens through the cycle. I I have to double check the numbers. Maybe like four times that they miss science, reading, math or except four times per year. I don't I have to double check what's elementary level. >> Yeah, I think at all the levels would be helpful. I know I saw an email today that a makeup for missing a class that was I think during bio regions would be during math. So, it's like two really badg. >> Yes. So, we have out an RFP built last week, Wednesday, Thursday, I forget exactly. The equipment, the tanks and all the lights and all the parts and everything came in delivered

054and uh we have an RP due Friday, Joe, >> right for vendors to do the final put together of of cutting the glass and installing everything. And then we were hoping at the work session would be two work days later appoint the person who would then do the work to finalize putting everything together. >> So how long does that translate into >> warehouse and speak to some of the vendors they look like they're I'm open to do the work. So I don't want to guarantee we have to see who puts everything in but I would probably Within a couple weeks, we'll be ready to go with everything installed. >> Thank you. >> And then that's everything. Everything is done. >> The electric is done. The um the racks are in. Uh the electric has been

055installed. Uh run the whole nine yards and it would just be the the final finalization of the tanks in which is which is there's always maintenance on these. This is one of these like every day the people from South Mountain said every day something breaks. It's the nature of a couple weeks. The last thing I had was um I just would like to get kind of a report on allowances that have been taken by job because I know we got some numbers. I'm not sure it captures that capture every trade by every job. Do you know if that report kind of seems to be difficult to follow? So that report showed every allowance I believe going back to 2012 that received either money back not used or money used uh since that time period. indicate

056the project the project number location and who the vendor was >> cuz like I was just trying to find even like the bathroom at Westside to be simple and I don't see it broken down to like the four trades. I was trying to see like say on a job on each allowance what was taken what was returned is I don't think it has that specificity because um I want to try to figure out how often allowances were taken. Um what percent of the allowances were taken? When you when you say percent, you say how many dollar balancing say we had $50,000 and $5,000. >> Yeah. If we if we had like this simple$100,000 in total allowances and 50,000 were taken 50%, you know, I to see the percent of allowances taken. Um, we just did

057an exercise and kind of learned about the likelihood of allowance to get taken. I want to see if we're in the ballpark of of of the norm. I I would like I would say we talked about this sort of anecdotally without data over the past year or so and I thought we were told in one meeting that these are not normally >> and so I think we're trying to understand like why all of a sudden there's or whether it's true that now we're getting a lot of allowances returned which is a good thing but I think it raises the question about what was happening prior to a year or so ago losing all the allowances and so I think we just need a comprehensive report that shows by year like okay nothing was returned 2023

058and then we got a lot back and maybe there's a good reason for that or maybe that's not happening at all money coming back is typically what it happens when a job is closed that is we've been closing work on the last month so that's why we've been seeing I think what they'll but we asked Joe at the last meeting if it was typical to see such large amounts coming back you know in all his years and he said no >> right how much we got back 0 and then Mr. Monaster raised a good point. We did a lot of work from on 2019. We also do a lot of work every year. It doesn't mean that I would think it would zero returns. So I think we just like to see data and put

059this to bed one way. >> So So we take every allowance taken or money coming back the job in percentage of the total allowance taken. I just want to make sure I have everything. >> Yeah, that sounds >> right. If you have um like a job and each allowance was 5,000 and all the allowances were taken at 5,000 that's almost mathematically impossible. Um that and if that happened multiple times then something doesn't end up because the allowance as they said it is it's it's for something unexpected. It's it's just to keep the work going. Um, so you you'd have to have four instances where the work was unexpected and it each cost the same amount for all the allowances to be taken to the dollar for the full amount. Seems very unlikely. Um, >> could

060we ask to see the last 10 years? >> Yeah, I think we just need to recode information. It's just different and maybe adding the percentages of the total dollar. And what's the I I know you explained it, but the difference between an allowance and a change order, they're kind of interchangeable, it seems, but they're not because an allowance is a change order, but then change orders are also if the allowance is exceeded. I'm going to ask Joe D to answer that goes to his office. >> So any Joe can answer this question, but The um the difference is that allowance of money specifically and built into the contract that's granted to each. So somebody gets a million dollar contract and built into that million $50,000 change is always make whenever there's going to be a

061change in either dollar amount or the time at which the project will complete will be completed. It was either dollar change or time change that's a change order. The confusion which I understand completely is that sometimes a change order is without changing the total value of the contract because the allowance covers the additional cost. So you still have a million dollar contract, but instead of having a $50,000, you now had an additional $5,000 worth of work and now you have 45,000 allowance. What happens sometimes is that the allowance is exhausted and additional work still needs to be done. That's a goes to the board to say, "Can we please increase the contract beyond the million dollars that we originally anticipated because of this condition that request etc. But in either case, whether the money is

062coming out of the allowance or the money is coming out of the capital funds to increase the contract, it's a change. Wouldn't it also be a change order project was the same amount of money but >> I'm sorry. So if we I'm just saying if we said we're going to spend a million dollars on bathroom on air conditioning and then the board said no but they took the money what happened with bathrooms right they used the money on bathrooms when we said didn't want it on bathrooms they used it somewhere else right >> no said they didn't want the bathrooms and then they told us the chamber was for boiler work and they Right. So, but that's what I'm saying. But, so you didn't agree with that. >> Okay. So, you gave me the details,

063but what I'm saying is that is considered a change order, but you didn't explain that. >> Yeah. It's the That's a whole different problem. >> The problem is that >> it still needs to be approved by >> the contract >> for the installation of boilers and the was instead used to in store. That is an inappropriate use of money. That's not what the board authorized. That's not what the contract for. Yes. Is it possible that during the course of the project, the architect, construction manager, director of >> But I just want to be clear that that did happen. >> Yes, I know. I know. And I'm saying to you out front Can I so on the 50k in your scenario if they do the allowances does the board have to approve that at some point?

064>> Yes sir. And in in my world yes I would bring that as a change order to the board saying we are going to cover this change order by using allow not your world. So if we go back 10 years and we look and all the allowances were taken every time to the max did those eventually go before the board and get voted on I can't say that I wasn't here >> wait that report that went through >> that's how that's different was approved by the I guess the question is what information was given to the boarding. >> All right, we'll get the information from there. It's just something I just want to make sure we're learning from. Okay, thank you. an intersection. >> Yes, going to come up and say some words and we're

065going to take a video. Hi, >> dear members. Can you guys hear me? Dear members of the board of education, my name is Kristen Blendell and I'm honored to serve as the central parent council chair for the 2526 school year. I have a fourth grade daughter at Westside and a son who just started kindergarten at behalf of our community. I would like to express sincere appreciation for all that you do for our school and community. Serving on the board of education is a volunteer position that requires countless hours of dedication, often balancing the responsibilities with full-time careers, family responsibilities, and busy lives. Your commitment, thoughtfulness, and care do notice. Thank you for your time, energy, and heart that you pour into making our school the best that they can be. Thank you for your commitment

066to providing quality education and helping our student our schools and students thrive. Your thoughtful leadership, care for students, and commitment to excellence make a lasting impact. On behalf of the central parent council and the parent teacher group, I'd like to present you with a small token of appreciation first and then we have another Sorry. Thank you. And we have one more surprise. Also, we are pleased to share a special video created with the help of our building principles, Miss Oswald and Mr. Montasero, along with the students from all of our schools. This video expresses the heartfelt appreciation for all the improvements over the past year made possible by the board. Thank you to everyone who contributed to making this possible. >> Yay. Thank you for the air conditioning. Nice and cool. Thank you for the

067fans. It keeps us nice and safe. >> It keeps us safe. >> Thank you. >> We love our teachers. Thank you. >> Thanks for fixing the Play-Doh. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, >> I love everything. It means double the help and double the fun. >> We love to teachers. Thank you for keeping us safe all day. >> Thank you for keeping us safe. >> Hi, I'm Olivia Keter. I'm a senior and I just want to thank you so much for the college and guidance prep that you have um given me and my grade. I think I've been a lot more informed in the college pro process. So, thank you so much. >> Hi, I'm Brody Gra. I'm also a senior and I really appreciate the seals readiness because I've always had a huge interest in

068history and many of my other classmates also and this gives us a chance to progress that further. >> Hello board of education. Thank you so much for letting the art match honor shopping at Disney. We really appreciate it and we're going to have a great time performing. Thank you much for giving us the opportunity to go to Disney for providing us with amazing guidance that help us with our journey through high school and provide us with new opportunities every day. I'd like for >> all the courses um provide new opportunities for students to explore their interests. I'd like to thank the board. >> I'd like to thank the board for the new traffic light because I find when my mom pick me up from school and take me home, it's much faster at the end

069of the day. I find that this traffic light is very quickly >> one I'm excited to take my own classes like >> um I also want to like thank the board for classes because all like the handle activities that you can do and stuff like cooking and like building stuff are very fun. How has the steam approach helped you learn? Think about us the opportunities to challenge ourselves and better our skills. Um, specifically with developing communication skills. It's been a really interesting opportunity and it was a lot of fun experience. Thank you so much the board of education for providing us with a new way to enhance our learning. >> Thank you so much to board of education for giving us the opportunity to receive the seal bio literacy. We are so thankful that we

070get to connect our education to our >> How does the security team make you feel? doesn't just make me feel safe. They make me feel special every time I walk into the security team make me feel comfortable and safe. The security team makes me feel protected. I trust them. The security team security team. The security team cares for us and helps us during lockdown. My name is Alex and I'm a senior here at Harbor. Um I just wanted to really thank you um the board for the security that we have here. Makes me feel really safe. Um as you can see they have a cool security car that you know everyone couldn't get in and out. Um, you know, last year I had an incident with an Uber Eats driver and it um, you know,

071the schools handled it very well and made me feel really safe in the building and very special. Thank you. I want to think of security at our school to make sure keep our school safe. They would like to check every morning and make sure that all students that are coming in here are >> so much of education for providing us with top. >> Thank you board of education for our new student. >> Thank you for allowing us to move freely between spaces. >> Thank you for allowing us to be creative. Thank you for allowing us to collabate. >> Thank you for allowing us to grow. Thank you for expanding our technology. >> I like because it's very fun and let me be creative. >> I like because it creates a fun and colorful. >> I

072like because it's really fun to build stuff and create. Um, my name is Lester. I'm a senior here and we are going to tell you what they're thankful for. Come to >> I'm thankful for all the teachers that we have in the school and how nice and prepared they are. I'm thankful for the student and the snack. >> I'm a senior. I'm thankful for the board of education for them putting in the traffic light at the end of at the exit of school because it allows me to get out of school quicker when I need to go get something before my game that I forgot or just going to help me quicker. Thank you. Oh, sorry. This year by the board of education make everyone safer and more efficient. Thank you so much for education

073for improving our school. >> I'm grateful for the patches because when we didn't have the patches, no one got to socialize and didn't get to talk. But now that we had them, everyone's socializing and different social and it also helps them watch it again. I don't really care. Don't bring me back. That was really special. It's nice to see these. That's why you do this. that really brings to >> I'm really excited everyone traffic light. My dad first bought it 15 years ago. He's like, "The kids are going to love the traffic light." So glad I did. >> Yes, everyone loves the traffic as they say. All right. So thank you for that and I guess we will move um forward for the presentation the audit report by >> RS thanks again. >> Thank you

074very much. >> Good evening everyone. Good evening members of the board. Uh my name is Brenda Nelson. I'm a partner at RS Abrams. Uh we are the district's current uh independent external auditors. Um so we did just recently complete the district's financial statement audit uh for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025. Um I do want to preface this brief summary I'm about to give. Um we did meet with the audit committee back on September 30th. Uh we discussed the audit reports in detail and answer any questions they may have had. Um as part of the audit uh there are four total documents that are being issued just as any other previous year. Uh you have the basic financial statements of the district. You have a separate standalone financial statement for the extra classroom activity

075clubs of the district. Um that is a separate standalone report that we are required to issue in accordance with the New York State Education Department. And then there are two communication letters that we issue each year. One being the management letter uh and another one being referred to as the governance letter. So again, we like to start with the opinions. One of the ultimate opinions that uh our firm is providing on both sets of your financial statements. Uh the district is receiving what's referred to as unmodified opinions. Um this is essentially what's referred to as a clean opinion. Uh so what that means is that throughout the course of our our auditing procedures, we did not identify anything that would have prevented us from issuing such an opinion. So um again, unmodified opinions on both

076sets of those financial statements. um essentially the best opinions you can get as a local government or a school district here in Fair State. Um we do want to also point out uh the management letter is where we would identify and report to the board and to management any um uh issues, findings or general areas of recommendation that we may have come across as it relates to the district's internal controls over financial reporting. Um we are happy to report that there were no deficiencies or weaknesses identified. and the district is receiving a clean management letter. No savings, not there. Uh in terms of the district's general fund fund balance, um their unassigned fund balance, this is what's referred to as your rainy day savings. Uh it's basically everything that's left over that hasn't been assigned,

077restricted, or committed for any other purpose. Um this is limited. This unassigned fund balance is limited here in New York State under real property tax law to 4% of your next year's total budget. Uh so as of June 30th 25 the district did finish the year with 3.28 million uh in that unassigned fund balance classification um which is exactly 4% of the 2526 total budget. Uh we typically like to point this out. This is typically a good fiscal indicator of a district that's in a strong uh financial position that has a strong balance sheet and are able to maintain that 4% on assignment. Um overall we do want to uh point out the Bosen records were in great shape for us to come in. Uh the audit was able to move forward efficiently, timely and

078effectively. Uh we do want to thank Jojo and his team and the business office for all their hard work and cooperation throughout the um so overall in summary this is a a strong audit report. Again no findings, no recommendations of note included in the management letter. So overall this is an audit report that the board and the district can be proud of. Uh if anyone has any questions or comments, I'd be more than happy to talk to you all. >> I thank you for that. Are there any areas that we should consider uh differently doing differently in the district? >> There was nothing that came out throughout the course of our audit. We had had findings in the past uh which the district has been diligent to address. Uh some of the most common things

079we see relate to uh the tracking and monitoring of capital asset conditions. And then obviously IT security is a huge area right now as well. So that's something we're always looking at. Um but again from a financial statement audit perspective, we're required to gain an understanding of your internal controls. We're not digging nearly as deeply as your internal auditors would where they're going in and picking specific areas to do full deep. So again, we're gaining an understanding uh as we're required to do under our standards. uh but we're more focused on the uh the books, the general ledger and the actual data. >> Thank you. Do you look at the future funding of our pension obligations as well? Is that part of the report? >> There is a supplemental schedule in the financials that shows

080a 10-year look back on what all of your pension uh required contributions have been uh but nothing perspective to the future. >> So, we've contributed appropriately in the past. You have required contribution amounts that are set by New York State for both pension systems. So yes, you can contribute those amounts. >> Are we over contributing or contributing to the minimum? >> There are set percentages. So for your employees retirement system depending on each employees by tier you are you have a specific required percentage that you have to contribute based on total salaries for employees in each tier. TRS is just one blanket rate that you contribute for a total TRS sellers year. So there's really no overcontributing under contributing the rates are set you have to contribute. >> So there's no forwardlooking analysis to see

081if we have a pension time bomb down the road. >> Unfortunately no. So to give some context there um for the two pension systems uh the employees retirement system as of the most recent valuation that they've had from their uh external orders they contract with their own actuary. The ERS pension system is currently looked at as being underfunded. So every participating district in New York State is picking up their proportionate share of what's called a net pension liability because it's looked at as being underfunded. Whereas TRS this year due to the investment returns on their portfolio ERS was actually a debt pension asset. So it was looked at as being overfunded. So you as a district picked up your proportion share that >> questions. Thank you so much. >> Appreciate it. >> Thank you for

082having me. Have a great day. >> Thank you. Right along to present a little bit of Good evening everyone. My name is Kim Libertini and I'm the assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction and I'm actually pleased to share with you a lot of the the data that came out of our New York State assessments in the year 2025. I will be joined later with uh to conduct the rest of the presentation by Daniel Daskki, the junior senior high school principal. So when you look at the 3 through8 ELA, one of the things that we chose to do was really present on mastery levels. And we felt this was important since uh the board goal this year is focused on teaching to mastery. On the very left hand column, you'll see the grade levels and then immediately

083after you'll see um the 2025 scores. Anything that has been flagged with a green flag shows a a growth or an area where we have exceeded our numbers from 2024. And anything with a red flag is an area where we saw a decrease. I want to point out that if you look at grades seven and eight, um it we saw an an odd bloom that did not correlate with the the trend that we had seen over time for both grade seven and eight. So if you start looking back prior to COVID, if you look at uh 2018 and 2019, we saw numbers like uh 18% 27 36 and had stayed steady at 37% and then all of a sudden in 2024 we saw an increase of 56%. So it was an odd number that we

084saw, but that odd number actually presented itself across Long Island and around New York State. Um so we were trending along the same lines with everyone else. Um and then when we look at um grade seven and eight, you'll see these numbers. We took a deeper dive later um in the presentation just to explore what was going on with our um test results there. I always like to take a look at what's happening across a cohort. And so it's really important if you look um grade three obviously in grade two they don't take an assessment but if we follow the cohort we look at in 2024 um that cohort uh earned a 26% and then in 2025 a grade four cohort now following them the following year earned a 39%. It's always really really important

085when you look at cohort data to recognize the fact that although the group of students did not change marginally there might be a few in or out um but they didn't change but the test itself does right and the content changes and the level of difficulty can also change and so it's it's not apples to apples when we're doing that comparison but we are trying to look to see whether or not we're seeing some trends or things that we can kind of examine and do a deeper dive and also to take a look at whether or not we're seeing that may be traveling across from one base to the next and that's really important to us. So anywhere that you see a black flag that's an area where we've held steady um and anywhere where

086you see a pink flag you can see that there's growth. Um so these numbers in ELA mastery level raised by cohort really show that we're holding strong um and in fact we're improving. So as you remember I talked a little bit about the grade seven ELA score breakdown and the fact that it looked like we had some seen a decrease in that particular year. So anytime we look at that we want to examine where are we in relation to our region and so in comparison to the Suffach County region grade seven that took the same exam right when you look at our numbers what's really remarkable is if you look on the left hand side where you have your level ones and level twos the blue represents Cold Spring Harbor. And if you notice our

087goal in the left on the left hand side for level one or level two is that we want to see small numbers. We want to be less than the region and that's indeed what we see. If you notice our level ones we had 3% right and the Suffach County region grade average was 30%. If you look to the right for level threes and fours we want to see the blue line above the red meaning we're striving to have more level threes and level fours than the region. And indeed that is what we see at 36% for close harbor level three and 39% in level four. A remarkable 39% when the regional average is 22%. So you can see a significant difference in how cold harbor is is um scoring. But anytime that we look at

088regional comparisons and we look at data and trends where our numbers are dropping compared to the prior year, we want to identify through the gap and reports what it is that we can do better. Right? Because we're always tweak any refinements to improve our programming. So, one of the things that we saw was that um our students historically have struggled with readingformational texts. In this particular test, they were working they need to improve on analyzing how individuals, events, and ideas are introduced and how they relate to each other and then are developed over time in the passage. They need to evaluate the development of an argument and specific claims in a text. we'll actually see this trend on evaluating arguments and claims across multiple um grade levels as well as in multiple subject areas. So

089in the grade 8 that same uh cohort that we saw a decrease in in 2025 as compared to 2024 uh you will see that same trend happen on level ones and level twos. Again just a reminder we want to see the blue line which represents spring harbors greatly. We want to see lower numbers than our red bars, right? Which represent the Suffach County region grade. And on the right hand side of the graph in level threes and level fours, we want our blue line to be above the S county averages. And you see that is what we were. And again, what is remarkable is that on level fours we had 55% mastery where the S county region green averages were at 19%. But when we did a deep dive into uh the data, one of

090the things that we saw looking always looking for areas of growth was that we should really uh look to evaluate an argument and specific claims in text. We need to help our students choose and develop criteria in order to evaluate the quality of text. And in literary text, we want them to analyze how the differences between the point of view, perspectives of the characters, the audience or the reader create effects such as mood and tone. And what we know is that mood and tone and and recognizing those in literary text can be a challenge for students. So that brings us to math in our three through eight math mastery level four rates by grade level. What you'll notice is again it's a green flag represent areas where we've seen growth and the red flags represent

091um areas where we saw a decrease. And I really want to draw your attention to the green eight because that is our nonacelerated cohort. If you notice I put our our cohort size was an of 39. Um, so it's our smallest cohort and it's not accelerated and the reason for that is we have a large majority of our students that accelerate in grade 8 to take algebra one. So they are not part of this group. So if you look at again the trends here what we'll see is in grade seven math score breakdown we see that the blue bar representing our cold spring harbor grade seven the red representing our suffic region on the left hand side level ones and level twos with the suffic county average for level 47% close spring harbor had 3%.

092So even though we saw decreases at level at mastery level in close spring harbor and just a reminder mastery is level four. Okay, what we saw is that um overall Cold Spring Harbor's numbers on level twos were were very very low and as well as level ones and we saw our level threes take a huge spike at 56% and our um and our level fours at 33%. And when we look at the data and we look at areas where we could stand for um to bolster or to grow, we can uh focus on using properties of operations to generate equivalent expressions. Solve real life and mathematical problems using numerical and algebraic expressions, equations, inequalities and and draw and construct and describe geometrical figures and describe the relationships between them. And in our car prem down,

093you will see that in 2025 our um our numbers on level ones and level twos again were substantially lower than the regional comparison. Uh and then our level three and level fours were much higher. We want to focus on the our students being able to analyze and solve linear equations and pairs of simultaneous equations to understand the connections between proportional relationships, lines and linear equations and to define, evaluate and compare functions, relationships between a set of inputs and outputs tends to be an area where they show. And again, our math math mastery relates a level four rates by cohort. Then we're tracking the cohort to see whether or not we're seeing a dip in a cohort. So in grade five, we saw a dip from 48% to 42. But again, we're seeing this um this

094odd in 2024 on the test where in in 2023, that same cohort, right, uh earns a 24%. So there was a significant growth in that cohort from 2024. Um the uh the grade A class of 2029, again we we look at this data, but the n is so any slight changes can really alter their overall percentages are. Um, we did see a dip from uh 66% to 33. So, what was interesting is I wanted to take a look at what our proficiency comparisons were in both of these areas. And if you see um for our regional comparison, so our green bar represents Philly Harbor, our light blue bar represents Westside School, our dark blue bar represents the whole district combined. Um and the black bar represents Suffach County and uh the yellow or gold bar

095represents um Nassau County. So if you notice like our regional comparison across the district, we hover around 90 90% which is fantastic. Um and then if you look at the to the rest of the region for our proficiency levels, right? Which is the level threes and fours combined. Um you'll see that we you know outshine the rest of the region both fin and wide. So if you look at 2025 for our math grade eight and remember this is again our small cohort but of that small cohort and those are our nonacelerated group you'll notice that uh they they are operating at level three and fours at 91% master or proficiency level and suffices 32% and mass county so we have a lot to proud so in science we don't have the large look back um

096in data because if you remember in 2024 that was the first year that the grade five science test was launched um in New York City. Um so what I did was I did a comparison between 2024 data and 2025 to examine whether or not we're seeing growth. And when we look at the um the comparison for proficiency, what you'll see is um the the district average of 60% proficiency in 2024 um increased to 73% um in 2025. So again, we're seeing growth and in the second year of a science assessment, an assessment that saw a um a complete reconstruction of the way science was offered in this assessment. This is also a digital assessment uh where students are being given multiple sets of data and they're forced to analyze those data, extrapolate um and make

097claims and provide evidence. Um I really feel like we're seeing remarkable growth and we've taken a lot of steps to address um the development of science across the district. Um for example, this year we increased the um the total box scheduling in science so that um so that the science is now embedded in in the regular classroom. That was something that's relatively new. we're seeing that grade three and four um teachers are teaching science in the curricular day. Uh one of the other things that I just want to remind you of that's unique to the grade five science test is it is a test that covers three grade levels and the test occurs in grade five. So the students themselves are studying science in grades three, four and five across that band and the only

098time we see an assessment is in grade five whereas in the math and the receive an assessment each year. So that's important right for us to to adjust to. And then the the next thing that we're doing is, you know, the students are see are being exposed to more 2D and 3D assessments, more that style and and look like what the terminal assessment is in the K5 science test. And that's a lot of work that we've been doing around district professional development. So the um screen doesn't look like it's showing some of the other other data that that's here. um although it's not here, it may be in your print out, but in the when we look at um when we examine the multiple choice and the constructive response and the overall district averages and

099what we're see what we see um in multiple choice and the constructive response is it really is constructive response that give our students uh the most difficulty that when we look at the multiple choice, our students are well above the the norms and the averages across the region. And when we look at the constructive response, although we still we still sit well above um where the other region is, the overall results are still so low and there's an area for growth. Um so what that tells us is that our students really struggle in uh using language to describe the science that's actually happening in the classroom. Um and that is because the subject area is vocabulary rich because we're exposing them to this language across a three-year band because we're asking them to extrapolate. So

100that goes back to where I talked about informationational tests um and and finding evidence to support claims or developing claims. It's still a skill and it's transcending across not just our um our ELA block across the mathematics and and science where our students the writing the constructing arguments based on evidence is something that we really need to work on. And that's not um that's not unique to Postman Carver. It's a trend that we're seeing across the nation. It's something that you know all districts no matter where where they are are really focused on. And it's about, you know, writing about what you see, right? Engaging in argument, right, about evidence um and providing uh, you know, discourse, right, about um all of things that are going on in the world. Um, and that that transcends

101across all subject are theories, not just science, but really focusing on on the writing tests. So it was two years ago we hired coach um and I see that we improved on ELA master grades grades we've also seen position I was just interested in hearing thoughts on the interplay having that position schools. >> Sure. So I mean I think you know one of the things that we're looking at for red goal is teaching to mastery right and I think you know um some of the things that have been done with regards to coaching is coupling coaching and professional development and I would recommend always to decouple coaching and professional development uh for a couple reasons. One is we have a lot of initiatives going on in the district a lot right and and you know

102one of the goals of the coaching model right is not only to implement some of the new initiatives that are happening and ongoing but also to bridge the gap between what the data is saying and provide um to provide tailored instruction to our students uh using a small group model. Right? So uh to coaches go into classrooms um to guide teachers to connect with what the data is saying about students and to make that in our classroom, right? Not in our additional academic intervention services, but in our regular education classrooms that we're differentiating, right? And what that differentiation should look like and when specific strategies should be um applied and how specific combinations of strategies should be applied to meet the needs of the students within the group. And those those changes and shifts, right,

103are really important when we're looking to um shift, right, uh and move the needle just even in these small tweaks that we're looking look at these, you know, these exemplary scores. We're still looking to reach it and and grow our students and move our level threes to a level four. Um, that coaching model really supports that work. Additionally, one of the things that I want to remind everyone is a lot of the training that that took place when we brought in some of these these new um programs, right? And we added these professional developers because occurred over the past couple years, we've done an enormous amount of hiring across the district, right? So now you have this new incoming and we look forward five years from now. We're going to continue to be hiring. So

104now you have these new incoming teachers that have not necessarily been exposed to that training. So what the coach does now is that they recognize what our modeling is, right? And we model them after those new teachers to make sure that they're continuing, right, with what it is that we believe are the best strategies to meet the needs of our students in that particular cohort in that year based on the data that we're seeing. And that's really really important. And so, you know, I strongly believe in a coaching model. And I think that, you know, we need to advocate to have coaches uh to help us do that work. And the coach, you know, often picks up where the AIS coordinator moves off, right? So, you have this AIS coordinator, they're collecting data, they're doing

105testing, they're managing, you know, benchmarks across time and then they're taking a look at that data and then they also hand it over to the classroom teacher. The classroom teacher and their curricular day have multiple other things that are going on. And so, it's the coach's job to come in and say, "Look, this is the data that we have. Let me what it is that you're teaching to these particular students and let's see what it is that we can implement to make sure that we strengthen our programming. Can I also say that the the work we do and science also because everything all the assessments are so based nowadays remember at the end of last year's about to do biology and earth science and everyone said how concept be able to interpret the information all

106subjects. >> Absolutely. And I kind of alluded to that as I was doing the presentation that you know students when they're readingformational text maybe they're struggling writing about it and providing and finding the evidence inside the information and that's occurring in the data and the evidence that is sitting in science and and is sitting in mathematics equally as it is in in ELA and so the literacy coach helping students to mine through some of the reading challenges and and you know that was you know one of the biggest complaints from from all of the educators in the field of science that implemented the life science biology ology exam here as well as the Earth and Space Science that came you know by the nextG standards, right? It was reading intensive. It was vocabulary rich and

107the students were struggling mining through even what the data was telling them before they even got to the question, right? So, if we can give those students those skills and and harness continue to harness those skills over time, right? We're going to give them a leg up and advantage when they face these these assessments at high school level, which in turn will connect to my next presentation, right? Which is the board of teaching to mastery, right? and through teaching and learning. So at this point I'm gonna hand the floor over to talk a little bit about the high school. >> I just had some questions. >> Oh sure. >> So I'll try to keep it short. Um our comparator is the suffic region. Now we're we're doing this on a geographical basis. As a scientist,

108you know, comparator arms mean everything when you're looking at data. So um I guess on that basis, we don't know whether the suffic weak pool or not. So we can look like all stars, but we're comparing ourselves on a geographic basis. Is that the best way in your mind to look at this data or should we be comparing it on a different basis where there's no way to do that? >> So right now I when I look at the 2025 uh data you will see that I did pull wherever it was possible the NASA data which I think is a stronger pool which is why I put it there when we had availability for that NASA data. One of the things that I would say is you know NASA and Suffach County are the leaders

109in the state comparing us to the state averages actually with I mean this the graph more remarkable than than what it looks like to be honest. Um but you know Nassau and Suffach County are known Long Island is a leader right in education in all these areas. Um but Suffach County will be the stronger of the two. So whenever possible I pull that Suffach County data. Um in terms of the state averages for New York State for many of the new assessments they haven't released all of that yet. Um but as soon as we do we can look. My guess is that we're substantially above what the state the past few years we've asked superintendent curriculum to show us the data from the compare ourselves to >> okay >> so yeah so what I what

110I can also say is that you know as a as a leader in the field you know whether it's science or math or you know any of these things. We have conversations with district level coordinators and so we do talk to the leading districts. It's not data that I I put up together for this particular presentation but we were we were a leader in the pack of of all of the these scores. Um there was nothing that looked like an anomaly where we fell, you know, substantially short um in any of these these areas. So there was nothing that I was concerned about with regards to when I had the conversations with some of the districts that we'll talk about in my next presentation. And then most of these are below 50 on an absolute

111basis for mastery. Is that >> what >> mastery is the highest level that you can possibly get? >> But what what what's our goal? Um I'm not saying they should be 78. I'm just saying what's a great number for us to achieve. I mean some are at 32, some some ones at 55. Um what what should we strive to do realistically in the district to achieve? >> I mean I think we're right there. I mean we're talking about small tweaks. Of course everyone would shoot for you know 50% mastery but you know from year from cohort to cohort it may be slightly different. Um I think we're hovering right around what the what our you know what would be considered stellar. Um so you know there are small and minor tweaks that we might want

112to make in specific uh grade levels at certain you know certain topics and key skills. Um but I I don't think that there's anything here you know concerning and you know I think there are numbers that are you know we're well above in most areas and when you think about proficiency um there's no concerns at all. But we when would we get the data when we compare ourselves to other districts that we're trying to um benchmark ourselves against? >> It's usually around December when all when all of that gets released. So, you know, we wouldn't have that right now. It's pretty early for that. I mean, if that was just on embargo and in early October, so we don't have that and other districts aren't reporting on our squares equally. So, >> all right. Very

113good. >> I just wanted to say I love seeing it this way. is really really helpful. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Thank you. >> So, as as Kim said, if you remember the last couple years we've done this presentation, we went kind of test by test and show those scatter plots where we compared ourselves almost item analysis uh to to the region in S County. Um you know, having done this now a couple years, we we decided to shift the formatvious obviously through that lens of mastery. Uh but then really kind of taking a little bit of a contextual understanding of what we do with the data when we receive it. Um so when we look at regions examinations and we look at mastery trends in the regions examination, two things worth pointing out. Um

114I know when you first look at it might look like ELA was hit, but as a reminder we did offer the ELA regions to a slight cohort of students in January. So you really have to add the January and June numbers together. uh in the January and June numbers total 95% of our students achieving mastery. Uh in fact on the ELA regions I believe the average score was an 87. So the average score was above what the state benchmarks for mastery. Um areas that we have been looking at global history last year and the fourth year of its new framework and US history in the third year. um you know what we use with that data when we see those numbers and we want to see those numbers grow uh we dive into what the

115reports tell us which is in global history unresolved global conflict 1914 to 1945 decolonization and modernization vers tradition and the cold war were areas that our students struggled in US history the post civil war area 1865 through 1900 industrialization and urbanization the rise of American power and the cold war era are all areas that our students struggle so when we look got recommendations. Now that we have this data, what we sit down and work on with our staff, we focus our interventions on mastery teaching on specific content standards and historical thinking skills where these gaps identify, right? So, we always look at it performance gaps, where did our students not do as well as we would like them and opportunity gaps, where did our students do well, but they can still do a little bit

116better. Um and really what what the focus is on in the step is prioritizing scaffolding of complex multiart and essay style questions especially where students struggle to connect the content across themes and that's that's a problem that we've now seen on repeat examination. So that is an area that we are specifically addressing in our professional learning. When we go through um you'll see a lot more colors on this slide um and I'll explain what some of those colors are. So you see algebra 1 flagged for 2024, geometry flagged for 2025, and life science biology flag for 2025. Those are the first years of the new administrations in accordance with the next generation learning standards. Um and obviously the one that stands out the most is life sciences biology. Um when we overall look at the

117region, a very small number of students regionwide. Uh the number scares me, but I think somewhere in the range of 4,000 students across Suffach County took the life science and biology examination. 90% of our students passed it. Um 11% mastered. And when we look at the 11% mastery, we need to understand why 11% mastery 90% passing. And there's a number of factors that go into that. Perhaps the single biggest factor is the structure of the examination and having never seen it. A transition year where our staff has never seen what the state examination will look like can cause tremendous test anxiety. It can cause problems for our students as they sit down and try to answer each question. And what I mean by that is you have specific data sets that you now need to

118use to answer groupings of six, seven, eight questions. And some of those have three and four answers to each question. And you need to get all three and four correct in order to get full credit on the question. So it's a truly a different type of examination that our students would be taking. When we talk about it, we talk about the shift to the new standards. Uh particularly in the life sciences biology, a transition year shows an assessment date. That's not uncommon. That is something we could probably go back every single time the state has updated a curriculum or state examination. See that in that transition year, you find an assessment. Um and it's not necessarily because student learning has weakened. It's because the bar has shifted and the bar on how they're being assessed

119or what they're being assessed on is where it's shifted. The mastery rate mastery rate overall remains relatively strong in the year when the state changed what is measured and how it's measured. Right? That was a big adjustment. And and just to give a little bit of context with that, we offered the region review courses over the summer and I thank the board for their support in in in approving our staff members come in over the summer to offer this. We had 13 students who either failed or wanted to improve their score for the biology reasons examination. Out of those 13 students who attended the review sessions, 11 of them either improve their score or pass the exam. So we saw a tremendous right even just at one time having seen the exam the comfort level

120with the type of questions that they were going to be asking and a really a huge benefit for them now because many of those students are now moving into the earth and space science exam which is in its first year here for us in gold spring. So, um, when we dive into specifically the biology exam, and and I I don't want to spend too much time about one exam, but obviously when anybody looks at this, that's the one number that's going to stand out because they're going to see the 11% mastery. So, we look at the different conceptual areas that are covered on the 2025 biology exam. That is the first that was based fully on next generation learning standards. So, matter and energy and organisms and ecosystems, our mastery trend was mixed. We range

121between 25% and 79% on those questions. Our inheritance and variation of traits 64 to 80% relatively strong mastery on recall based items, but we did see a dip on application based items. So that's we see an area of data that allows us to go back and work with our teachers on targeted professional learning. We talk about structure and function relatively moderate to strong mastery rates hovering around 70%. We talk about the interdependent relationships and ecosystems, a highly variable area. So, it's an important conversation for us to have with all of the teachers who taught the course. We saw mastery rates between 19 and 81%. So, let's sit down and go through item analysis and find out the 81% just how did they receive this material? How was it constructed? Do we have that that horizontal

122alignment between the individual classrooms that are teaching these concepts? Our natural selection evolution unit very strong, you know, 70 to 80% mastery on those and our engineering and design application relatively strong between 60 and 85% mastery. So when we talk about taking the 2025 um life sciences biology we talk about mastery in terms of mastery teaching being a concept and a depth of understanding not necessarily a score. score is a nice byproduct on that examination. But truly, when we talk about teaching to mastery, we're talking about ensuring students can apply what they have learned in new and complex situations. And that's what those data sets are pushing the students to do. They're pushing students to take the information that might seem completely unrelated and be able to apply them in a different scenario. And as

123our teachers have had a chance to dive into that a little bit more, we're obviously refining the way that material is delivered. Um, we also just want to Keep in mind uh when we talk about um teaching to mastery, our goal always is centered on the student. And when we talk about centering around the student, we talk about mastering concepts. We're talking about retaining concepts. We're talking about connecting those concepts across disciplines which if we look at some of our weaknesses on other content areas what might seem completely unrelated STEM constructed responses and and essay writing in the humanities they are directly connected because Adam de Monoserero pointed out they are extremely reading intensive prompts and they require students to take a tremendous amount of background information and connect them across the content areas. So

124when we talk about it, we're not talking well, I guess the the the test score is a a good a great byproduct and example of mastery learning. We're talking about emphasizing it's not about necessarily just chasing a higher test score. We want it to be about deepening the learning for every student. We want the teachers to feel confident that every student in their class has mastered that content before they move on, not just move along in order to take off box and say we got through the curriculum. because if we change that approach and we make that the focus the natural byproduct of that as you will see test scores naturally rise. So we dive into our AP exams uh and again um I I will start by saying I know the lens is through

125mastery but I would be remiss and I would be um you know inaccurate if I didn't say I was tremendously proud of the instructional staff based on last year's results. 86% of our students who took AP exams scored threes or higher, which is the highest percentage of threes and higher in over a decade. Um, and I think that is a testament to the work that goes on every single day in our classes. Um, there were some some traditional or or sorry, some uh intentional shifts that we made um that I'll dive a little bit into as we go a little bit further. But when we look at mastery rates exam, we have always this data with respect to uh how we three and three and higher. So when we talk about mastery, the numbers might

126look a little lower, but we are talking specifically about all of our students who score four or five. Um and and in in in actuality, the mastery rates that you see on this on this slide and the ensuing slide, um there there is a tremendous amount that we should be proud of as a school community. Um, when we talk about exceeding national mastery scores, so exceeding fours and fives across the United States of America, physics one, physics C mechanics, art history, AP L, AP L, AP world history, AP human geography, AP macroeconomics, AP research, AP seminar, AP computer science principles, AP computer science A, AP pre-calculus, AP calculus AB, and AP Calculus BC. In every single one of those exams, we exceed the national average in our school community which we are a school community

127with a limited number of students and we are producing results like that. So that is a testament to the work that is is done on a daily basis and and when we look at the the national mastery rates in areas where we are I'll say negligible with the national average uh in AP chemistry we're talking about a 3 percentage point difference in AP US government politics a 1 percentage point difference AP US history a three point percentage point difference and AP psychology a 2 percentage point difference. Now that's not to say we don't identify patterns and we don't identify performance gaps and we don't identify opportunity gaps. We absolutely do. But when we look at these numbers we want to focus on how can we shift from the twos and the threes to the threes

128and the fours. How can we bring those students the 86% of our students who took an exam this year and scored three or higher. What's worked well for them? How do we take that three or higher? We make that a four. we make that a five for those students. Um, and it I will say um already having the conversations with Mr. Latini about our our AP collegial circles which our staff have found incredibly beneficial given the space and time for our staff to engage in this work with professionals from across the region across Long Island. Um, and it's it's a really a great opportunity. An area that I I want to highlight um is AP biology. And AP Biology is one that we've talked about um over the last couple of years in terms of

129our performance and our performance slipping. Um if you look at our AP biology scores, you will notice um tremendous growth. 91% of our students score threes or higher on AP biology. That is a a targeted intervention that was made with the hopes of improving student outcomes. And I will say is even though the overall district cohort was low, we only had one section of AP biology last year. The results were fantastic. So what do we do? We focus on those threes and those fours. How do we get them to move up? Uh this year we're back up to two sections of AP biology. So you know we see that eb and flow in in the number of sections from time to time. Um but and I want to point out that that tremendous credit to

130the instructional staff member first year teaching the course and she produced results like that. Massive massive compliments for the instructional staff member Mrs. Walcott who was able to take this and really bring it to the next level. Um when we look at uh AP biology and let's just take a step back from not only our performance at 91% of our students scoring threes or higher on this uh when we compare that to the national average uh or sorry the New York average 73% of New York scores 73 or uh 73% scores three or higher and when we talk about across the globe 70%. So 93% 23% um shift right a plus 23 change in our AP biology results which is part of reason So I wanted to put that out there. AP Physics one um

131AP Physics 1 the AP Physics and AP Statistics National Trends those numbers are low. Mastery rate in AP Physics and AP Statistics across the United States of America. It is clearly evident that this is a concept that our students in this country struggle with. AP Physics 1, 84% of our students scored threes or higher on the exam. 79% in New York and 67% across the globe. So again, something we want to highlight. AP world history. If we look at AP world history, we see a tremendous increase in the number of students performing at level four. The reason that's important is not only to celebrate the work that's done in world history. The reason that's important is because hey, how did you get those students from three to four? How can we magnify that and repeat

132that in other areas? How can we do that in US history? How can we do that in European history? They follow a similar format in the exam. So, what do our students do so well in world history that we can replicate in other content areas within humanities? Again, um we look at at AP World History, we're talking about 86.7% of our students scored three or higher. That's compared to 72% in the state of New York and just 64% across the country. When we look at our math scores, AB calculus AB again we see a really nice bell curve here where we see on the left hand side we are lower and on the right hand side we are far higher. If you look at our five AP calculus AB compared to ourselves in years past

133is tremendously tremendously more impactful, right? Our students have achieved tremendously in this course over the last couple of years. And again comparing to national and New York global and New York state averages well above AP language composition. I feel like we talk about AP language and AP literature every year. How do we not when we look at the performance of our students in these in these areas very low numbers in the ones zeros in the ones very low numbers in the twos and massive numbers in the threes the fours and the fives. In fact, 97.3% of the students who took this exam scored threes or higher. That's compared to 74% in the state of New York and 74% globally. So, all great things to celebrate. Not saying there aren't areas that we need to identify

134and those conversations have already started. And some of the ways that we identify that is we target specifically what courses we want to see our AP collegial circles bringing in staff members. what what areas we want to see our educators learning from other educators who are teaching the same material. Um but again I would be remiss if I didn't point out some of the strength in the performance of our students last year. >> And then Mini can correct me if I'm wrong. The remainder of the presentation dives deeper into proficiency numbers but that is there for anformational purpose for sharing with the public. >> I have a question. So my question is about progression of when you take certain classes as you progress through high school. Do you follow a similar format to schools all

135that for an example? for the most part with the schools that we always like to kind of cluster ourselves with and look we follow a very similar pattern. I will say world history and European history I I have seen interchanged um and I think I've talked about European in in previous years presentations. I do know some schools will not offer AP European and 10th grade. They will push that off and they will offer it in your 11th or 12th grade as a truly elective course for students who are passionate just about the European history component. Um but for the most part the schools that that we like to cluster ourselves with we follow a similar >> you mentioned um possible learning from use the example if you um do you have an example of something

136or is this prospective something again that that is purely contextual explanation of why we do the data values that we do and the data val we are not meant to be done just to give a presentation, right? Those data now drive down to staff meetings. They drive to department meetings. They sit down with teachers who go over to instructional planning reports that they get from the college board where they can see where their students perform very well. And then it's giving the staff members the time and the space to engage in that work. You know, Dr. Andrews, if you were a history teacher, your students did really well here. How how'd you do it? How did you teach it? Did you do something outside the box? Did you try something different? Right? I mean, we

137are again, we're talking about talking about something with tremendous independent variables for students, right? But we still can identify practices that have been done in the classroom that may have impact. Can I ask a more pointed question? Do you have any information or feeling about like the amount of inclass prep or outside class prep that goes in and you know I know different teachers have different approaches. I know the math and science department spent a lot of time like you see any correlations about that? >> I wouldn't say direct correlations. You know, all of our teachers do do AP prep, right? I know last year there were some departments that had much more of a presence in the 2hour after school AP preps, but there are some of our strongest results this year were not

138necessarily courses that had those twohour outside of school day AP preps. Right? So that that's a little bit of reflection on the structure of that classroom over the course of the entire year. Understanding that the work you're doing longitudinally is to prepare you for this exam while not necessarily focusing just on review sessions after school. C >> can I also add that in ELA and social studies many of the KP exams also prep at the same time. So two courses just exam. So it is a unique situation for >> I would also like to congratulate Mr. Schneider who was our >> AP physics one teacher >> wasn't intentional I promise thank you >> Mr. Dusk you mentioned how the extra review helpful that that we supplement it. Is that something we should continue to do

139um in a more formal basis in general? I mean, I I don't I don't ever see a downside to offering extra opportunities to prepare students, right? Even if it's just a simulated testing environment, right, where you have a two-hour block of window where we're going to take a short answer portion of the AP exam for a prior year, so you can understand the pacing, the type of reading that you have to do. I I will never see a downside to that. So, I would say, yeah, it is a project. It is a a thing you should consider. >> Will you make a recommendation to the board for us to review? >> Sure. We are we are currently offering a review sessions each quarter now that we're in the process of doing that and we'll be

140sending out some information to students to sign up for those. >> Okay. So that's that's new and incremental from what we used to do. >> No, I think we two or three years a couple years now, >> right? And then we do for all AP regions multiple regions at the end very specific but it's not for do >> you very much so we're up to our board tools update But it's 10:30 ready and westside students suggest we try to get some sleep tonight. So, I was going to recommend or suggest that we move this. We have a work session >> next week that a little bit shorter in time. That's okay. Yes. >> And then we are going to move on to committee reports. Oh yes. >> Policy professional development. >> Everybody I'll talk about

141professional development. On October 7th, the professional development committee co-chared by Mr. Martini and Mr. Taylor to discuss professional development opportunities for our staff. Together, the group reviewed the district professional development plan, made updates to the 2526 school year, and reviewed the ongoing initiatives around the district. Principles and directors had the opportunity to share initiatives and goals. The group examined the most recent staff surveys on the quest for professional development. Ideas for future professional development were shared. The next meeting will focus on categorizing the staff surveys for the past two years and prioritizing the professional development for the remainder of the year. >> Policy. >> Yeah, policy. Uh this will be quick. Um first thing, um it's good to mention that we do as the polic set out the full year. It's a very active committee.

142So we schedule 12 and 14 meetings for the rest of the year. Um within those meetings, we have to go through certain mandatory reviews changes recommended certain policies like purchasing and some others. Uh and we also have other policies that we want to tackle based on your own board's view that are coming up. We did uh have updates to two policies that are on tonight's agenda for street. Um one was around purchasing and we're updating the policy to reflect change in the assistant superintendent of business but also we're improving it because we used to refer to people who had authority make purchasing decisions by that refer to my position and those things are always meeting. Uh the second one is we have a policy on credit card usage which is really controlled around and who

143in the district can have credit card. So we would Yeah, I I can I'm the new guy on the health and safety committee, but pretty active meeting. Then we had audit right after. So, just committee day, but um we we went through a number of the security improvements that have been planned and and implemented um including the awareness pendants that old staff have available to um instantly notify in the event of an emergency. Um we talked about the additional cameras that have been installed um around the field campus of the high school um including additional Wi-Fi extension and um now all schools have completed the installation of license readers and so we now scan vehicles campus. Um, we also have an update about the completion fencing project which you saw. Um, and I think everybody,

144thank you to the, uh, building the building principles who attended the meeting. We got very positive feedback about that particular site. I think there was a lot of concern about um, the safety of the children without certain fencing. Um, and also a big component meeting. We've had law enforcement from Nassau and Suffach County and Homeland details. So that was good and we talked about future activities to work together. >> Um no good Mr. Smith thank you lot knocking the to-do list off one two three new radios new uniforms um were staffed. I believe it had full um cameras, the radios, the gates, the signage, bringing in um agencies to uh familiarize themselves with the school, the AEDs. We need I think some more, right? Um so we we might have to the board um I

145don't know if it rises to the threshold, but we might need to have that discussion. And we have our annual fire inspection coming up. Um so that's to be um coming up I believe next week and that's it. We're going to have new signage in the hallways. Make it easier for first responders and that's did excellent job. team's doing. >> All we did was all we did we went through in detail in the audit report and spent a lot of time understanding detailed items that were in there. And one of the items is >> give us an update on the capital improvements and facilities. >> Yes, ma'am. Um we are very fortunate in having had members of the community apply to serve on whose chart is no more than five. We have chosen four people

146to fill those spots because of their extensive experience and connection with the school and their particular skills. I am sure an excellent compliment to the three board members. Those community members are Joe Boston. Right. We will now continue with our first audience to visitors harbor board of education and administration welcome your attendance at board of meetings. Audience public affords residents an opportunity to address the board of education on both agenda and agenda items. Each resident is allowed to speak for three minutes. This is not a form to discuss student or staff specific issues. Please contact the district sepately on these. All right. We now move to the approval of minutes on page two. September 9, 2025 minutes. Bill, you are absent. Um can I have a first? Lisa second. Alex, any questions? All in favor?

147Now move to personnel recommendations of the superintendent. We will take the leaves and resignations on page two through three as a slate. Hannah first, Lisa the second. Any questions? All in favor? take all appointments on page 3 to 11 as a slate. >> Miss Young, can I just recognize Miss Bigalow who is Mr. Nusky's secretary who has put in her uh retirement letter after many years of service in the district. So, we just want to acknowledge her. He'll be retiring at the end of November. And we have the appointment of Mr. Thomas. >> Yes, I was gonna get >> Oh, sorry. >> Yes. We would like to u congratulate uh Mr. Thompson who is being appointed tonight as our technology teacher at a teacher. Everyone else All right. So, we'll take all appointments on pages

1483 through 11 as I have first Alex. Any questions? All in favor? Business recommendations. We will take donations. orders and budgets. Please order first Bruce the second. Any questions? All in favor? >> Um I just want to recognize Linda Gerber is donating a fish tank to our >> Yes. This was It wasn't last year. >> I just want to thank the um educational foundation journal club. It's an opportunity for our students uh to engage with the laboratory scientists for some of the laboratories and explore research journals at a higher level. So its tax data from that information. feel like it's going to add to both of our research program and students questions comments all additional business matters first questions I have a question. Um the additional amount of 583269. So I clicked on the PDF,

149the document came up. Um no idea how to read this. Explain what that amount is. >> Where are you? >> Number A. I'm sorry. Number eight. Letter A. Change order. I guess that's seven. You can do that on the last one. >> Oh, >> if you want me to explain it right now. Yeah, >> it says add 5830 to 69. So that's it says deduct 100,000 add 15,000 add. So what happened was we had this is one of those cases where we had an allowance that we would have received back from the contractor but there was additional work that needed to be done in the marine laboral work that to hold $15,000. We used $9,168 of the allowance and the balance is an increase in the contract amount to Rally in the amount of 5,832.

150>> Okay. So, the allowance used is 9168, >> right? We drained the rest of the allowance that was the 9168 and had to increase the overall contract with this contractor by 5832 in order to complete the electrical work in the marine lab. So the full allowance that was left on that job was 9168. >> That's correct. So the original allowance was higher. >> The original allowance was think was 100,000 but I'm not sure. >> Okay. So the original was 100. It got used up down to >> 9168 which wasn't and then you needed uh so you need an additional 15,000. >> Correct. Okay. And this is exactly what I'm talking about. So allowances are for unforeseen issues. When you design a project, you speck in the cost of electric, the cost of tanks, the cost

151of everything. So if you run and open a wall up and oh, there's a specus in there. That's when the allowance gets. And this is basically the design. was totally mis uh it it was either mispriced or they didn't understand they didn't do an original design that was I guess effective right had to get redone >> it could have been a variety of things including the fact that we may have asked the electrical contractor to do additional work that would have been much less expensive to have him do while he was on a job than to go out for another contract with another contractor. That could be one explanation. Another explanation could be that there were discovered conditions in the electrical work that needed to be repaired and were not contemplated in the original plans

152and specs. We could get more specific You know, that's exactly what I'm I'm looking for is if if the original design was not complete and it had holes in it and then they're coming back now, we need another 100,000, you know, that that's that's a problem. um if you're telling me problems arise that were unforeseeable that's you know sure more sympathetic to that but >> so I can speak to a little bit of the work that was done in there when we looked at the racks um one of the things that we wanted to do was maximize the total number of quad outlets that were available for each of the fish tanks but not only for the existing fish tanks that we installed but also additional lighting and other things that we saw for future

153growth. Um one of the things about this students are driving what's happening inside this research space. We wanted to make sure that we could accommodate any of the students ideas for projects moving forward. We didn't want to limit ourselves in terms of just minimal amount of out outlets that were available and wanted to make sure that should there be any upgrades moving forward that we could account for that. U based on the few people that have come in uh in response to the RFP that we put out uh for the future work and the plumbing and the uh the the tanks, one of the things that they remarked on was the fact that we had plenty of electrical availability um in this space to accommodate a lot of our needs moving forward. >> And if

154you look at the document, it shows a lot of this stuff was completed three four years ago. I can speak specifically because of my I was involved in technology and it was something that was truly missed by the architect. We wrote for the new science wing there was not a connection going back to our MDF where fiber network comes in there wasn't a piece of connecting to two locations was absolutely missed by the architect so we're doing this like it had to be done and you see on here the cost was about $4,000 I'm estimating cost but that needed to be done so that it was definitely missed but most of this work other than we just talked about with the land was done Okay. And it says here rec staircase to the fitness center.

155Um $3,600. I don't know that four years ago. >> So these are Okay. These are old old fixes. And some of this has the wet lab in it. >> The last part was >> the last part. The last Okay. It's so confusing. >> Yeah. This is where we get confused. I thought we approve changes and the work gets done. It sounds like the work gets done. >> We had put in I think it was September. We got the quote back from the contract September. That's different. You were saying it was done. Oh, these these other things are stuff that was completed when the the fitness set was that was I I say assume four years ago I don't know I can't say but >> no fault of yours by change so we'll take it up

156in the future I believe I had a first matter on page 17. Anyone have any questions on all move to special education reports contracts and cseps approval on pages on page 17 as second. Lisa, any questions? All in favor? Now we move to other matters. Any questions? We have two policies on first. >> Any questions? >> I'm sorry. I have a motion to question. Would you like me to read the resolution for the record? >> Sure. >> Resolved that the board of education approve the proposal from Mark Design Studios Architecture PC in response to our RFP to serve as the school district architect effective October 15, 2025. That res all in favors on page. These reports are purposes. No vote is necessary. Will answer any questions from the board of education public. Feel free to

157call this office. We now audience. Anybody like to speak? >> Hi everyone. I'm Laura Simon. I have three kids in the district and I'm a teacher locally moving here. Um I just I want to say thank you for all of you all everything that you all do this very hour. I'm not going to take time. I just wanted to speak about a couple things. being that I wanted to um voice my concern about the lack of contract with the teachers currently and some other um people and staff in the district as well. And I know before I came to the district and in the first year there was some admin turnover and some other staffing turnover. And I think I have been very pleased and very happy and supportive of my students um in the

158district so far. And I just know as a teacher myself sometimes really disheartening to be in a culture where there's those that unlock between different groups. I have not felt that as a parent in the district at all and I and everyone for being part of that and that I have with my students and I just want to ensure I'm advocating for the teachers and advocating for my students and trying to encourage um a resolution to this so that it can be a more positive environment for everyone in the district. Um, I also wanted to commend you all on being ahead of the curve with the tech stuff last year before it all came about as New York State. Well, this year is coming from California. You were ahead of them as well I was

159at and even such you talked about iPhones and computers and stuff, but even at the high school high level, how you locked down YouTube last year, whether it's this year and other things when you know my kids would be saying that kids were then being on their Chromebooks and doing this and that and I was like, "Oh, now they took that away." I was like, "Thank God." So, thank you for all that you're doing around that. You're ahead of the curve across the country and at different districts within around the district. So, thank you for that. And the wet lab is phenomenal. I'm so excited to be a district that has that and our resources being in the harbor and bringing that into their space here and being so close to the lab. So, there's

160so many amazing things we do here and I want to make sure that everyone feels that around the district and that community and culture within helps encourage everyone. So that's why I'm also encouraging that the teacher contracts and other contracts come to a thank you so much. So this second discussion section of our agenda open any other discussion items. Can I have a motion to second? Any questions on this? All in favor? series turn.