001Um hello everybody. Welcome to the Hing Board of Education business meeting on May 5th, 2026. Um I please stand for the pledge of >> allegiance. I alian to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> President Clemens >> here, >> Vice President Valentine >> here, >> Trustee Mcnall, Trustee Copper >> here. So, tonight's meeting um as I said a second ago is a business meeting. It's also going to include um the required public hearing for the 2627 school budget. And then just to give people a heads up at the end of the meeting the board is going to um convene into executive session. So um but the first thing we want to do is we
002want to approve the agenda. So may we have the recommended action please? >> It resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. The board of education hereby approves the agenda as written. >> All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> We didn't do a motion. Oh, sorry. Okay. >> May we have a motion? I know. We have a motion, please. May we have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Um, I have too many things coming up in this meeting. So, I was going to take a breath. Um, all right. So, just in terms of what's coming up in the weeks ahead, next week the board will have an open meeting, but it will be a special meeting um here in the middle school library
003for the purpose of awarding the contracts for the capital project for the high school edition. So, that bidding process started today. Very exciting. We're going to hear a little bit more about it from Dr. Duffy. And then following the 12th, the following Tuesday is what we call our annual district meeting, which is the third Tuesday in every of May every year in which the public votes on the budget as well as this year's um open trustee seat. Um at that meeting, we're also going to have two um presentations. Um one is going to be uh Miss Jamman's elementary school visit summary. So the summary of when the board visited earlier this year as well as her report on the what's happening at the elementary school this year and then we'll also have our special education
004update because these are annual presentation board has um and we'll have that from Dr. Pay and then at the end of the meeting typically what we do is then we go into executive no then we go into recess and then we'll come back into the meeting to receive the um the results of the polls. So other there are absentee ballots and early voter ballots available at the district's office. You can access them by contacting um our district clerk Megan Shields or by going on the district's website. And just a reminder that voter registration is available on any school day, any school business day before May 15th between the hours of 8 a.m. and 3M in the district office. Um those extent my comments for tonight. Okay, so I have a long list, but it's all
005exciting things. So May is a busy but very exciting time of year. So I just want to highlight a couple of events that already took place that were really just a wonderful example of our school community. So most recently, we've had Rock Capella, we had our high school spring concert, we had elementary talent show and also Arts Alive. And I think I've mentioned publicly and I continue to just say that I'm so in awe of our children, the passion they bring on stage or the passion they bring on the field. It's just amazing and a lot of fun to see our kids do the things they do and the amount of community members that show up. So, we have, as you probably all know, we have families that have been coming to these events for
006years and we even have some couples that still come and this is their date night out and they don't have kids in the district anymore. So, it's just it's a credit to our school community that just it warms my heart every time on my calendar is some type of concert or play to attend. Um, upcoming we have the middle school and elementary spring concerts for the rest of May. That'll kind of round out all of our spring concerts. Um, in sports news, we are busy with the spring season underway. We have our senior nights um ongoing now through the rest of this uh seasons. Our boys track took first place in leagues and our girls track team took second place in leagues. So, that's again something else to celebrate. And then May, if we're not
007done celebrating enough, it's also what I call like the appreciate appreciation month for all. So this week is teachers appreciation week but my thought is we celebrate our educators each and every day. So this month we also are celebrating our school lunch heroes, our bus drivers, our principal days. So thank you to everyone in our staff. Um you know I'm a little biased when I say this but I mean it. We have an amazing staff here who truly care about our kids in each and every day. And I wish my kids were here in the district if we were um able to do that. So it's just it's a blessing to be working here with such amazing people. And a special thank you to our PTA for hosting all of the celebrations every day. There's
008another treat that's been left for each of our buildings. So, I know I speak on behalf of the district and the staff when I say thank you for just taking a moment to acknowledge food goes a long way. Stickers go a long way. Just acknowledgement. So, I think it's nice to take a moment and express gratitude. And I just appreciate that in May we have a chance to be able to do that. Okay. upcoming. We have orientations coming up for pre kindergarten as well as um middle school also in the month of May. Um I mentioned the athletic senior nights already. So very exciting. We had our uh capital project the bid opening today. It was very wellreceived. We had multiple biders for each piece of the capital project. It went extremely well. Now we're
009kind of working through what's going to be the lowest bidder to kind of walk us through the next part of the process. But all signs are pointing to we're in a really really good spot for the capital project. and I will continue to update the board and the community and we'll have some more information. We'll have our final biders um to come for the meeting next week on May 12th. So, that's all very exciting. Um and then last but not least, get to embarrass Peggy for just a moment. So, Peggy is receiving the Mid Hudson School Student, nope, Mid Hudson School Study Council Award for Excellence in School Board Service. So, Peggy, as you know, has been on the board now finishing up 11 years. and I had to take the opportunity to find a
010way that we could continue to honor her. So, the board and I wrote some recommendation letters and she is receiving this award welldeserved tomorrow night. So, the beginning of just really thanking Peggy for all of her time. So, I'll get a picture. I'll share it out. We'll do a little tweet or something after, but looking forward to celebrating with you tomorrow night. >> Thank you so much. It was very sweet. >> Okay. Congratulations. I kept looking at her and saying you did this. I was really I was super I was and remained super touched and really honored and um just Yeah. Thank you. So, thank you that so yeah, it'll be nice. Um, all right. So, now we're actually going to go into the public hearing um for the um the adopted budget for the
0112627 school year. So, the way that we'll work this, so I am actually now opening the public hearing. We have a really pretty brief presentation, which I think is really driven by sort of what the district is required to present um at these kinds of presentations. Um but then we'll open the public hearing. I'll give the board first a chance to make any comments um about the budget and then we'll open it up to the public. Um unlike our public comment periods where the board typically doesn't answer question or engage in dialogue, folks who have questions about the budget tonight, um Dr. Duffy and Katherine are prepared to answer them if they come up. So I'm actually just right. >> So before Catherine begins, I just have to acknowledge again again I've worked in a
012lot of systems and I'm very continue to be very impressed by Katherine as well as our administrative team. This is truly a collaborative effort and we're in very good hands as we navigate the many different challenges. So thank you to Katherine and our team for continuing to provide input and the board as well as we move through the budget. All right, go ahead. Okay. >> So, our proposition as you know is uh to the shall we be allowed to expend an amount of 31,892,876. That is proposition one, the school district budget proposition. Um just a quick reminder about the property tax cap. It was established um in 2011. It sets a tax levy limit on all school districts. It's sets the total levy that a school district can um increase the tax li levy by,
013but assessments and equalization rates will still impact impact the tax rates. For 2526, the district passed a budget based on a 2.80% tax levy limit rather than the 3.38% that was allowable. This year, our 2627 allowable property tax levy limit is 5.53% which is a tax levy increase of $1.2 million. And this increase is largely due to the impact of the borrowings for the capital project. The tax levy limit would have been around 2.7% if we did not have these increased debt service payments. Um our budget priority fundings this year with we are planning an increase of $175,000 to special education. Again, this is uh primarily for any necessary outofd district placements. We also have not increased our athletic budget in years and we do have a need to increase that by $40,000 which will
014include uniforms, some additional athletic supplies, increased team fees for some of the um teams that we do for instance like our hockey merger, things like that. And we also have contracted for ambulance service at all home football games. We're also excited to put in $16,000 to have light rentals so that every fall and spring varsity sport can have one game under the lights this year. Um, as you know, lights are not here in on our property. It is part of our long-term planning, but this is a way to get every um fall and spring varsity athlete a chance to play under the lights. We did add $10,000 as we start planning for steam. Um, this would enhance our curriculum supplies, any professional development that we need as we start to really plan to have a
015full steam lab in the upcoming high school edition. We budgeted $10,000 for any middle school transition costs that come up. And again, as we've talked about, $25,000 for the school transportation assistant. Again, not an administrative position, but taking our current dispatching position and increasing it a bit so that there's a little more day-to-day oversight of the transportation department. Our revenue summary for 2627 is is where we get our $31.8 million. Our tax levy will be 24.7. State aid is coming in about 4,500,000. Um, as you may have seen, this budget has not been set by the state yet. They just passed, I believe, their eighth budget extender. Um, we do not anticipate anything incredibly change any incredible changes to state aid. Um, I'm very hopeful that if anything, it might be a very small increase.
016Um, but we will not know until that budget is actually set. Our other revenue is $1.7 million. that is primarily tuition income that comes from our Garrison students as well as some students that tuition in uh into the district by choice or into our special class in the elementary school. And then each year we plan for an use of fund balance of $645,000 and use of reserves of $250,000. The reserves would be primarily to pay for retirement expenses if necessary. And then we get to our three-part component budget, which is how we have to present it during the public hearing. Our administrative component is everything that it costs to actually run the school district on an administrative level from the board of education, the superintendent, the business office, um, and its related employee benefits. Um,
017as you'll see, it's stays pretty consistent, somewhere around 12% of the total budget. Our next component is our capital component, which is our operations and maintenance department, the associated benefits for those employees. Um, any capital inner fund transfers as well as our debt service payments. Um, as you'll see, there is an increase in the percentage from last year to from this year to next year, which is primarily those increased debt service payments for the capital projects. And then our largest component is our program component. That is uh the heart of housing, the actual instruction and student experience. So our teaching of regular school um special education, instructional media, pupil services, our transportation and again uh sports is in there, guidance is in there, uh co-curricular activities is in there and the associated employee benefits for
018that and it remains the largest portion of our um budget at like you know somewhere in the 73 74%. So this is just a summary of the totals for that that show us how with the three parts we've come up with our 31.8 million budget for next year. Uh our key figures, the total budget-to-budget increase is $1.7 million or 5.77% and our tax levy increase is 1.295 or the 5.53 allowable. for our levyto levy increase. We thought it was important to show this slide that shows that overall our school the school budget portion of our levy is actually one of the lowest tax levy increases in the last three years. If you looked at just the school budget portion of the levy, it would be 2.68%. Um, but the total levy is the 5.53 because
019of the the impact of the capital project or 2.85% 85% of the levy being for those debt service payments. The tax impact per home is broken down in this chart. And again, just a reminder that approximately half of that tax increase is towards the debt service payments of the capital project, which as Dr. Duffy mentioned, we did have the bid meeting. Uh bids will be awarded next Tuesday and we will break ground on that this June. And then just keep in mind the 2526 school budget was below the tax cap. That was in recognition of the community's support for the 2024 capital project. Approximately half of this tax levy is due to the 2024 capital project. And it is important to note that if the 2627 budget is not passed, the previously approved capital project
020will continue and the district will need to make reductions in other areas. we will have borrowed the money and we will have to start paying the debt service payments for it. Just running quickly through all of our propositions for um May 19th. Proposition one, our school budget of $31.8 million. Proposition two is our school bus purchase. This year we will be purchasing one 24 passenger school bus and two minivans. Uh this proposition is tax neutral because as we pay off the debt for last year or for previous year's bus purchases, they take on the same amount of debt to purchase the new ones and that keeps it tax neutral. We have proposition three of replacing the tennis courts for $275,000. that is tax neutral because with voter authorization we can remove that or we can
021withdraw that money from our capital reserve and pay for it directly out of pocket without any impact on the tax levy. Proposition four is um transportation reserve. What are what we're looking for here is the ability to save up to $5 million over the next 10 years. And that will help us to start a savings account for any expenses that are coming through the electric vehicle mandate. Um for whereby every school vehicle that we purchase has to be zero emission. We have one trustee seat up for grabs. Um that is the one three-year term that will take the place of Peggy. And proposition five is the Butterfield Library budget. Again, this is not a component of the housing budget, but education law states that if the li local library asks us to put a number
022on increase on the budget, it goes on our proposition and on our ballot. And then contingency budget. If the voters reject the proposed budget, the board of education has two choices. The first choice is to call for the revote of a revote of the same budget or a modified budget. They also could enact a contingency budget at that time. Um, if we went for a revote of the same budget or a modified budget and it also was defeated, we would have no choice but to enact a contingency budget. That would require us setting our tax levy limit to 0% increase, which would be a reduction of just about $1.3 million to the school budget this year. A contingency budget only includes the expenditures that are necessary to provide minimum minimum services legally required to open
023and operate and maintain our school buildings and the educational program, preserve the property of the district and ensure the health and safety of students and staff. The board of education, if we got to this point, would work with the superintendent who would work with the administrative team to determine expenses to be removed or reduced. There are certain expenses that we would not be allowed to include in our budget. Some of those are equipment purchases, certain materials and supplies, but other things that would not be enough to get 1.3 million. So, we would have to look at athletics, extracurricular activities, field trips, um staffing, and possibly class sizes. And a reminder, the school budget vote is Tuesday, May 19th from 7 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. It's going to take place in the elementary library. Parking will
024be available in the bell lot. And on that day, uh, people will be able to use Craigside Drive to approve for the >> Oh, the budget vote. >> Oh, and that's it. Um so first any comments questions from the board? Uh just to reiterate gratitude for you know the multiple times we've had an opportunity throughout the process to see the budget develop and that's certainly requested this year and I think it's very beneficial for us and for the community to have eyes on it >> as this conversation moves forward and >> thank you very much for >> I mean it reflects what we've known to be the case I think uh since this process started and um I was particularly pleased to see that small graphic sort of carefully communicates what exactly we talk about
025when we talk about difference between capital versus program. I think that's very useful. >> Um I appreciate >> Yeah. I mean thanks very much from me as well. I also you know we've gone back and forth about like how exactly to roll out this process and I'm sure for Katherine and Dr. WA like again and again. But I do think it's really I think it's a lot of information and I think um uh it is helpful to me, you know, and I and I think it's probably helpful to the community. So, I really appreciate that. And um you know um we know without making too big of a deal about it, you know, we're the the program part of the budget is 2.68%. But if we go back to that um is it that the
026in the district priority slide that's that's not a lot of of money and and so it really does reflect I think the the impact of rising costs um and you know we we're achieving those enhancements what I think I don't know total maybe $250,000 total um with the 2.68% 68% piece of the tax levy increase and the reduction, you know, some some realignment and and a reduction in staff. So, I think it really does speak to the potential challenges that all school districts in New York State are going to have. You know, for as long as I've been on the board, the district continues to look for efficiencies in those restructuring is an example. as some shared services. There's many many examples, but there's just no getting around that. Um certain expenses are are rising
027very very rapidly and we're always going to be limited to something for the programmatic piece of the of the budget to you know around two two and a half% and so it'll become increasingly there will be I think we'll need to be more innovative and there will be harder decisions to make. So, we really appreciate the the the effort that's gone into getting us where we are. >> And I just want to clarify that the reduction in staff is due to a retirement. It's not a reduction of actual >> Yes, we've talked about that before, but I appreciate you making it clear right now. Right. It's not Yeah, it's not um it's not a layoff, but it still is really continuing to think how can we be the most efficient with the really excellent staff
028and the excellent teachers that are here and that want to come to appreciate that. >> Yeah, I agree. um just having been engaged in this process as a school board member this year and last year just to appreciate the thoughtfulness that um and the all the hard work that goes into developing the budget. You know, before you become a school board member, you sort of feel like well the school has determined that they need this much money to run the school for the year without sort of realizing in no way it's a blank check. Like it is a very thorough process discussing with so many um you know diff the administrators and teachers and figuring out where efficiencies can occur and what goes into um creating the priorities um that that um uh for the
029district. And so I just want to say um I appreciate all of that effort that has gone into it. So, it is a public hearing. If anybody from the public has questions or comments that they want to make, we welcome you to come and do that at this time. >> I'll pass. >> Um, all right. So, with that, I'm going to close the public hearing. Thank you very much. One step closer to this year's um budget vote. So, we're now at the portion of the meeting which is an opportunity for uh communication and comments from the public. The heling board of education desires and values input from the entire school community. This first public comment session is reserved for comments on any special presentations or active agenda items. For those who wish to address the
030board, we'd ask you to state your name for the record and then when you're finished to sign in. We'd ask you to keep your remarks to three minutes or less and to refrain from making disparaging remarks or discussing district personnel. Um, the board does not engage in dialogue during these comment sessions, but we'd want you to know that we are listening. And one of the reasons we ask you to leave your contact information um with the district clerk is so that um uh the superintendent or I or someone else can follow up with you um as soon as possible. Next on the agenda, we have our information reports. Way exhibit business reports that will be in our business meeting. And now we're going to move Oh, no. First, we have uh the committee minutes from
031the policy committee. So, you guys are working on a lot of things. We have two policies um on uh our agenda later on today. Is there anything else you all want to say about the work y'all do? That is >> really minor tweaks like one was just like one word change. Um yeah, really minor. >> Okay, great. >> But you all are discussing some other >> Yes, we have distant neutrality which is always interesting coming up and we thought we would put that in um workshop, right? Workshop coming up so we can all sort of discuss. That's something that everyone needs to weigh in on. Um, oh, and waiting for the, you know, AI. That's always >> when everyone wants to know when we're going to have a policy on that, but it's really, >>
032It's complex and it takes input from a lot of different admin. >> And I'll mention tomorrow Josh and I are attending an AI policy workshop through school blitz. >> Oh, fantastic. >> And then Josh will attend the next policy meeting to just give policy committee an update of kind of where we're at. first. >> Thanks. Um, all right. Now, we're going to move into our consent agendas. First, we have our consent agenda for the minutes from our last meeting. May we have a motion, please? >> So, moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I Any opposed? Next, we have our consent agenda, financial. >> So, moved. Second. Um, I think there's a couple of things we want to recognize here. So, appointment of a secondary special education teacher, which is really very exciting.
033>> Yes, next. >> That's the next one. Sorry. Finance. Financial. >> Oh, sorry. That's right. There's a lot to approve. >> All those. So, I am looking here. >> Hey, you think I've never done this before? It's okay. >> Um, so sports merger agreements, nothing really unique on here. Um, all those in favor I >> I >> any opposed? Next is consent agenda personnel. >> Um again, so recognizing um some appointments of some teachers, some of >> Yeah. Yeah. Great. >> So, super excited. So, we are appointing tonight um Emily Marsh who is going to be a secondary special education teacher. She's coming from Scarsdale, but also has experience teaching in the city. And what I appreciate um sitting in this seat when I have a chance to meet the final candidate or the couple
034final candidate is just like what are you going to bring to Haldane to not only strengthen what we currently do but to elevate our thinking and I think the way she looks at children and life and it's a strong strengthbased approach to working with kids that I think as a special educator is just so so important. So super excited to welcome her and she's also a graduate of Heline. It's very exciting, >> which is wonderful. Um, also on the agenda tonight, we have are the appointment of Eric Dalio, who is going to be our student teacher. He's not new to the district. He completed a leave in the fall um music for us and was so wellreceived. But what he's bringing is in addition to his music education. He's done a lot of work with
035software engineer and technology consulting. And so he is looking at steam and steam stands for science, technology, education, um arts and math. He's bringing all of those skills with him as he's joining us. So we're thrilled to have him as well. And the last person I wanted to mention again is not a new phase to us. Christina Gail is going to be stepping in as a special education teacher. So, she has been with us at the elementary um building for a couple of years and she is switching over to special education and she's bringing that strong instructional sense with her to now work as a special educator. So, we're thrilled to be able to have her in this new role starting next year. >> Great. All right. So, all those in favor z. >> Any
036opposed? >> Right. Moving into new business, we have the CSCF recommendations. May we have the recommended action, please? It resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby approves the recommendations of the committees on special education and preschool special education as presented. >> May have a motion, please. So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? I >> I. >> Any opposed? Next is the approval to conduct the annual organizational meet organizational meeting on July 1st, 2026. May we have the recommended action, please? Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby approves the July one approves July 1, 2026 as the annual organizational meeting date. Um, may I have a motion, please? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >>
037I. Any opposed? Um, and next we have the approval of the Westchester Platinum School Board Association slate of officers and directors as well as their budget for the 2027. May we have the recommended action, please? It resolved that the board of education casts a yes vote for the 2026 2027 Westchester Putnham School Boards Association nominating committee slate of officers and directors and a yes vote to ratify the 2026 2027 Westchester Putham School Boards Association budget. And we have a motion to second. >> Um all those in favor I. Any opposed? Next, we're going into the first policy reading and potentially adoption, right, of um policy 1640. Um so yeah, so everybody's had a chance to look at it because there's a minor change. It's being presented for first reading and adoption at this time. May
038we have the recommended action, please? Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby waves the second reading and adopts policy 1640, absentee military and early ballots as presented. >> Have you have a motion please? >> Second. >> Um, we already kind of talked a little bit about it. So, all those in favor? >> Any opposed? And next is um just the first reading for a policy on medication and personal care items. And so um I guess this a little bit more extensive changes. I actually read through it. I I really think Erie Oh, it's just a discussion. So yeah, I think I is getting so good with language. I mean, I really think the language changes that we're starting to implement in policies is really very
039good. So I appreciate it. Um, some of it's more pragmatic, but some of it I I really do appreciate. Um, anybody have anything else to say about this policy? >> So, it'll be on your next, not the 12th agenda, but on the 19th agenda. Does it make sense? >> We put it on the 12th unless people want more time with it. >> Might as well just on the 12th. Yeah. I mean, we are meeting. It is. >> It's a really straightforward one. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Actually, no, it will not be on the 12th. I think we'll keep that singular. >> Okay, that's fine. >> 19th. >> Okay, so the 19th. So it'll be on for the 19th. All right. Um, so now we have an opportunity, the second opportunity for communication or comments from
040the public. This is for all district matters. All right. So, um, board reflection. Anybody have anything to say? >> I'll take a stab at a couple things. The, um, >> the, uh, spring concert was phenomenal. >> Um, you know, I I stayed through the whole thing, you know, because you want to really see how the kids are really playing. Um, you know, well after my child had finished, right, you know, and, uh, Yeah. Yeah. You're like, "No, I want to hear what the rest of these kids are doing." And the uh first off, the uh everybody did incredibly well. The chorus is phenomenal. Band was great. The jazz band was fantastic. So really kudos to all the work that those kids put together um and with their adviserss and uh and it's just really impressive
041to watch. There's a lot of sound being produced by very few people >> which is really impressive. Um and uh plenty of sound out there for softball if any of you guys are gonna roll in >> to see uh what was your second your second ranked team, but we lost today. So >> that was a bummer, but we lost to the number one, so that's all right. >> Uh we'll get it. We'll we'll see him again. >> So that's a very well very well coached team, but our girls played well. >> Great. Thank you. >> Thanks, Ezra. Well, I've driven through campus three different times. Max has been walking to school, but I'm like, I got to go check this out. You know, how the pilot's going like sort of progressed through and it's like
042interesting to see so many fewer people in vests that are needed like as it's gone by. And I'm like, but it's so smooth. It's so smooth on campus. It's really kind of, you know, I'm not sure how everything's working off campus, but from what I can see on campus, it seems like it's really limiting the um, you know, traffic and kids being at the same places at the same time. So, yeah. >> Yeah. >> So, that's great. Is it going till the end of the year? >> Do we know yet? Is there >> through that? Most likely it makes sense to have it to go through the end of the year because we're still kind of testing now. So, to your point, when we first started, we had 18 deep 18 >> fields. so many
043vests everywhere >> and that's not realistic. So from a systems perspective, I have to make sure if we assign a couple that it can naturally happen. So we need a bit more time with it. >> So I'll be communicating that out to the community soon. >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean the spot on like person I mean talk offline too but the spot like crossing Main Street to get onto Cedar is a little bottlenecky but you know >> discussed right turners don't let in left turns. No, those >> Megan does not not >> have a heart. >> We are continuing to work with the mayor. So, we're >> another crosswalk or something. >> Great. I mean, talk about having a strong collaboration meeting with both mayors to just kind of talk through what we need to
044looking at crosswalks, crossing guards, what needs to be painted. I mean, it's really been a pleasure. When you think of a pilot, you're like, "Okay, we're testing something new." knew and while I anticipated the feedback, what I I'm pleasantly even more surprised is just how great the village is working with us and listening to our concerns. And also again, just thanking, you know, to the community since we I updated the group last. It's only a couple more pieces of feedback. I'm looking at Megan because she's holding that for us and it's pretty much saying the same thing. It is smoother on campus and we want more crosswalks and we want additional, you know, support for walkers off and on campus. And it's a gentle reminder to those driving to be mindful of like are you
045on your phone when you're driving? Are you looking at the sidewalks? Are you stopping when you should? So safety, it's it's going to take a village as always to be able to move anything through. So just a reminder of all of that as we go. >> I don't know if they but I remember when I was a kid and maybe they do it now like when school started there would be like all these public service >> announcements, right, about driving and safety and being aware. I mean, it's something to, you know, to to to really think about and to to message to the um, you know, to the community. Um, >> and there is a Putinham County safety council, making up that name. There is something that we started to look out to just for
046that point like what is the educational message that we can continue to share with the whole community. >> Right. Right. Well, and you know, I mean, it's interesting there might there might if it is proving to continue to be a problem. You know, some targeted, you know, messages periodically in a you know, in in some different ways might be the right way to to go. There's a lot of reason. >> Are we are we collecting data on if more kids are taking the buses during this? >> Still, we're not I'm not seeing that as much. And I can honestly say now I keep looking at Megan, I think I've been on all the buses. So, I have gone on every single bus at least once to just get a sense of I mean the kids
047are like, "Why is Zach Duffy on the bus?" I'm like, "I'm hanging out with you all." But I get to see the routes. I get to see what I really appreciate is our bus drivers know our kids by first name and they are giving fist bumps or high fives. They're asking kids about how was your basketball game last night? How was the math? Like, they really have got to know. >> That's nice. >> And then it's just helpful for me to see number of kids on the bus. And so certain days of the weeks have more kids than others depending upon sports in CCD, that type of thing. But then also just how skilled our drivers are. And you all know the roads better than I do. Like some of our roads are so narrow
048and they're moving the buses in and out safely and calmly. And I've seen community members going right past buses when they're stopped. So there's there's pieces. Anytime that does happen, we are informing the police. But there we have some drivers in the area that are not following traffic rules, which is not great to see, you know. Oh, >> I know. I have a follow-up question at some point. So yeah. Yeah. >> Uh I guess the other two things I know I believe today is an a today is today the first day that the advanced placement tests >> this week next week. >> Yesterday >> community who are dealing with that this evening and and also I know the decision day was last week. Congratulations to >> seniors who have now are on the record in
049one way or the other. All the parents who are perpetually posting about it and relief. >> Oh, good. >> Well, well, relief with their financial planner. >> Relief at least that part of the >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> And I think I thanked in a text message back to the traffic pilot, we had Katherine and Megan and Dr. Duffy. The best hold. Thank you everybody for yeah >> saw everybody that those first two mornings out there. So >> that's part of cool effort. >> It was a big undertaking. It was important. It needed to happen and it was a it was a brave thing to do. >> We're still standing. So that's >> good. I was really very impressed. >> Yeah. >> Safety and security first. Dr. Duffy. All right. So at this point
050I'm Oh, superintendent kind of thought. Yeah. So, I'll just offer Sean started speaking to it. So, like May and June is such an amazing time in a school district, but it's also such a busy and can be a stressful time for our kids and families. So, I'm always holding space for students who are going through APs, regences, we just had the three through eight testing, college decision day, transition from school to summer and all the family obligations and things that our students have. And so just as I as I continue to get to know the kids, I have a lot of one-on-one discussions just about social emotional learning and self-care for our little ones up to grade 12 and then also our educators. So my big message to our teachers and staff during this month,
051but always is take a breath for yourself because we show up every day for the kids that we have the honor to work with, but if we don't take care of ourselves, we're not our very best. So I have that message frequently with students one-on-one. You know, I see kids flying from one act one activity to you could tell if they have their sports gear with them or if they're running with their instruments. So, our kids are super busy and then our that means our families are super busy. So, it's just taking a moment to acknowledge all of the great things that we have, but then also it's a lot. So, the more we can take a breath and remind each other of that, it's so important especially in May and June. >> Great. >>
052Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah. Absolutely. >> Right. Well, as I mentioned earlier, the board is going to convene into executive session and we'll adjourn from that meeting. So, I am moving to um adjourn into to convene into executive session for the purpose of discussing the superintendent's evaluation as well as matters pertain pertaining to pending litigation. May we have a motion, please? So moved. Second. >> All those in favor? I. >> Any opposed?