001thing the board has just commenced the reorganizational meeting and will now transition to the business agenda can I have a motion to open the business meeting Tammy Lisa all in favor okay um as vice president of the board I have some updates to share thank you to everyone for joining us tonight the summer days are moving quickly as our teachers are working on curriculum writing and our administrators are preparing for another school year for those of you who are unable to attend our recent July 6 Board of Education meeting a unanimous decision was reached by our board to Grant an exception to the current class size guidelines for our upcoming 5th grade class adding another fifth grade section to both Lloyd Harbor and west side during that same discussion the board further recommended while we
002are in the process of gathering information pertaining to the board's class size guidelines that additional classes be added over this summer if a section in our elementary schools reaches 25 students tonight during the discussion portion of our agenda we will continue this examination of the current class size guidelines the purpose of the discussion portion of this meeting is for a dialogue to take place between members of this board during this time the board members May gather information and enter into deliberations as it is a discussion only amongst board members we are unable to respond to questions and comments during the course of this discussion the guidelines limiting public comments during this discussion are in place so the public can clearly hear these deliberations not because the board members do not value your input we recognize
003these limitations may be a point of frustration for the audience as they are often a point of frustration to the board members themselves knowing you likely will have valuable contributions and questions to share throughout the course of our discussion while we cannot open this portion of the meeting to include members of the public I would like to make a motion that we reopen our public comments session at the close of the board's discussion on class sizes to ensure that you may share any thoughts or questions that have come to mind while the board is speaking I would like the audience and board to keep in mind that we do have a section titled audience to visitors which comes after I believe the superintendent's report and during that members of the audience are still welcome to
004step up to the podium and comment on agenda and non-agenda items the public comment section at the close of the board's discussion on class size would be in addition to this one that's already part of the agenda so that being said I would like to make a motion for that public comment section to come at the end of that discussion ocean bill Bruce discussion so I I'd like to see that public comments section come on all of our agendas going forward not just with respect to class size I think it's important to have an opportunity for the public to speak to us both at the beginning of the meetings and at the end of the meetings because I think that folks start to think of things as the meetings are going on and so I'd
005like that to be a permanent agenda item at the end of our meetings and not just for tonight would you like it at the end of all meetings or just when there is a board discussion that is all meetings every public meeting that we've just calendared in the organizational meeting our monthly public meetings for the public to be able to speak twice fine with that and anybody else want to weigh in okay great all right so that's the stuff I'm bending the motion oh amending to make it forward basis on every agenda all right so could I take uh should I make an emotion on that no she amended the motion okay now just take a vote on the amended motion all right so I'd like to take a vote on this amended motion all
006in favor all right great all right so moving on to the superintendent's report hi good evening everybody thank you for coming I just have a couple of updates so we have much to celebrate with respect to our students achievements on the 2023 both the Regents and AP exams I have sent out the Regents results in our Harbor highlight the last week of school and then we just received our AP results which I'll be sending out to the community as well but with regards to the region scores all of the average region scores increased from those of the 2022 school year with the exception of ela and French a which remained relatively the same so the others all increased and those remain the same I think it's important to note that the ELA Regions exam continues
007to be a standout for Cold Spring Harbor with a hundred percent pass rate again and the highest Mastery rate amongst all of our other courses nearly all Pass rates represent an increase from prior school years with noticeable gains for a living environment algebra to geometry and chemistry and even with the gains made in the Pass rates of geometry in algebra 2. we still recognize that we need to move the needle a little bit more with respect to some of our Mastery rates so we'll be spending some time with our teachers on superintendent's conference day unpacking these Regents results Mr dambusky in the fall always speaks to really the reports that we receive through the data portal and through BOCES and the information that he gleans from that and then the conversations that happen within the
008Departments but our Mastery rates which are scoring 85 and above are also up from 2020-22 in living environment or science chemistry Algebra 1 Ela global history Spanish a Spanish B and French B so again I just want to give a shout out to our teachers and most importantly our students for their performance on these exams not only are they up but incredible gains have been made with respect to Mastery and again I know we have some teachers here tonight thank you for joining us and we have one of our English teachers who can be very proud of these results so thank you this is playing it's nice to see you here in the summertime um and I know you're doing some work with us over the summer so thank you um so I also wanted
009to share some other information which I said that AP exam data isn't out uh hasn't been shared yet but we have much much to celebrate with respect to our students achievement on the 2023 AP exams there has been growth in the proficiency rates 20 out of 27 exams increase that's a 74 increase in subjects to those compared to last school year significant gains have been made in European history biology physics 2 U.S history psychology economics chemistry Human Geography environmental science and Calculus BC I know Tammy your daughter uh received a very high score on calculus PC but she's going to love that you just yeah is this recorded no um but in terms of you know she's saying that some of the students I think everyone got a five so we really perform really well
010in that area um we recognize that there are a few exams where we did fall short and further analysis of course will always be needed and while we made significant gains um you know we really are proud of the results but come the fall again the teachers are going to work with the department leaders to explore the AP data in some cases I know this may seem hard to believe but we increased 100 in some of these exams um I'm not going to do the spoilers I think when people see the the exams and and the results they'll be quite impressed but it's also important to note other role our results this year represent an 11 percentage Point increase compared to pre-pandemic Performance so we're not even taking you know where we've had students experience
011the learning loss but 11 percent increase since that time so again tremendous gains and you know when you see some of the data I want everybody to be mindful that in 2020 which we did perform at the 79 proficiency rate at that point in time those exams were abbreviated and they were taken from home at that point in time due to the pandemic you know in the spring of 2020. but we are thankful for the efforts of our teachers and supporting the students throughout this school year their perseverance and pushing student thinking and utilizing the additional review sessions to Target specific areas of need continue to demonstrate their commitment to Excellence here in Cold Spring Harbor I do want to I know we've spoken about our AP collegial circles this year and you know why
012I can't specifically say that this you know there is a correlation here but I think it's really important to say that Mr damboski Mrs lagatuda Mrs Moser and Dr schlendorf for assisting and creating those AP collegial circles and setting up those conversations we had four days of conversations with 36 school districts across the island 101 teachers it was supposed to start out with some of the people in our Western Suffolk cohort near Nassau superintendent's cohort that I that I meet with and it really just expanded and I know Mr jamboski is here tonight and would certainly put his hand up to continue those conversations Mrs Glenn participated in them and it was just a great experience to share best practices among school districts so again I it's a credit to the entire culturing Harbor School
013District the teachers who attended and really gave their time I know you know Marty Colucci retired this year but he said it was one of the best professional development sessions he attended in his career and you know offered to come back but what was really quite impressive was his ability to give back to some of the newer teachers who were sitting at the table in these conversations so again we're going to continue that kind of work again kudos to our students they work really hard and we you know we talk about how many exams they take if you saw the Newsday results our school district is highest in Suffolk County in taking the number of AP exam I think we're number two across the whole island in a number of exams taken again you know
014we want to look at that data to move our ones to twos our twos to threes and really trying to increase those performance results across the board but a lot to celebrate and again congratulations to our students on their performance um something very serious to share we've been talking about the CVA cases that the litigation that the district has experienced with regard to the child victims act at our last board meeting I shared a statement on a regular board meeting at the end of June I shared a statement in terms of where we are with this litigation I have a follow-up statement to share and then just some conversations with the board in terms of possible next steps so as a follow-up to the June 13th Board of Education meeting I wanted to update you
015on the development since the last board meeting concerning the two lawsuits brought against the district regarding allegations of sexual abuse of two students by teachers from some 40 years ago as I mentioned at that time New York's enactment in August of 2020 of the child victims act reopened and extended the statute of limitations to permit to permit those claiming to have been victims of childhood sexual sexual abuse to bring lawsuits against the alleged perpetrators and the institutions that employed them regardless of how long ago the abuse was alleged to have occurred then Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the legislation extending the time limit for filing lawsuits to August 14th of 2021. this reopening extension of the statute of limitations explains the timing of the claims brought against Cold Spring Harbor based on actions alleged to have
016occurred decades ago many districts on Long Island and across New York state that have faced such lawsuits you know have been in these discussions I've been discussing these lawsuits with my colleagues in other districts and there are many many districts across Long Island facing these situations as in other districts we have worked with our Board of Education and legal counsel to conscientiously resolve these matters in the best interest of the district and its constituents we take the allegations very seriously and are sympathetic to these former students and I have personally met these former students we also recognize Our obligation to current and future students and the community and are working diligently to resolve these matters in a way that recognizes both what the former students say they experienced as well as our overriding responsibility to
017properly fund school programs for current and future students we have been working closely with multiple law firms to ensure we best protect the district's interests at this point in time we are in the final stages of settling these matters with each of these two former students and their attorneys at the advice of our Council we are not able to provide details yet at this time while a number of issues are subject to confidentiality at this point I can promise you we will share further information at the appropriate time we are actively working with our legal counsel to ensure our insurance carriers Who provided courage during these time periods in question assume their obligations to minimize Financial impacts to the district when any Agreements are finalized the Board of Education will need to officially approve these
018agreements and likely we'll need to call a special meeting and that special meeting could occur this summer when the allegations raised in these laws while the allegations raised in these lawsuits are concerning rest assured that we have policies and procedures in place to prevent any such occurrences in the future our teachers undergo training and will continue to do so and we are also expanding upon our current student training and and our Anonymous reporting systems once again I want to thank you in advance for your understanding and patience as we work through this unprecedented challenge um so again I just want to reiterate that you know should further information become available which I expect should occur this summer we may need to recall a special meeting because our next board meeting is until August 23rd and
019again we will certainly notice the community at an appropriate time um I do want to thank our administrators who are here tonight we have some of our principals here and we have one of our new assistant principal uh our new stem director Mr Brian Taylor joining us Brian if you just put your hand up he's on the agenda tonight to be appointed so our administrators over the past two days have been locked in this board room here for a Leadership Retreat kind of recapping the school year celebrating the successes and then working on some of the challenges that we Face we're working through some strategic plans and some goal setting so we're really excited believe it or not for the next school year ahead even though this one just ended we're digging in tomorrow's our
020last day of our retreat in the morning and then we follow up again in August we are ending the day with a bowling tournament um so some of us have to go home and find some attire because it's very competitive which you can imagine Cold Spring Harbor nothing is you know done lightly so there's costume like we're we're in it so again team thank you so much for the energy that you've put into this we have such an amazing team and I I can't tell you the energy that was in this room today it's a little more than what's in this room right now just keep telling you we had music playing it was bumping um again and also is Kirsty here tonight so we have another AP joining us tonight but you couldn't join
021us this evening but she was part of our conversations today and already contributing so we're really looking for a promising future in the administrative team ahead so again what okay that's why I have Heather so on to audience to visitors um the Cold Spring Harbor Board of Education and administration welcome your attendance at Board of Education meetings audience to public affords residents an opportunity to address the board of education on both agenda and non-agenda items each resident is allowed to speak for a reasonable amount of time at past meetings we've asked members of the community to keep their comments to three minutes and hopefully there's going to be a lot of you sharing tonight maybe twice so I mean we'll try to keep it to three today this is not a forum to discuss student
022or staff specific issues so please contact the district separately on these matters so do we have someone signed up a list yeah we have a list we have 14 people who are going to speak tonight wonderful Miss Gen Con hi everybody happy summer uh Miss Costa I am going to try to keep this brief but you will likely have to give me the hook so I understand okay I'm going to address something that affected me personally but um I'm hoping that people in a few minutes will see the relevance I think it has to the district in May I had the honor along with my with my questions from the community into 31 composite questions so we could limit the event to a mere four hours we noted this in emails to the community and
023again at the events itself additionally I told the audience that if anybody felt that their question was misrepresented they should let us know and to approach the candidates with their questions private privately in the interest of transparency I will say that one person wrote to say that she was disappointed understandably that her specific example of a teacher's Behavior was not included however our board was not in a position to independently verify the incident described so we did not want to repeat a potentially upsetting story without outside confirmation but the Crux of her question whether a teacher's overt expression of personal or political beliefs in the classroom is ever justifiable was indeed posed to the candidates meanwhile nobody else not one other person contacted us to say that they felt that they had been misrepresented or
024silenced so I was pretty surprised to learn that during the June 13th Board of Ed meeting a Community member publicly stated that the CPC had disregarded and even censored questions censored being his term this accusation came from someone whose own question was in fact answered substantively by the candidates moreover he is someone who receives detailed replies from the CPC two years ago when he emailed us about how and why we vet and condense questions I feel compelled to correct the record publicly tonight because of this person's false mischaracterization of our work actually impugnes my character as well as those of my three friends and former colleagues the word censorship has a very specific meaning and it implies motivations that do not at all apply to our conduct as a board over the past two years
025this brings me to a related but much larger and pervasive problem of potential misinformation in this District the incident I just described is ultimately trivial compared to what other District phones here as an employees endure in recent months I've read many accusations and insinuations circulating on social media and an enormous group texts regarding administrators faculty and Board of Ed members both past and present some of these claims have the potential to destroy people's reputations and livelihoods I think it's fair to state that I am relatively active in the community so I am often left wondering where the receipts are for some of these stories since I have not yet seen them I trust that everybody here knows that targeting hard-working people with a not so quiet whisper campaign would be an unfair way to deal
026with people and policies with which one is unhappy or anxious or even angry so an assertions spread about something depicted as corrupt illicit or improper I would hope that we could ask the neighbor bringing the matter to our attention to demonstrate concretely how he or she came across this knowledge likewise any statement suggesting that a faculty member is indoctrinating students is a gray of charge and certainly one that I take very seriously so it needs to be substantiated compelling evidence amounts to something more than a friend telling another friend that they have an inside source like many other parents here I am deeply concerned about turnover in this District if we become known throughout Long Island as a district that is Cavalier with people's reputations and quick to assume the very worst of people we
027are not going to attract or retain top talent so I also encourage you each of our board members and each of our administrators to push back a bit against misinformation yourselves when false public statements are made about you or your work I hope that you will address them frankly publicly and swiftly tolerating character assassination is not part of your job description meanwhile I'm also going to encourage sorry I don't mean to interrupt you but you're oh no worries can you wrap up wrap up I want you to no that's okay the only thing the other thing I'll say is that I think that accountability isn't just something that we should only expect from people in power we owe it to each other as community members as well thank you thank you Olga Berwick Olga Berwin
028hey everybody thanks for the opportunity to speak this evening I would just like to open by commending the school district on its efforts to Define and Implement a more comprehensive diversity equity and inclusion program and also for the social emotional development curriculum my two girls my my children attended Lloyd Harbor and for Miss Massimo you might be interested to know that the word hiker is a regular adjective used in our house by the kids usually as a compliment to someone else's behavior um so I I really believe that my kids are thriving academically and with the support of our schools are also growing up to be really good people I believe that's a social emotional curriculum at Lloyd Harbor school has served to reinforce the values that we've tried very hard to instill in our
029kids at home and so we thank you for that On a related note um over the past few years I've been rather disturbed by stories that I've heard of recent stories of students in the Junior and Senior High School using language both in and out of school that can really only be described as sexist racist and homophobic examples include the use of racial slurs bold declarations that boys are more capable than girls in a variety of contexts cat calling of female students in the school fields the regular use of the word gay as an insult and frequent negative comments about various body shapes these patterns of behavior combine to create a hostile learning environment for students of color for girls and for lgbtq plus students constitute harassment and discrimination are out of compliance with the
030student code of conduct published in the agenda book received by students at the beginning of each school year and are moreover illegal title VI so the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title IX of the education Amendments of 1972 and Section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 are all federal laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race color national origin sex and disability New York State's 2010 dignity for all students act also known as Dasa further defines harassment and discrimination and mandates that schools have procedures in place for reporting and addressing discriminatory behaviors and allegations given these laws it's important that CSH schools discipline acts of discrimination committed by students failure to do so constitutes willing negligence and may serve as a basis for legal action against the district which would be detrimental to
031District functioning into our kids as students in the school behavior that denigrates others is also very simply unethical a great many of our students are already preparing for professions in which ethical behavior is both expected and highly valued all professional codes of Ethics are predicated upon a mandate to minimize harm and maximize the benefits of professional behavior for those served by the profession including instruction within the school on what this means would be highly beneficial for students as well as our own community and of course the greater Society of which we are a part so in light of all this Berwin I have just a couple of requests I'm closing we'll wrap up with your requests yes in light of all this I respectfully request that number one the district issue an official public statement
032defining discriminatory language and behavior as well as the disciplinary procedures to be implemented in response to it to All Families number two the districts in our schools receive sorry that students in our schools receive formal instruction regarding these laws definitions of discrimination and how to report offenses to school instructional staff number three that instructional staff receive professional development training that includes procedures that must be followed when they either witness or receive a student complaint about discriminatory behavior and number four that students in the Junior and Senior High School receive continued formal instruction and ethical Behavior towards others thank you so much [Applause] out I don't even think Dan uh Joe is this on yeah okay um so certainly I'll have a conversation with Mr danbosky particularly about the education and the Dasa reporting we do
033have procedures in place for students but I didn't even meet with a parent today and talking about the responsibility being placed on a student versus a staff member who they report it to so I think all of these are important conversations um and you know although each child is treated differently so there's not a Continuum of disciplinary action where if you do this this happens again we teach take each situation um by itself and then make decisions based on those actions so I could not provide a disciplinary statement in terms of if this happens you do this again it's on an individual basis but certainly these any type of allegations made along these lines will be taken seriously and there are consequences to behavior such as this described next speaker David liebler all right [Music]
034good evening uh David liebler two-year resident third time speaker on the class size issue I wanted to thank the new president but she's not here but I believe someone else today also said hey I think it's a good idea for the speakers to speak at the end just want to say I think that's a wonderful idea I think that helps us all out of feeling like we did last and the last meeting and I also have to go on my apology tour to say I'm sorry I interrupted so many times in your last meeting that won't happen again and I apologize with that said in the last few years many of us have come from you know New York City or the surrounding areas with very high expectations of the school system of the ratings
035that we saw and it's the reason why we move here so in these last few meetings it wasn't really clear until the last meeting of what at least I believe just me are is the root problem to this class situation it's the guidelines the last time we were here it said it was like data 2016 but I believe you said it was updated in 2016. here nor there 18 to 23 22 to 20 to 25 21-26 22-27 that's our current guidelines fun facts Utah has the most crowded schools with 26 people Maine has the least was 17. the national average is 24. is that what our guidelines should be should we be average is that like the bar that we're going to keep ourselves to so with that being said again this is my opinion
036I sent a email out to as many parents they possibly could to encourage tonight for them to come as many as I could called as many as I could because I think we have if you're open to it some potential Solutions one I request that the Boe changed the classroom size or size to a lesser amount I.E 17 to 20 17-21 18 to 22 if we got really crazy I request number two a budget review to accommodate to smaller classes because as it appears to me other than fifth grade I think we're talking about Lloyd Harbor being the issue with larger classes and if I do the math correct if we added one more class to second third fourth fifth and sixth grade that's five extra teachers I'm just spitballing here three request which I
037believe was done on the last meeting request a physical structure review to to see if in fact we break these schools these classes down to a smaller do you have the classroom size or do you have the classroom accommodations to accommodate if we were to break the classes down to a smaller bite-sized amount four don't believe anything I say disregard all of it but pull the parents you have a lot of new people here that just got here a couple years ago we just we didn't know maybe the guidelines we saw a lot of great reviews didn't know the guidelines we want to at least address the situation again forget my opinion pull every parent start with Lloyd Harbors I think that's your root problem also but pull the parents on the class sizes put
038some guidelines we all do polls on different social media let's do a poll let's find out what the community feels is the appropriate amount so that you as Boe members can make suggestions and and possibly make this better five pull the teachers and the principals of both schools with an anonymous vote so there are no conflicts you don't want a principle you don't want a teacher you don't want assistance saying yes they're right they don't want to do that they don't lose their jobs they don't look bad but I'll tell you what if we could take a a a piece off of what who still did with 18 students in a class I got to tell you that was marvelous and a job well done lastly I know my time is limited smaller class sizes
039it's better for the students it's better for their learning it's better for the test scores it's better for the teachers and listen let's face it it's also better for home values the top like think about people wanting to come here because they know the class sizes are so like they're so much better than the other towns we don't have to look at these guidelines as fact you have the power to change it all I'm asking for you tonight and I promise to be good just pull it ask the parents how they feel about it and then let's see if we can make more changes thank you thank you [Applause] Mary Redden how are you good evening I'm Mary Redden I am a resident here I have a rising seventh grader and a rising 9th grader
040I'm also a teacher in Half Hollow Hills School District I have teaching in High School East and I have 20 years experience doing it doing so so first I'd like to say my biggest pet peeve is when people who don't know anything about education come and tell people who do what to do and how to do it that is that is something that I understand you struggle with and feel your pain with that um so I'm not really speaking here as an outsider though I'm speaking as like somebody who's in the education World um I had heard last year there was some concerns raised by certain parents about the gay straight Lions Club the GSA in our school and there were apparently some Whispers of discontent suggesting it was like political in some way or
041it was uh inappropriate group that shouldn't be in our schools and I'm not sure if this was conveyed to any of you but I would like to let you know that the people who feel that way are are very limited in this community it may be just a few it's not the majority just to suggest that a club like this should be discouraged in any way is just wrong as a member of the education community and as a parent in this community I want to stress how useful and indispensable organizations and clubs like this are um you know recognizing and supporting this how diverse the identities of our students are is has nothing to do with politics it's not a political act it's an act of basic Humanity the GSA which is Under The Wider
042umbrella of the Dei it plays an integral role for everyone as they serve it serves a broader purpose their educational platforms that teach our students about diversity and acceptance showing them that our world is diverse and that we as a community support everyone not just the people who are exactly like them so these as an educator I know that these programs play a crucial role in maintaining the mental health and well-being of all our students and they Foster a culture of inclusivity and acceptance so I'm hoping that the Board of Ed continues to support the GSA club and we find a replacement for Mr beija um so please understand that the parents who are against clubs like this are not in the majority you have the backing of people like me and um whoever the
043teacher is that steps up for the task to take over they need to know they have your support and our support too so I I know how how hard it is I know single-handedly or firsthand how hard it is to navigate the demands of parents in the district so um you know education is humbling and humiliating at times but know that that we are here to support the administration the people in the community we're here to support the schools and I think just the fact that someone called that group political goes to show you that we need more education in this area thank you [Applause] Michael Asta hello everyone I'm Michael Astor I've been in the district for two years and tonight is my first ever school board meeting it's a pleasure to be here
044I want to thank everyone on the school board for your hard work on behalf of all of us I want to thank the teachers who are here the administrators and everybody uh thank you so much so um I think one of the reasons I'm here tonight is that a lot of people were talking uh to me about the class size that seemed to become an issue I don't know many details about what goes into Staffing the school I have been a teacher for 15 years I had classes with single digit students and classes with students in the in the 20s I think everyone agrees the smaller the class size the better the environment for education so I would encourage the board to look into that and do whatever can be done to keep class size
045down I did career day at Lloyd Harbor school and I was there in second grade with 25 eight-year-olds teaming with energy jumping out of their seats my thought was this is a lot to handle and then they they ganged up on me and threw me out so um but it was a it was a wonderful experience so um that's all I wanted to say and thank you very much for your time thank you [Applause] Danielle I hope I get this right seriously there we go Danielle welcome good evening everyone and thanks so much uh for your time my name is Danielle sivertson and I have two kids one an incoming second grader and one in incoming fifth grader so thank you for your time and your energy ladies and gentlemen of the school board I
046stand before you today to advocate for a reduction in our current class side size guidelines our children's education is the Cornerstone of our society and it is our responsibility to provide them with the best possible learning environment the current guidelines of 20 to 25 kids per class this is for the second grade full short in meeting this goal class size is one of the few variables in American K-12 education that are both thought to influence student learning and are subject to legislative action the most influential incredible study of classified class size reduction was the star study done in the 1980s there's been since many studies since then but this was the most telling and for those that are not knowledgeable about this study they took um two groups students and teachers and split them into
047two classes one small size and one regular size small was 15 kids average size regular was around 22 students there was a very measurable difference between the two classes it enabled the smaller class size enabled an increased student achievement by an amount equivalent to about three additional months of schooling for for over four years so first and foremost reducing class sizes would enhance the quality of Education with smaller class sizes teacher teachers can allocate more individualized attention to each student catering to their unique needs and learning styles this personalized approach Fosters better student-teacher relationships creating a supportive atmosphere where students feel comfortable asking questions and seeking help I speak from experience for my second grade child he does need the extra help and attention and I'm sure most of the parents here would agree it
048also allows teachers to identify struggling students early on and provide timely interventions ultimately improving academic outcomes second it will promote a more conducive learning environment with fewer students in the classroom noise levels decrease distractions are minimized and overall classroom management becomes more manageable just like Michael I visited my second year old's classroom twice over the past year had a blast and your the teachers are amazing and they should be given so much more and appreciated unbelievably so but it's overwhelming right you know I came and I spoke about one of my um one of my climbing Expeditions and it was the amount of questions and the excitement and that's a lot to manage for one teacher and one teacher's aide when you have 25 to 27 kids per class sorry I'm using my mobile so
049finally reducing the class size has also been shown to have a positive impact on student Behavior by promoting better behavior and attentiveness students will have a stronger sense of belonging fostering a positive classroom culture and a greater willingness to engage in their studies so I ask you and I implore you to please reconsider class size guidelines not just for my child's class but for all of the Lloyd Harbor school class sizes um it is crucial for providing a high quality education to our students it allows for individualized attention a more conducive learning environment and improve student Behavior by investing in smaller class sizes we invest in the future of our children and Empower them to reach their full potential thank you thank you [Applause] David attleheart hello um I'm David adelhardt I had one child
050who matriculated through the high school and one that is a rising ninth grader I want to thank you for your public statements of commitment to our to the Dei initiative and I just wanted to express my concerns about the state of Dei and social emotional learning in our schools I would like to remind the board to look at the Great Seal of the United States of America that reads e pluribus unum out of many one um we are a nation made of many different people different races different heritages and different religions it's not our diversity as a nation that defines us but rather our ability to respect each other and to come together as one that defines us lives have been lost in great suffering endured on the path towards achieving this idea our history
051is full of citizens of all different backgrounds who educated themselves about injustices in our society and did something about it they stood up and fought for the rights of the oppressed they fought for those who were different and were not afforded liberty and justice for all it is the responsibility of our elected officials to fight for these ideas for all citizens especially for those who cannot do so for themselves and it is a responsibility of the voters to remove those who do not do so from office I concerned I am concerned that this fundamentally American idea is being twisted and distorted by factions of our society the ideas of book Bannings restricting lgbtq plus rights restricting Reproductive Rights Voting restrictions and white nationalism are growing in our country these ideas are antithetical to our founding
052principles most of our country's history has not been inclusive for all our citizens Dr King's dream was that his children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character we are not there yet how do we get there education I call upon the Board of Education to educate our children that our diversity is what makes us all smarter and better people history teaches us that ignorance and misunderstanding of the people around us Fosters fear and hate Dei education is the antidote to this fear of our differences is toxic I ask you not to be afraid or pulled in by the fear of a vocal few please stand up be bold and educate our children to lead us into
053the future and build upon what so many people before us have worked so hard to achieve thank you thank you and Solomon good evening my name is Ann salmon I am a mother of two going into Lloyd Harbor School and I want to thank you um all for for being here the Board of Ed and the Educators and to commend you know the great work that that you're doing I think we see wonderful results um you know in the testing and in our our children and I'm here regarding the class size issue to add my voice to the choir and express my concern over you know we've seen really great results and I think when we look at how we got there we probably didn't get there through having 28 kids in you know classes
054and second third and fourth and fifth grade so I formally asked to reconsider the guidelines to something between 18 and 22 for our teachers for our students you know building upon a large body of data which has been eloquently cited by people who've gone before me that this is better for students better for teachers and you know I will I will personally and I'm sure many would join in if there's a resource issue to figure out a solution for whether it's you know logistical Financial you know we're all very committed to the well-being of our students and I think that class size is really pivotal so that's it for me thank you thank you Elena Thatcher was that again Christine who Elena Thatcher did I say it right no no not here okay Tricia avadano
055hi I'm Trisha avadano um thank you for all your time and welcome new board members um I was recently made aware that an unprecedented unprecedented number of foils or Freedom of Information requests regarding topics such as Dei SEL social emotional learning and CRT have been submitted over the past year or two and then it has cost the district upwards of thirty thousand dollars in legal bills to respond to these requests not only has it cost the district many thousands of dollars but more importantly it costs the administration many hours of their time time that I think should have been dedicated to our children chasing down information to satisfy these requests as a parent in this district and a taxpayer I'm curious where the money comes from to pay the fees associated with these requests I
056understand in any that in any given year there are a certain amount of these requests but I'm curious by how much the last two years have exceeded the five-year average to the last two years also what is the strategy going forward in other words how are we going to address requests like these without decimating our budget I have been listening to the community speak about class sizes could this money that is being used to respond to these requests go to an additional teacher salary for example and finally have these requests led to any substantive changes in the district's curriculum or policies I understand you cannot respond to my comments tonight so I'll make sure to follow up with an email tomorrow thank you thank you Lindsay kamdar so just in terms for the community and
057the board of education's knowledge we have some new board members I'm going to ask our attorney to explain the foil process to the board and to the community and I can verify that we have spent upwards of thirty thousand dollars on foil requests for Dei CRT SEL curriculum sex education um social justice Constitution Day things along these lines we have had foil requests upwards of this amount um but I'm gonna Mr Feldman can you just explain the foil process and how they can you know we oh God you go first foil relates to the Freedom of Information law under that law Municipal entities like school districts are obligated to respond with copies of documents with very limited exceptions for one you don't have to be a resident of the district to make the request for
058two you don't have to give reasons other than to indicate that you're not looking for the information for commercial purposes that is you're not looking for lists of names so that you can go out and send them a solicitation for your business other than that school districts are bound to respond to those documents to those document requests it's not to provide answers to questions is to provide copies of documents there are certain documents that are precluded but most documents that school districts retain are covered by Freedom of Information there are requirements that for example if somebody asks for Dei or CRT or something along those lines if there are students names contained in those documents they have to be reviewed one by one and student names have to be redacted if there's confidential information about
059a teacher about an individual even a parent confidential information has to be redacted even if you can do that electronically it's a huge process for example if you request all of the emails among the board or Among The District staff you're going to have to first run a program to single out all of the documents that do that you're then going to have to have someone literally read each and every document that responds to the request to make sure a that it's responsive and B that all confidential information is redacted it's a very intense process the district is supposed to respond within five days acknowledging receipt and then they have a limited period of time to respond to the request they are entitled to request extensions of those times but each time there's an extension
060we're supposed to provide information about when we expect to be able to respond some of the emails some of the foil requests that my office has seen for example generated documents as many as 30 or 40 000 documents each one of them has to be reviewed individually has to be redacted to the extent that it contains confidential information they are also also limits for example if it's an intra Office document and it doesn't contain data if it's non-final and it doesn't contain data those are bases to preclude sending them in response to a request however it brings us back to the same problem and that is somebody has to literally go through each and every document that meets the demand to determine whether it can be precluded or whether it must be provided the longer
061the short of it is it's a very time consuming process and it's not one in which a district has much to say other than dealing with those exceptions that the law allows the fact that it's burdensome at most the district could attempt to go into court and try and get a court to quell the the request or to limit the request there are very few processes where that is acceptable or where a court is willing to provide that kind of protection because the whole idea behind Freedom of Information is to make public information that is maintained by a municipal entity like a district school numerous foil requests on these topics as I previously shared I do want to um be clear that we also receive requests regarding contracts that we have with different agencies um
062we just received a request this week what are all the administrative salaries what are their titles and so organizations throughout the state other states they ask for this information as comparative data so it's not just our local community but you know it could be other agencies vendors ask for information on certain bids that you put out there specs and things like that so pretty much everything that's here in the district could be for the most part foiled and you know obviously as the information that Mr Feldman provided certain information has to be redacted I do want to just correct you in that it was over a hundred thousand documents that were regarding CRT Dei all the communities emails and everything anything that had that language in there has to be gone through so years of
063information so it's more than over a hundred thousand documents and I want to give credit to certainly Mrs lagatuda who spent probably most of the time with Mr Huntsman you know going through these documents as well as myself and then obviously they had to be vetted by our attorneys and that's where the driving costs get escalated at that point in time and and can you speak to I know sitting here today you can compare the last two years to the last five years right but in your experience in working in a school district have you seen foil requests like this no okay thank you ready to go on Heather okay Lindsay you ready hi my name is Lindsay komdar I have a first grader a third grader and a sixth grader um I'm also speaking
064about class size and with the guidelines um I guess my thoughts when I first read it is why do they have to increase for each level um it's so beneficial to have that 18 to 22 Target for every grade level not just kindergarten and um you know we are a district that strives for excellence that's no secret and we are severely lacking in the elementary level for enrichment differentiated instruction and Cooperative learning um doesn't take place you know Cooperative learning in these small groups um I see it gets a as the kids get older it has been my experience that they kind of get away from that a little bit um more importantly the differential differentiated and individualized education and the enrichment we don't have a set program in place I feel that the class
065sizes being smaller could really help that if you don't have a formal program for these things then it's up to the classroom teacher and having a smaller classroom size allows that teacher to focus on each child's individual needs we are very strong in helping those kids who are in need kids who are above grade level are also in need and they need enrichment and they need differentiated instruction I would love for that to be considered I was a teacher I do know for 10 years at the elementary level and we were forced to do a lot of things I'm not saying oh I'm that I'm saying it because I don't see it happening in terms of pre-assessments where are these kids in each and every math unit in each and everything and from there you
066base your lesson plans we've got there's a lot of whole group instruction going on that is not differentiated instruction putting a child on a Chromebook after the lesson is not differentiated instruction these kids need to be recognized for their individual needs at every level kindergarten through 12. thank you Jacqueline Ryan hey everyone Jacqueline Ryan um children's last name is jojanovich also two years in the district next year I will have at Lloyd Harbor School a second grader a fourth grader and a sixth grader this is my first Board of Ed meeting so thank you very much for having me I don't on the subject also of class size I don't think I have anything new to add beyond what the my neighbors and friends have already said just wanted to show my support knowing that
067you know myself personally growing up I had two different experiences one where I attended a district that had very large classes was had the opportunity to move to a school where I had smaller classes you know excelled tremendously in that environment from my experience that I've observed with my children to date they have very different learning styles every child is different you know it would definitely really um benefit to be able to have that more individualized instruction so I just hope that the board will think about this and will hope to reduce the the class sizes thank you [Applause] Miss kleinberger I just can't read the first name Shelly hello welcome to all the new board members hello everybody my name is Shelly kleinberger one Fiddler's Green spur I have a rising sixth grader in
068a rising seventh grader um two years ago I sat at my first board meeting where there was a lot of screaming about book Banning and diversity and inclusion and how bad it was and how it was ruining kids that was after my kids had been in the school and had their first incident of toxic Behavior towards them and it hasn't stopped and it is uh I I do definitely appreciate how much how important it is to have smaller class sizes I also appreciate what happens inside those classes and I asked the board to work very hard to create community if I believed what I read online about the school from parents inside the school I would think that we had a deadbeat School I would think that Lord Harbor was not a blue ribbon school
069that I'm very proud that my child attended and that our test scores and our AP scores our children are doing better than they were before the the tenor in the community about who we are is bleeding into our classrooms my daughter describes the school as toxic I have sat down with the principal about this I've talked with counselors about this this is too much and it's starting with the parents and it's bleeding in these kids are learning it from somewhere and it is being supported and I ask you as a board to Foster community to create a space where we can connect with each other where we can appreciate one another where we are not afraid to have courageous conversations and we can grow together it is important that we are not afraid to learn
070about each other that we remain curious and open and accepting and that what something is different we lean towards it to grow we set the examples as the adults in the room it is important that our teachers feel supported by the parents and not policed by the parents every teacher in this school in this district is doing a labor of love to our children it is a job that they choose because they want to educate our kids and the adults the parents are making it difficult so I am committing to you that I will be here to support the school district in ways that you need I ask you to lead with Grace with curiosity with dignity and that you Empower our teachers to do their very best and to be the courageous Educators that
071they deserve to be for our children thank you Jamie spevack I like how the other woman said it so if you know my kids they're calvo and I'm spevack um so I guess I'm a little bit lighter than the other stuff I'm sorry I really didn't prepare anything um but I did want to talk about class size and I did have a talk with my daughter and I said look I said what do you think about it is a big deal or isn't it like should I say something or not say something like do you really care because you know who I care about I care about you how are you learning in school what do you need from me to help you do better and she honestly said that 24 kids in her math
072class last year was too much and I said okay so why why was 24 too big tell me what did you experience and this is what she said so she she took like the lower math class instead of like the upper math class because the school kind of tries to push you to take like a harder math and her strong point isn't math she's really more of an English kind of kid so I said all right so so take the take the easier math and we'll take the harder English we'll do the harder language you know kind of balance it out and so we did the easier math and she said so then what happens is kids start dropping out of the harder math which I think is fabulous I really really love that that
073you can give the kids the opportunity to try the harder math and if you don't do that well you can drop to the lower math then the problem is that class just keeps growing and growing and growing and then the teacher that they had they started with then changed I have nothing against the teacher that just started she really loved him he was really great but she said by the time she got to the end now she's got 24 kids in the class now you have a really broad range of kids and what they understand about math so you have some kids on like an upper math level understanding and then you have other kids on a much lower math understand and it's very difficult because the lower kids really aren't getting what they need
074to succeed and the and the smarter kids that kind of dropped out are are kind of like being held back and so 24 is just is just really too much you know we really got to split that down a little bit um and the other thing too is they're kids um they get a little Rowdy you know it's hard to handle 24 kids I don't know I haven't handled 24 kids everybody knows I have five so 24 9th graders or 8th graders seventh graders I've been on a couple class trips it's a lot you know so I can only imagine trying to teach a subject matter to that many kids at one time okay so that's my thing on on class size all right I'd like to see smaller classes I commend Goose Hill School
075we had 18 in the first graders that was amazing my my first graders thrived and um and I'm really really happy about that okay second thing is even lighter topic um I would like to see more choices for the kids to to do other things like you know we get those pages that says if you pay a hundred bucks your kid could go to like a CL an extra class before or after school we used to have more choices so like when my older daughter did it she did sewing that was great it was like a class um two more seconds I just want to recommend we do something like stem like could we have like a couple of weeks where we do like bridge building and like so what can you make the bridge
076out of and then one class you make it out of Legos and then the next class you make it a popsicle sticks and then the next class you make it out of cardboard or something like just to give kids something else to do besides you know the sports activities you know like we do ice skating kind of thing um I have teachers I like to recommend I have classes I'd like to recommend um I just don't know who else to bring that up to you know for next year so that's it thank you [Applause] for next school year um most of the clubs at the elementary level are run by our ptg so again I want to give a shout out to our parents who organized those clubs and then typically we have a teacher
077who helps organize and support that and and keeps track of attendance and every child who's staying after school as well as getting the teacher support to run those classes so again thank you to the parent to really extend themselves as well the Board of Education approved money in each of the elementary school budgets next year for clubs not a lot but a good start so if the principals and the teachers have some ideas to run some districts related clubs like a stem club or something like that or a music activity some anything along those lines the principals have a little bit of flexibility for next school year to run some industry clubs at the elementary level so it's a really nice partnership but this I I think the I believe it was five thousand dollars
078Christine that we gave each school to get started to run some extra clubs for next school year so again for any parent or students who I'm sure our student voices will be out there advocating for some different activities and they can speak to each of the elementary principals I'm sure some surveys are things like going out or you might even already have some ideas to get your clubs off the ground great thank you um Christine do we have anyone those are all the speakers who have signed up does anyone else like to come and speak to the board of education at this time uh my name is Daniel carpin I'm a licensed professional engineer and I've spoken to the school board previously about the problem of climate education [Music] the first step in solving a
079crisis is not evaluating the full situation or taking immediate action that takes later that comes later the first step in solving a crisis is realize that you are in one we are in one the school district education in terms of what they're teaching in terms of climate education is woefully inadequate I have a letter dated August 2nd of last year to be concerning climate education they don't even mention the gas is responsible for global warming this is not climate education and I want to know what you're doing to improve the climate education I didn't bring it with me but there was an article in the New York Times about what New Jersey is doing on climate education it's very comprehensive you need to look at it I've told you what they do in Sweden the
080story is in the year 2011. they showed a movie on global on environmental problems global warming polar bears starting starving forest fires Plastics in the ocean to a group of eighth grade eight-year-old children and most of the children could go on with their lives except for one who sat down and cried and said why aren't the adults doing anything about this problem and we're not our our climate education is totally totally totally inadequate Beyond inadequate I want to know from the School District administration and school board members and anybody to comment on what I have to say you've come to speak to the board of education and on the administration I know Mrs longitude has responded to your some of your inquiries I'm going to propose a suggestion to you we have some summer research
081students here taking some classes over the summer I'm wondering if you'd be interested in coming to speak with them uh when would you like me to come speak with oh I'll have Mrs lagatuda set up some time to talk about you know some of those opportunities and then again she'd have to correlate the schedule with um those students and when they're attending those courses my phone number is 631 -427 -0723 Daniel carpin k-a-r-p-e-n the phone is a real landline it doesn't drop calls it doesn't fade in and out and the voicemail Machine Works provided by Verizon so you can always reach me okay we got it I'd be more than willing to speak to the students and I did uh present today and one hour class to Malcolm Bowman's Environmental students at Stony Brook University
082on what's going on and they really enjoyed it I still have it so you need to do a lot better than what you're doing because this is a real emergency and you ought to look at the New York Times and see what they're doing in New Jersey I didn't bring the article with me someone hears reads the New York Times it was on the front page you can't miss the front page thank you thank you [Applause] anyone else like to speak just state your name please good evening everyone first of all I'd like to say thank you to those on the board of ed that voted last week to make sure that the rising fifth grade did not collapse a section parents recognize and appreciate your understanding of how important it is to have a
083smaller class size as we continue to ask the last sitting board in the superintendent what is the positive to increase to a larger class size you weren't able to give us that information only saying that you have the children's best interests at heart it's hard to believe since the data in research does not support that decision there was no research out there that has proven that a larger class size is beneficial to the children from an education standpoint or social and emotional well-being there is no benefit to the teachers to have more children in a classroom they are unable to achieve the small math and reading standards of the superintendent in Boe have pushed and trained them for in the past year it definitely won't be possible especially if you don't plan on having an
084aid dedicated to each class full-time I know in the previous meeting you said that you would consider it based on a class need but as a class size obviously increases there is a need for it we've gone over this I think continuously this evening and past meetings about the data that doesn't support a larger class size there was an issue or a report that I saw that stated a concern from a security standpoint that I never thought of and it's heartbreaking to even think of it that we put these kids through these lockdown drills and exiting classrooms and as they get bigger sixth grade class you know and the boys are bigger the girls are bigger and we're adding more students like that's a concern we're expecting them to hide in these areas or if
085you're number 27 or 30 exiting a building I hope my kid isn't at the end of the line if you know something ever happens it's truly heartbreaking I think there's a lot to be said about our Urban counterparts putting into potential law for smaller class sizes we should be setting the standard based off of our school district's history of Excellence I would think that we all expect academic Excellence which is achieved in many ways but one of the most important is in class size teacher to student ratio is priceless to the success of our children and the Cold Spring Harbor School District our taxes fund the budget where we expect academic excellence we expect a lot of our students our teachers the people in the community to give back and be active in the public
086education system I think it's a shame that it isn't an obvious decision for the superintendent in the Boe to change these guidelines for smaller class sizes it's for the betterment of the children for the teachers for the future of the school and especially for our Blue Ribbon school rating we hope that you do change the recommended guidelines which again are not law and really do need to be updated thank you for your time thank you is there anyone else anyone else like to come up all right okay we'll now uh move to approval of the minutes we will vote separately on each minute approval um the June 13th June 13th June 21st and June 27th okay we have a motion to table the first three minutes Tammy Lisa all in favor okay then I'll have
087take a motion to approve the July 6 2023 minutes can I have a first Lisa the second Tammy any questions all in favor okay and then I'll take a motion to approve the July 6 20 23 minutes this is a separate meeting on the same two meetings in one day yes okay can I have uh first Visa I can Tammy all in favor wait oh any questions bill you may want to abstain from this stuff okay all in favor okay two abstentions got it got it okay we will now move to the Personnel recommendations of the superintendent we will take all resignation items one through four on pages one and two as a slate first Tammy second bill any questions yes so for the resignation of Ms conlon can you just speak to because she
088is a school counselor and we have you know Juniors rising to senior year they're worried about their recommendation letters and their support in applying to college and everything else that we need going into the new school year can you talk about the transition for Miss conlon served as a school counselor in the high school we always hope that a school counselor has a very special relationship with students and with their families and Ms conlon certainly has she served as a official and an unofficial leader within the department and so um again we appreciate all of her service as you see from the resignation she is not leaving us until August 15th so she has continued to work beyond the school year to ensure that all of her students are addressed in terms of needs for
089schedules and certainly the Juniors Rising into senior year will be in good shape in terms of their letters of recommendation she's putting everything in order and she will have everything ready we're hoping to be able to transition into you know the new counselor as soon as possible we're in process right now we have a very strong and interested group of people who have demonstrated you know interest in being here in Cold Spring Harbor so we're looking forward to transitioning we've got a great team at the building and you know I just want to say I've done this for many years and again the school counselor is an important role so I understand what it is for students to have that shift during their high school years particularly going into senior year so we'll be addressing
090that very carefully and closely with those students all in favor okay moving on we will table appointment item 21 on page 14. I'll take a motion for that first emotion on tabling right yeah that's fine okay Tammy a second um my um Lisa all right any questions all in favor okay we will take appointment items 22 to 29 on pages 14 through 16 as a slate okay um no we did items one through twenty twenty one was tabled and now we're doing 22 to 29. okay so I'll take a motion for just 20 through to 29 appointment items um first Bill second Bruce any questions all in favor okay we will take the Personnel contract on page 16. that is uh item three okay three one okay um so I'll take a motion on that
091Tammy Lisa any questions all in favor okay now we're moving on to section seven business recommendations we have amendments to donations accepted at the June 13th 2013. that's not right 2023. 2023 meeting we will take donations one through four on page 16 as a slate I'll take a motion on that do I have a first Tammy a second Lisa any questions again want to say thank you to the Ed foundation for these donations some of these items have come in so that's wonderful we Mr Monastery has a lot of unpacking to do Legos all right so all in favor great all right moving on we will be tabling the claims auditor reports on page 17. it will be presented again at the August meeting yes item two all right motion to table two all right
092Tammy bill any questions all in favor okay great we will take additional business items one through thirteen on pages 17 through 19 as a slate could I have a motion on that Tammy Bill any questions all in favor okay additional business item 14 tax anticipation note resolution requires a roll vote call okay so you'll do the first and the second Heather and then um whenever when everyone um instead of raising their hands they'll name everyone and you'll actually say I that you um that you approve or or you abstain or you are not in favor of the resolution okay okay so I have a motion on that Tammy second bill okay any questions do you sure sure this is an annual this will be an annual resolution for the district going forward we borrow funds
093called the tax anticipation note it's in anticipation of the property tax monies coming in because before they come in we still have to continue business operations and pay our staff and our vendors until that money begins to come in which actually happens in December each year is when tax monies begin to come into the district so this bridges that Gap from July to December when tax money begins to come in and this resolution is the board authorizing the borrowing of that money or and us to begin the process of borrowing that money they're done every year and the money is borrowed and then has to be paid back before the end of that fiscal year so the money is due back by June 30th every year and this will be an annual resolution of the
094board and it'll include the amount up to which we can borrow so that you can opine on that when you vote and they will begin the borrowing process after that you're welcome you can come up at the end of the meeting and we'll have questions again anyone else all right I'll start the rules sure I read this but I forgot what was like last year or the year before his size of the anticipation notes we borrowed 12 and a half million dollars last year and um The Authority is up to 15 million dollars this year and it grows as our budget continues to grow okay thank you you're welcome okay anyone else all right then I'll start the Roll Call Kate Della carpini yes say I okay okay Lisa Smith yeah I Tammy Stark yes
095Bruce Sullivan yes William Wollman yes Heather morante young yes and Alex wheeler hand is absent great thank you okay we will take special education reports and contracts as a sleet on page 20. Tammy second Bruce Bruce any questions okay all in favor okay under other matters we will table the teacher Mentor liaison Moa so I'll have a motion to table first Bill second Lisa any questions all in favor all right we will now move on to a second reading and Adoption of policies 6700 purchasing and 6700 purchasing regulation uh until you correct me if I'm wrong but I believe this was the policies were just some changes to naming and details like that so it's a second-ended adoption of these policies who take a motion so I'm going to first move to a vote to
096weave a full reading and to adopt to remove a full reading Bruce Bill any questions all in favor okay now I'm going to move to adopt these policies we did first Lisa second Bill any questions all in favor okay the agenda includes Financial reports on page 21 and these reports are for informational purposes no vote is necessary if anyone has any questions on these reports either the board or the public you can call me in my office anytime so now we are going to move to the discussion section of the agenda we intend to discuss class size guidelines tonight as we mentioned earlier please hold your comments and questions until the board discussion reaches its conclusion and you as you saw at the start of the meeting I had made a motion which was unanimously
097voted on that we will have a second chance for public comment after this discussion I just want to add okay board policy meetings and committees meetings so that will need a motion on that okay should I do that now do you want to do that now or the class size yeah yeah all right should we start with that motion Okay so I would like to make a motion that we record all of our committee meetings going forward so you know that we're now recording these monthly public meetings I'd also like to record our committee meetings so that's my motion do I have a second I think I would like [Music] obviously we've never done this as a district before sorry just more information about do other districts do it what will what would it entail
098why didn't we do it in the past these are all questions I don't know answers to so I would like to have answers to those questions and then I think I'd be in a better position to vote on that yeah I agree I'm I'm very much in favor of transparency I think we all are but um what I'd like to do is also understand are there other Alternatives because I I don't know if there's a two-hour committee that people are actually going to listen to the recording of it okay good um but I think there's other things we can do as well like put out summaries things like that I you know I'd like to explore that at least so all right so I guess moving on to our discussion of class sizes [Music] where
099we left off last we were talking about this at our July 6 meeting um currently for this summer um the board decided if any of the classes then Elementary School reached 25 that another section could be added to that greed um but now we're opening up the discussion to the class size guidelines copies of the board of education class size guidelines out on the table I they've been emailed out to the community they're on the website but that's the one in your hand here if anybody wants a copy of our current Board of Ed guidelines so do you want to talk about the information you shared Jill yeah sure with the board and then we can talk about if we need additional information so currently the board of education has the proposed class sizes based
100on these guidelines um for public and the board's information I just want to reiterate the kindergarten is projected to be 2021 next year there's a possibility of one student moving into The District in August first grade is projected to be 1920 for next school year based on the current enrollment West Side second grade is 1920 third grade these are all West Side 21 4th grade West Side 23. fifth grade 17 6th grade 1920. that's 11 sections at West Side Lloyd Horton 11 sections at Goose Hill Lloyd Harbor next year second grade is scheduled to be 23-24 third grade 22 23. 4th grade 23 24 fifth grade 1920 and 6th grade 2021. so those are based on the current guidelines and where the enrollment falls into that additionally I was able to collect some data for
101the Board of Education regarding comparative districts so the board of education has a document um obviously the Cold Spring Harbor guidelines Commack School District kindergarten's at 23 first grade 25 26 27 28 29 as they move up the grades for comac Half Hollow Hills is 28 K through five and then believe it or not they go down to 27 6-12 the that's their maximum I want to say so they shared that um what do they say so typically they're around 22 in grades K to two in Half Hollow they don't report out for um the other grades uh Harbor Fields kindergarten is 20 to 22 first grade it's 24 to 26 that 24 to 26 goes through fifth grade and then 25 through 28 they reported uh for six and seven Jericho was at 23
102uh K-5 and 25 6 through 8. Kings Park was around 20 to 22 through K through 3 and then um 24 for grades four through eight the four through nine I'm sorry Manhasset was 21 22 22 23 24 26 26 K through six Oyster Bay 18 to 24 for kindergarten 20 to 26 through Kate first through third 22-28 four through six Plainfield Bethpage 18 to 24 K to 2 20 to 28 for three and four and then 23 to 28 5 and 6. Smithtown was all 25s and asset was 22 in kindergarten 25 and Katie I'm sorry one through three 27 and 27 and four and five and then 30s 6 through 12. um this is their reporting guidelines um you had also um asked for some data on males to females in classes so
103West Side incoming grade three this is I spoke about this a little bit that this was a little bit of an anomaly going into West Side grade three there are 13 boys scheduled to go into grade three I'm sorry grade two at West Side um great and uh 26 girls so two to one third grade is males 25 to 17 females fourth grade 25 males to 21 females 21 to 31 in grade five males to females and then sixth grade is pretty much even 20 and 19. um Lloyd Harbor second grade even split 36 36 the third grade 57 males to 33 females um fourth grade 45 males to 25 females fifth grade 38 to 39 and 6th grade 33 males to 50 females so it varies obviously by grade but I did there there
104was a question particularly about the incoming grade two at West Side um so also I provided you some information about what um it would entail if we so at the last meeting we talked about breaking the classes when they got to 25 and um right now we're not as I just shared with you we're not over that in any of the other grades besides you know the two classes that you just broke um if we were to go we spoke a little bit about New York City guidelines if we were to move to up to 20 in grades two and three um we would add two teachers at Lloyd Harbor if we were to in grades four if we were to go up to 23 we would be adding another teacher at Lloyd Harbor and
105then if we were I'm sorry grades five and six also New York City guidelines was 23 we would be adding another two teachers so in total of six teachers if we were to um take a look at New York City guidelines which we know they haven't implemented yet but certainly those were the recommendations by governor hokel Goose Hill would add um one more teacher based on those New York City guidelines of up to 20. so it would be seven total for all the elements you know I don't know if anyone else wants it and that's including the two no that would not be included that would not be including the two additional because we've already broke those and before we start talking about this yeah Heather can I just get a number to you Christine
106so um in terms of the dollar amount because that's been talked about multiple times what's the dollar amount so can you give um typically we don't hire teacher at step one we typically hire people with a little bit of experience and give them a little bit of credit for any of that outside experience so it's about 100 well that's with salary and benefits 110. um see about 800 000 for seven teachers well let me stop there so for every section you're breaking for every new teacher you're also adding another 0.2 of a teacher for the PE art music and all the other special classes so we have to provide the specials it's a little bit more than five days a week depends on the grade level some grades get five uh six specials some get
107seven some get eight depending on the flush program and all those other things so it does vary a little bit for a 0.2 to a point three so for another seven sections you have one point something of the other two that we added the last meeting writing so nine plus point two for reach is about 1.8 on the flight yeah it's about 11 T so about 11 ft's a little over a million dollars so it's the seven total teachers plus the two that were already added is nine if you were to go to the New York City guidelines it's six six seven plus the two we already added and then the 1.2 times nine it's about 1.2 million and then the question I was going to ask before we went on that was do we
108expect these numbers to change markedly between now and August like will there be do you think there'll really be any new entrance or yeah so kindergarten um I understand I reported 20 to 21 um one family has reported moving into The District in August so again um you know that could just be classes still 2021 close to that but based on prior experience we don't expect an influx as you know kindergarten is one of those sections that I highlighted beginning in June because I can't predict what the summer time brings I did speak at the last board meeting saying that we moved up our kindergarten registration we provided an online registration process to expedite the paperwork we've already done our kindergarten orientation but we've had families move in over the summer from 10 kids to
10920 kids I don't anticipate that this time around because of the steps we've taken to get a better handle on these numbers so I don't I mean but that's a class that could move so I want to be clear about that so the other ones West Side I'm not worried about any of those sections fluctuating too drastically sixth grade has two pending student registrations but also one family reported moving out so that's really only a difference of one child at sixth grade there's no classes highlighted at West Side because they're running from 19 the highest grade four is at 23. Lloyd Harbor is a little bit different they're incoming grade two is at 23.24 with one pending that is a section that I've highlighted since the beginning of the school year for a class to
110watch and grade four at Lloyd Harbor is 23-24 with two pending registrations so that's another one that could increase they're running at three sections each of those two one of the things that the board asks for the impact and I think the Community member spoke about it this evening just to talk about what is the impact so if I added this many classes at this building this money I don't have that data for you this evening that is something that Mr Huntsman is working on with the elementary principals to say okay if I added two more classes who gets bumped out of a classroom and so when I say that we take up all the classroom space right now there aren't empty classrooms in buildings so and in some cases rooms have been reconfigured where
111we've put walls up to create spaces for individual teachers to have you know this side of the classrooms resource room this side of the classroom a typical classroom would be reading services so some of those classrooms have walls up right now to provide that you know more individualized space in other cases there are two teachers sharing just one full classroom to provide reading services and math support services and so you know students share those spaces throughout the day so those rooms would be impacted and um while we have some teachers just get a whole classroom but they only service you know three to four kids at a time so I that's really where I need the principal's input to see what that impact is should we increase the numbers that we're talking about tonight it
112would be a significant impact on instruction and those other support areas and in particular like our flesh classrooms have their own classrooms for Flash instruction so those would be where the teacher goes on a cart to the classrooms and provides instruction in the regular classroom not terrible but it you know the environment is going to be a little bit different because they're moving on a cart with all their materials um I can't speak to all you know these numbers right now until really the principles can weigh in on the total impact and they really have to do you know pretty significant evaluation of those shared spaces what grades do they start Plus we start Plus in second grade foreign language so our every child second through six receives Spanish education typically it's two times a
113week some for 30 minutes all the way to sixth fifth and sixth grade for a full period 45 minutes each so are we anticipating that we're going to break this section the fourth grade being that you think there's two I think that one's pretty close so that one would be one of the ones that you really like I said we monitor that one um it's 2324 with two pending registrations and then there's one that would be 72 I I don't have my phone here Christine um 72 divided by three I think it comes out to 24. what about that second grade we're gonna have one coming in you think one potential registration right now so that would be 71 it would be still 23 24. when I say 23 24 so some on each grade
114you know and that you know we try to balance the classrooms when we start out the school year that way um you can look at like previous data that's been provided to the board where there's been a section of 22 in a section of 24 or section 21 and you know I I don't understand those differences except for the fact that you know maybe you had three kids move out of District mid-year but I ask that the principals really budget very you know those classes tightly when they start out the school year um and then I did provide some you know if I have it with me some historical data with regard to the class size is just what they ranged for the past 10 years um average class sizes have ranged from 17. thanks
115Heather all the way to um 26. we haven't in any of the years I've never seen us hit 27 or 28 even though those have been the board guidelines um I even there's we looked at data that anytime a class got close to that they broke at like 26 in grade four so they were two years in grade four and five over pretty much the 15 16 school year where the classes broke at around 26. but never did we ever get to those High numbers I'll just give you an example for grade four at West Side they range 1922 24 18 25 17 7 17 23 21 18 18 25 23. Floyd Harbor same grade 21 24 25 19 22 20 21 24 23 22 21 20 23. you know so they've been it depends
116on the year and and that's pretty much consistent through all the grades even when you got up to the upper grades where the board guidelines you know are a little bit higher the class sizes went from 17 at the lowest in 2011-12 but in 1415 they were 25 15 16 then the following year they were 18 and then the past two years they've been 19 and 20. so you know it really does range it it varies from year to year um and our performance in each of these years have ranged as well we looked at some of the data regarding class performance you know whether there was a class of 20 that year and a class of 26 the following year and in some cases the classes of 26 outperform the classes at 20. so
117it I'm going to tell you the answers are all over the map you know it really depends on the teacher in front of the class it depends on the makeup of those kids and those children's needs and so there's not one fixed formula here that's going to say you know X will happen but I do want you to have all the information I do promise to provide you the classroom implications based on any changes that you may consider what's the what's the reason some schools have the ranges as a minimum and a Max because it seems like once you break a class you're going to be below the minimum anyway is is it easier just to have it as sort of a maximum it's usually I I don't like the minimums because like as you
118can see West Side only has two sections so when we broke that it was 17 you're below the minimum of what's on the board guidelines even for that so I don't really I'm not really sure most of these I would say the reports that I give you while it's not here in Cold Spring Harbor many districts have it in their teachers contract so many of these districts might say the maximum class size is 28 in their teacher contract oftentimes I see secondary classes the maximum is 30. with the exception of PE classes at the secondary level and I'm going to say that we do have a handful and provide the board um in the next coming weeks the makeup of our classes based on the schedule um so we have some running extremely low in
119some of our electives and that's something that we'll have to have a conversation about and then we try not to particularly the past couple of years I had asked the board for some accommodations and the teachers union we worked with them to provide smaller class sizes in English language arts due to the learning loss in the junior high level and then we know that we want teachers to provide feedback particularly in the 9 through 12 for the English classes so we try to keep them a bit lower so that teachers can respond in a timely manner to get those papers back to kids I mean I mean Junior High in high school I think if we're going to do this we should I mean after we address the elementary schools I'm sorry but I would
120really like to address the high school as well and have maximum class sizes at the high school I mean as the one parent mentioned today I you know if you have a math class where everybody's coming in at the last minute and it gets up to 25 kids and they can't get individualized attention I think we need to think about that as well but I don't want to you know put that on everybody's so I do want to address um and I can't give you a like here's the the number for each of these but where we know where um classes where there's a drop down so we review the drop down from each year so is it four students is it typically more than that is it seven kids and we look at the
121average level of level what we call leveling down and we look at that and then we also so when we're preparing for that class where the students May level down we start those sections smaller because we know that the kids are going to level down so we don't now that's where we start but then schedule sometimes dictate where if a child levels down so we don't they don't have to change their whole schedule around sometimes the counselor is going to put them in that class so that their schedule doesn't get interrupted with that said it's really not fair as some of the parents have expressed you know the class might have started out at 17 and then we had seven and they all went to that class so you know we we try to monitor
122that very carefully but you know we that's why we asked parents and students to make careful decisions because it impacts somebody else right if the and that their schedule may be impacted with those moves they might have to move out of an English class and go to another period another teacher until those decisions are really important because they not only affect that child but they affect other kids as well so we do take that into consideration but I do think that if we're going to revise these guidelines we may as well address the entire District at once and include everything up to 12th grade what our maximum class sizes should be reasonably um I mean I know it's a lot to do right now but it seems like we shouldn't leave out the junior high
123and high school kids from this let's say we were to as you'd mentioned if we were to change the guidelines it would take up to seven teachers we said no um 11 teachers 11. and we said it's 1.1 yeah 1.2 million approximately so how would we have I mean obviously we already have an approved budget right so can you explain to us how we would handle that if in fact we did that yeah so I'm gonna say this is not a one we are going to have to project out what the impact of this is over time because this is a huge hit to the budget at 1.2 million dollars and um that's something that you're you know we take Surplus money right now we're using money from previous school years to bring down our
124budgets from prior year so we're already tapping into that money um so I'd have to ask Mrs Costa to really put those numbers on paper to give you the impact of that I'm not saying like I I don't want the public to think that like this is about money but you have to know that the impact of this as one big picture and then if we're going to talk about the Junior Senior High School right it's a larger conversation and and so you need to go into this with eyes wide open and you know what the total impact is and I I honestly think we need to project our five years and we can look at the class sizes and you know see like what the impact would be over time and we we attending
125right now you know our enrollment has dropped um so we're grad you know we last year Mr danbowski where did we graduate 140 137 yeah so and then you know we see incoming kindergarten classes of about 100 105. you know so there is you know some differences going up you know we have more like around 120s I think at the Junior Senior High School um and we're not seeing you know look even Lloyd Harbor I think they had a class of 90 now we're down to a class of 70. so you know our enrollments aren't as high as they used to be at the same time you know we get pushback like oh you're cutting a teacher you know we had less students um in special education this year so we really could have accessed
126two teachers in special education one because children moved out of District to special programs and they were getting very specialized services so right that teacher is no longer needed because we're paying for that service outside of district and then we had another special education teacher not working in the special education department but we only accessed one of those two teachers to us talk to you about adding teachers to the Junior Senior High School Ela and math classes over the past couple of years to bring down those numbers we've also um over the past couple of years added Math teachers to the elementary AIS program we had teacher assistance providing those level of services so we added two teachers there we've added 2.6 special education teachers just last year that doesn't count that you know this
127one teacher that we did not access we added math AI Ela classes I mean I you know I have conversations with people I don't understand this but why we never had an academic Intervention Program for the Junior Senior High School um at particularly the seventh and eighth grade there was no English lab classes so it's like the kids were cured coming out of elementary school with academic needs so for the first time this upcoming school year they're getting they have the opportunity to take English lab classes in the Junior Senior High School so again I'm proud of the services that we provide kids but you know we have added and it's you know we have to be mindful that it is a hundred thousand dollar cost every time 100 plus the other thing I think
128we need to consider is it's human nature that we compare right in in the community and if you look at West Side compared to the Lloyd Harbor school you know what jumps out at me right away is the second grade is up to four students less right per average class size the third grade is up to two less the fourth grade is up to one less the fifth grade is up to three less and the sixth grade is up to two less yeah historically if you look at the data it pretty much West Side tends to run smaller just based on pure numbers where the way it falls out in the community but it's been a trend over time I mean there are anomaly years obviously the fifth grade the fourth grade at West Side
129this school year had more than Lloyd Harbor by almost five kids and then we put the teacher assistant in place so there are times that it does flip but over time if you look at it Lloyd Harbor tends to be two or three kids more you can I mean that it can make a big difference three kids very big especially the like fourth grade I mean they were really impacted with kovitz like shut down in kindergarten you know a lot of quarantine in first grade look the classes that I've asked you to watch right now are kindergarten that's 2021 look I I really truly believe that in K and one in particular those classes should never rise past 22 kids in a class I mean just in terms of you know you know the little
130ones come in in very different places and um I've spoken to you about the room configuration particularly in grade one echo's Hill those classrooms are smaller than the kindergarten rooms um but you know we want to see kids moving around we want them in centers we want them you know active um really catered to in particular um parents spoke about differentiating instruction today some Workshop models we are working on that to differentiate in mathematics we have a consultant coming in to talk about individualized reading instruction and really targeting specific skills for our kids going forward but you know bigger kids more furniture you know nicer Furniture takes up some space too um I am very grateful to the board for you know I just named a ton of teachers that I've added in my time
131here and I'm very grateful for you all of you listening and to these needs because I do think they're important needs that needed to be addressed and I spoke at the last meeting about the co-teaching classes as well in special education and that's something that needs to be looked at at the elementary level because right now we're providing double periods for kids and I don't think that's the best delivery always but again if we were to add a co-teaching model at both schools and and Goose Hill that's another 1.24 million dollars just in co-teaching classes now are there other ways to deliver that like a part-time teacher maybe we just do it at one school and the kids attend where needed you know so there's there's other ways to look at it but you have
132a lot on your plate right now to consider applications of the of the New York City numbers in terms of physical whether we have the classrooms to do that and we need the implications Finance fiscally financially what does that mean where are we getting that one point whatever million to pay for this if we were to do this so I think we need to get that information before we we consider something and and maybe you know maybe come up with a recommendation in between I was just going to say like I don't I'm going to tell you right now there I think some things coming down your you know your way based on some of these CVA cases I've talked to you about the CVA case and they're coming to settlement and the numbers aren't
133small so you know we need to prepare for that and yes might that be like you know right now and we've talked about like trying to minimize the impact on the students that are here today and and like it's you know it's been a struggle um but we also have a teacher contract that's up this year and you we've talked about just all the rising costs of inflation I mean Christine spoke at a board meeting you know when we talked about the budget and just a six dollar light bulb so things are going up and just the cost of our staffing alone and with the tax cap we can't go over the cap unless you know the super majority in the community um so there's things that the Board needs to you know we don't
134well this is a wealthy community the community pays for everything that goes on here we don't get the state aid that you'll be seeing in other districts and I'm not it's a tough decision that you have on your plate right now and I think look personally I don't think you can go to classes of 20 in K through six we don't have that kind of money and we won't have it going forward because we you know you have the cap so considering you know personally I think the 2022 and K to 2 came one in particular and then you know if you want to look at something maybe like no more than 23 but to go and say classes of less than 20. even in this community we don't have that kind of funds so
135if we did find a lower number like how would we get there would it take so for next school year for next school year I mean I'd really have to sit with Mrs Costa and talk about um it's going to be I don't know where I'd find honestly 600 even you know halfway there you know six hundred thousand dollars right now I mean there is we will have Surplus at the end of the year but we use that Surplus to offset next year's budget so it's not like you just have this endless amount and that money has to go in specific Reserve accounts and we can't go over a four percent in what we call unassigned fund balance um where you kind of have a little more wiggle room to use that kind of those
136funds but you can't go over the four percent so you can't over fund them from one year to the next to say well just maybe you know we might need this in fact there was just an article in Newsday about this topic and where superintendents are saying like we you know that we are trying to over fund them but they're getting dinged by the Comptroller's office that you know you're over funding and we're saying we need it for a rainy day and in Cold Spring Harbor's case right now we're going to need it for a rainy day so and also just when the board considers the financial impact it's important that we realize that one-time sources of revenue which are our fund balance our Surplus and our reserves really can't be used long term to
137support ongoing operations so for instance when you have staff that you're adding in perpetuity you want to find a permanent source of funding for that we only have two sources of funding very limited state aid and over 90 percent of our budget is supported by property taxes that the community pays and the property taxes are limited by the tax cap formula so we have to work within all of that to find permanent Funding Solutions for permanent costs when you use your reserves and fund balance you use those for Ebbs and flows that may happen in your budget an increase in a retirement contribution rate that the district has to make that's maybe one time due to how the stock market might have done and you actually can use some of that money for those one-time
138events that occur and they help even out the impact on your budget and to your taxpayers but but for ongoing costs let's say recurring staff you want to find that long-term Funding Solution and for us it's really only one source it's in our tax and what it's what our taxpayers pay so I'll have more information on the you know secondary program we haven't even been able to touch that yet and honestly like I'll I'm not I can't do that even by next week like we you know we're finalizing the schedule you know we have some preliminary numbers we want to make sure the classes are balanced and so there's some tweaks to the schedule that need to be made and some conversations obviously with the leadership there in terms of any recommendations um look I
139don't support like running a class of four kids right every class of four kids you know is a thirty thousand dollar price tag on that so you know while there are some opportu you know specialized circumstances that in some of the Arts and things like that where you know these are the only things that some of these kids take and need yes there are some exceptions to those rules but when we have other courses sometimes we have to combine them sometimes they might have to take a different elective and I hate to do that but like right now I can tell you our robotics I got two kids in one class and one kid in another class it's awful and I know those those classes are really important to those three kids but it's not
140fiscally responsible to run that that class like that so you know it's about having a conversation with the principal what else can I find that these kids are interested in that they want to come to school and and still learn that those skills so it sounds like between now and our next meeting you know again we need the classroom implications but maybe if there's a recommendation you can make between the New York City what we're calling the New York City numbers and the the compromise that we came to last week that would be within our budget if you think there's anything that we can do within our budget we would I think we would be open to that recommendation on top of my head looking at Lloyd Harbor second and fourth grade yeah if you
141can keep them under 24. you know particularly the second grade I don't think you know coming up to 24 and I have the child that's when you say 24 do you mean you split it at 24 yeah so then we'd have to split two and four right so it might be right exactly so can we start with that I mean kind of maybe say we're gonna cap it at 23 split it at 24. let me look at the implications totally across the board I want to have you have all the dollar amounts I want you to have the high school information and I want you to the long term kindergarten first grade we've already spoken about changing those guidelines right right kindergarten first grade great no kindergarten first grade is at no I'm saying on
142the guidelines we have three so I think we should change those guidelines for sure right didn't we say the max should be about 21. I I try to keep them no more than 22 but I mean they really run Bruce at 1920 2021. we have 22. we've had 22. the boards look these are guidelines I've broken them at 22 at 23. so I've never let them in my time here get to the 23 even though that's been the cap in mind when I walked in we were six feet apart that's not funny either when I think about it [Laughter] um but it was something you know it was challenging right so you know what's the best learning environment for kids even under those circumstances if we're looking at this summer um we're watching I guess
143we're talking about the number 24 you're really watching Four additional classes you one more watching grade two and grade four at Lloyd Harbor right now not not three and then fourth at West Side then fourth at West Side is at 23. I know I don't really think that's unreasonable to have 23 kids in a fourth grade class but if one moves in it's 23-24 like right or so we're looking at 25 or 24 that's what I wanted in fourth grade if you have the one it would be um it would be one class of 23 and one class of 24. and then so are we looking at the number 24 we're looking at the number 25 then right now anything that hit 25 you were breaking all right so is that what we're having you
144look at well we we need to understand the cost implications last week we talked about the cost of breaking at 25 so I think what Jill is saying right but correct me is that you're going to look at those cost implications of lowering it um we only have to add if you break 24 you got to break one you're gonna break another four yes so that's uh 4.8 to 5 teacher five total teachers with the specials The Encore classes so that's a half a million 5.5 million uh 650 almost 600 000. it's a lot of money I don't think I'm personally not recommending you get to the 1.1 million you don't have that to sustain over time is there somewhere in the middle I'm sure there is 24 a break at 24 is in the
145middle right cap at 23. if we don't have that money now is it something that could be added to the budget next year's but that's what we're Christine's saying to you you have to pay for this over time but won't it solely so so if you we didn't hit the tax cap we were just there we were really under by a hair um just for the community though it was it was I believe Thirty or sixty thousand dollars that we were under it was just a way of hair for example our love is about 65 million dollars we're sending increase to our Levy is a million three that is before we have done one raise one increase you know one collectively bargained increase one increase any increases to health insurance retirement system costs any of
146the standards that increase Transportation costs and then we're starting off let's say six hundred thousand dollars in the hole we have to make up that six hundred thousand dollars that we just added to this year's budget it would take away from that million three just high level speaking so you have about seven hundred thousand dollars left for the other items and I just know from building the budget 700 isn't enough just to cover the basic increases to those items so then the board in theory is met with two decisions to decide to go over the cap or what else are you cutting you know what else are you cutting to stay within the cap are you cut you know or are you an additional million dollars we use of reserved and fund balance than we
147had used in Prior years majority vote of your public so instead of getting the 50 plus one votes you know you know regular majority you need a super majority so you need to get 60 of your community all communities those with children in school and those without voting yes to the budget and then if the budget fails we go back to budget you have two options after it fails you can either present the same a revised budget or go right to contingency there's really three options but most districts come forward with the revised budget so what are we asking Jill to provide us with what recommendations do you want you have to give we have to give some parameters so she can I'm going to give you different scenarios so I'll give you you know
148doing it all to meeting you somewhere in the middle and we'll talk about you know Five-Year Plan related to that and then I'm going to give you the information you know related to the co-teach classes and I'm going to give you a little bit of information related to the junior senior high school once I have an opportunity but it's not going to be in the next week and keep in mind I have teams who work on this and they're not here next week even to even touch the numbers people need to take their vacation they you know like so by the I've always said to you by the first week in August that we have to make a decision on these things and more so I got to make a sooner decision with Mr Dan
149Buskey because that information you know he's got to move along on that scheduling so um not that the board typically weighs in on that but there are instances where I say to you I really want to add here or I'm really going to collapse so when you hear complaints from the community because I had to collapse this because I can't run a class of three and four financially like it's not smart breaking at least four classes right right yeah okay well and in addition to the two that we are ready I had contingency so to be fair right we always talk about that we plan for issues that come up but we've hit the contingency but but when I I know you've said this before but we budget for what we are projecting right so
150we've brought those down like even when I talk about the special education I knew I was going to need both those teachers so I didn't budget for both of them I didn't budget for all of these classes but we did do break what we call breakage so you know the for all these classes that I highlight I have to plan for that they might increase so I did plan for those three positions but that included anything at the high school they went over already and a point one here a point one there some child Moves In for three extra teachers okay so that we have yeah that's what I'm saying so I want to be fair attitude no but then we had the point ones and then the um all the specials at the we
151had a 0.4 reading teacher that we need to pay for we had a point uh one science a point one um what else do we have yes no that's 0.4 in Reading we have point one in science we have another point one and something else at the high school it's a point six overall uh p e um so it's a 0.6 right there and then these two positions so that's 2.6 plus they're special so I was up at 3-0 so we have three and we're considering potentially seven so you're looking for four how much four basically is gonna right so four would be the one four times one ten plus the um another it's really confused I thought the three was three was already spoken it is right like in the continuation and it's seven
152plus the incremental so right if it's a little bit so I know we're going to get more info but do we have other options like could we do I'm not saying this is a good idea but could we do like a referendum tying this like ask the community about it yeah that's a whole nother process that you'd have to put together it that's costly and you would what are you asking them for well if that people are willing to support the increased budget Christine you want to speak to that yeah that could only happen in May during the annual budget vote so it's that's a one bite okay take them you know Christine spoke about it at the last minute you can tap into the unassigned fund balance I'm gonna say again right now we
153are not in a position to be tapping these other accounts I just gave you a statement about CVA litigation and we are coming to an end on the CVA litigation and it is not small numbers that we're talking about so that money has to come from somewhere I can't really say more than that right now and so I out of fairness to the community I there are other factors that we need to consider to use Surplus the board would have to declare it like we talked about last time an ordinary contingent expense you'd have to take an action on that because the budget already has passed in May and then you would only be using a revenue source of one of those one-time sources of revenue your your fund balance or your reserves to support
154that and then when we built next year's budget we'd have to fold it into the budget and find that recurring source of Revenue which is where we'd be sitting at the table determining how to gain a permanent source of funding okay okay so I'll give you some scenarios I'll provide the information to the board if anything I would just say that since we don't have another board meeting scheduled until August that um should any thing change that I will communicate with the community you know I'll send out messages to the community you know should we choose to break four sections or whatever your you know decisions may be we likely would have to possibly call another meeting I do expect we might have to call another meeting you know when the CVA litigation settles so
155before August we're going to have another meeting at some point in time um but classes had you know to be made up so I I now have to task the principles with Alternatives because there's a lot of work that needs to be done now because in the certainly not in the class that we just spoke about um we have to now look at the makeup of those classes which are going to take those principles sometime to put to break those classes apart and they'll build a different schedule for the specials so we have um you know a couple people who have been subbing in the district we would certainly recommend but it's more than that then you have to pose for the positions and you want to find the best of the best because once
156you post these positions these are probationary they're not leave replacements and so you don't want to also hire somebody only to let them go the next year I mean that's not fair and no one will continue to come to the district if they think you're just going to access the following year so there's lots of steps if we were to make some adjustments to this so as soon as I can get you the information I certainly will sounds good okay all right so one good all right so we're gonna move on to our second public comment period in case anyone would like to speak at the podium it's Augusta Reese and I just want to thank Tammy Stark for making that motion um to make things more transparent I know that there are a bunch
157of people who are very upset before about a board meeting that they thought that they were being shut out of and I thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to get some transparency so thank you very much for offering that [Applause] we've recorded and Hapa host the board meetings for years and years you can look them up online we live stream and hold them board meeting board meetings yes we're talking about committees I think committees as well yeah absolutely if you look you can go to their website you can get anything committee meetings as well as board payments I beat you to it um all right uh thanks guys I know it's a late night but uh two things so going back to the class size reduction um I understand there's a challenge right
158um and given the numbers I jotted them down and everything and thank you so much for adding a teacher to the fifth grade class we very much appreciate it um I do want to revisit the second like second grade class because it's such a pivotal year they are not just going up a grade size um a grade level but they're going to a new school right and these are covered kids like I hate to say it but they need an extra set of Pair of Hands like 24 kids and we're not even taking I think there's also discussion before about the potential of new kids coming into the um into our town I mean even if one or two add to that that changes just the trajectory of the year for my son I would
159say and I'm just speaking for him if there's anything we can do we don't like if you look at across the classes it's like we we don't need to cater to everyone from my perspective the second graders and the fourth graders are very key I think ultimately down the road when we can plan for that is there also something to be done around all the special programs and special teachers that we have for the students right is there a way that we can offset that and have like as a parent I would pay for that out of pocket gladly if my T if my son needed extra support or extra help from a special teacher I would gladly pay but can we take some of that money that's already being spent and put it towards
160hiring a teacher for the benefit of all the students instead of just catering to a few few students so thank you thank you that's okay so the comps that you gave us tonight on Jericho with 1205 students in Commack with 22 22 30. um these some of these columns don't even seem relevant so this is called Spring Harbor I mean and this is our town but those Jericho and comac I don't understand why you were giving us comps based on the class sizes of those to us to the guidelines they're just that they're just guidelines nothing more they're not even good guidelines sounds like the classrooms are available but with some small adjustments budgets aside I believe but I could be mistaken that you can amend the budget you heard from the teachers today and
161they were passionate they told you exactly what they're dealing with when they were teachers so if we're going to listen to anybody I think I would want to listen to the teachers who taught actual students we say it's not about the money but obviously it really is right you made it perfectly clear the budget we can't afford it but and we have a which I'm just learning tonight a super majority that has to happen to get the increase but the thing that I have complicated in my head is that the current lawsuits and the class sizes those are two different subjects the fact that we have lawsuits coming down the pipeline that has nothing to do with class sizes I understand it has to do with a p l you have to do an output
162it could be whatever the dollar amount is but if you only have six hundred thousand seven hundred thousand in Surplus right now and you've already used the million or so from last year or whatever that that part was if you have a million dollar lawsuit or potentially two you're out of budget anyway so no matter what you have to do a super majority vote to get the to get the budget raised anyway I could be mistaken but this is kind of what I'm hearing you're telling us that the lawsuits are coming you're going to have to pay for them the the piper is coming right there's no money doesn't sound like there's money unless these are under 700 000 so it sounds like you have a couple problems true or not true but it seems
163like to me there's gonna have to be a super majority if we want to try to get this accomplished and 25 last week or two weeks ago that wasn't a win and 24 that's really not a win either so either we're going to do this like it's great that we're solving fifth grade but other grades need help too right they all need help and I think you need to take tackle this with bite-sized peace the the guidelines are set for the elementary school let's tackle one problem at a time I'm hearing tonight let's talk about the high school not to say that's not a bad idea that's a great idea but I think you have a lot on your plate right now just handling a brand guidelines that's outdated and honestly no one likes so
164to me I think you get a lot of work to head I thought we would have these budgets like I'm hearing rough numbers like a million dollars roughly for to get six people I thought we were going to get a little bit more concrete on this one now we have to like rush and rice and to the fences on like August very short amount of time for you to get teachers organize the classes I kind of thought honestly this would have been just a little farther ahead and I really would like to know honestly I think we all like to know of how the Board of Ed each individual member how do you feel about the guidelines some of you are new some of you may have voted for the past ones but where do
165you particularly stand on this issue I think that would be important for us to know the next meeting yeah but you know what I don't see any resolutions like you know what saying 24 where does that get us like one more come on we need this to be 18 to 20. I think we all know that hi I'm Nicole I have a sixth grader and an eighth grader I just wanted to thank these administrators who have families and I haven't been here since seven o'clock this morning probably so I just wanted to say that first and foremost and thank you all um for everything you do and also just wondering if there are any alternatives if you cannot do the hiring of additional teachers are there ways to have maybe additional staff be in the
166classrooms to help with you know I have a child who had an IP who was Declassified and I have a child who has been getting AIS since kindergarten so I understand you know she's struggled you know through her class experience and you know being pulled out for AIS has been great so I'm wondering if there's ways to have additional staff at the classroom to maybe support the kids to have more of that individualized learning and and support so um one of the parts of the board guidelines you know always spoke to having a teacher assistant in a class and we did that this current school year with uh west side in grade five thereby in instructional periods of ela and math bringing those sections down to 13 to one teacher during those times so you
167know I will definitely consider those components as part of the whole plan and that certainly is a much reduced cost than a full-time teacher although the teacher assistant is has the same certification as the teacher thank you just really quick question I understand could you see your name I'm sorry oh I'm sorry Jamie spevack I think um I'm not sure how the budget exactly works but I know that you guys took a vote tonight to approve borrowing money and I just want to understand do we then pay an interest rate on the barred money of money that we're supposed to get in December and if we are paying an interest rate then you're paying that on millions and is there any way to like backset that for like years to come so that we're not
168borrowing money and paying interest on money that we're going to get so you don't have to answer it you can send me an email I'll have somebody get back to you meeting okay speak about the tan borrowing okay okay thanks would anyone else like to speak tonight this oh sorry for that hi my name is Brenna benvenuti um I'm actually a parent of three children in the district I'm also a speech pathologist at Half Hollow Hills as well I just wanted to comment on the comparison of the districts just coming from my district which I've been in for 20 years half Hall Hills cap we've never actually reached that we also have many ICT classes with throughout the district which actually helps to service the needs of many of the students um and I just
169wanted to speak to that to many of the districts you mentioned such as Harvard fields and comac I feel that just a longer term look in the district that's important would be considering I know you had spoken about the cost of co-teaching but I feel that many especially at the elementary level students needs being met in terms of those classes is an important conversation to continue to be had because when we compare to other districts they they don't necessarily reach those Caps or they'll have those two teachers and they're able to meet many of the students needs that have special needs and I think it's just an important conversation to have thank you really hi Lindsay come back I just have a question um I feel like more so now than ever at least in
170my experience of the few years I've been here um there's such a a huge difference between the number of students and the sections even at Lloyd Harbor than west side and I was just wondering are the you know district lines for lack of a better term are they set in stone or is there ever any reconfiguring you're laughing that is this brought up before like I'm gonna tell you it's like the every superintendent's nightmare to redistrict everybody no I know but I I'm they're just telling you it's such a I feel like it's getting bigger the difference is really growing between the two schools and I I just wonder if you know a long term if that has ever been I'd have to really look at the space capacity too at west side right you
171know how much more breakage they can take um I don't mean to be smart alecky but if you've ever sat on a redistricting committee it's not fun [Laughter] for the community I awful I sat on one as a teacher in the hometown that I grew up in and taught in and people and speak to each other just moving a couple blocks that you were going to this Elementary School versus that one it can be it can be ugly because just people you know it's their home school and now they're traveling a greater distance and their siblings went there it's tough but it but again it might be something that we have to consider down the road if it it's here if they want to be honest okay so we have one other topic everyone else
172or are you finished okay no wait we know it's the recordings right yeah don't add things all right so I'll take a motion to adjourn Tammy Lisa wow it was really loud