Haldane Board of Education - March 18, 2025 PART 1

001hello and welcome to the Tuesday March 18th hame Board of Education Workshop meeting um I'm calling the meeting to order we have a packed house that's very exciting um please stand for the pledge beler to the flag of the United States of America it stands Nation indivisible andice president Clemens here vice president Valentine here trusty clemenson here trusty copper here trusty mcnell here okay I don't believe we have any changes to the agenda so may we have the resol the recommended action to approve the agenda be it resolved that a on the recommendation of the interim superintendent of schools the Board of Education hereby approves the agenda as written we have a motion so moved second all those in favor I I any opposed all right I'm going to keep my comment super brief we

002have a pasted agenda tonight uh so two quick things the first is that the helding Board of Education will conduct a business meeting our next meeting on Tuesday April 1st at 7:00 p.m. M here in the middle school high school library and the second is that there are two Board of Education trustee positions up for election this spring uh petitions for anybody who's interested in running are available in the district office or by contacting um our district clerk um those are due with the the signatures and the first campaign expenditure statement no later than 3M on Monday April 21st if anybody is interested in running for the board as always please reach out to one of us on the board we're always happy to answer people's questions and actually also point you to where you

003can find um information about running for Schoolboard in New York state all right Mr Albano sure I have a few brief updates uh since our last meeting uh there's been some progress up at New York state with the state budget so on March 11th the Senate and assembly released their one house budget proposals I know the board has been following this story but I thought for our community and and it's related to our budget presentation later uh there are some uh interesting highlights uh that that I think pertain to hdan or may have an impact on hdan first uh the governor proposed a 2% Foundation Aid increase but I think it's worth mentioning the assembly is uh counter proposing a 2.9 the Senate is is looking for a 3% so that could mean the difference

004of about 30,000 more in Foundation a for our district if if the assembly or State's proposal was accepted we've talked a lot about uh smartphone bans the governor did propose a bell-to-bell smartphone ban there was a lot of push back on that um I I think the consensus across at least the region and I if not the state is is that cell phones should really be left up to districts to decide their policy for example here at hdan we do believe we have a very effective policy they are not allowed during class time during instructional time however students are able to use their cell phones on a free period or lunch or in the case of an open Campus of course they can have their phones with them so uh there's been some advocacy and

005and it seems like um there uh our Representatives at the assembly and Senate level have really been responsive so they are proposing a modified version of the governor's uh plan that she rolled out so we will find out more um probably within a month also um access to school meals um there is full support for that so we are pleased about um having breakfast and lunch available for students uh dual enrollment is is at the high school level Mrs sniffen uh understands you the courses we offer oftentimes uh the advanced courses could uh receive college credit uh so there is some funding for that for for families that may need uh assistance and then our students could receive a college credit here here at our high school so that's a real positive thing Universal pre

006um the first time uh we're here in our district we are launching a prek in the fall so that's really exciting uh there is a $5,400 state aid um that the district would receive for each student uh it's 5,400 per student for a maximum of 18 students that $5,400 amount has been in place for at least 12 maybe 13 years so there's been a lot of advocacy to increase it the Senate uh and I'm pleased to see this has proposed 6,700 the assembly is proposing 10,000 per per student so that could be a uh you know significant difference in in Aid uh so our timing is really good here and we're going to remain hopeful that maybe there's an increase this year uh good news too Miss jamond told me we are up to 17

007registered oh my we only have one seat left and and it does close at the end of March right that's right so looks we may have a full class zero Mission buses um the um Senate is is advocating for an extension there have been some challenges uh especially with pricing and affordability uh good news the EPA um still intends to award $965 million as of a few hours ago I visited their website that funding still seems to be available we will find out by May uh whether or not we our application is approved approved but we do have an application in for electric buses um this all uh hopefully will be resolved by April 1 that's always the state's goal sometimes they go over this year I think you there's a lot of agreement on

008on a lot of the the major issues so I do think we will see a state budget uh by April 1 we'll keep the board and Community informed uh C quick Capital project update we're excited we have uh completed our schematic design phase we just received a 170 page report this afternoon we're starting to review it uh but it's very exciting uh in two weeks we'll be looking at a preliminary Budget moving on to the next phase which is um design development it's a lot more detailed and then we have our architect CSR will be here to present to the board on April 22nd and we'll invite we have a number of community members who have been very interested and and giving us input along the way we will make sure we reach out and

009invite them as well uh I think it'll be a good opportunity to update the board as well as the community and you plan to share the schematic designs with the board sooner rather than I'm remembering that right because I think a coup most people haven't had a chance to see the evolution of some of the stuff some of the designs and I think people would be interested in seeing yes yes it could be your your weekend reading this weekend 170 pages of schematic design no but it is exciting um uh just the I want to say on the board agenda I think you I'm sure you've seen this but um Miss sniffin and I are recommending uh that the howan Outlook um we we've had two uh pilot um it's a pilot program right now

010um I I just want to give a shout out to Kiera Shanahan and Lincoln whan they're the editors there's a whole group of students that are that are really engaged and and supporting this but the first two Publications were really outstanding uh for the first time out and uh Miss sniffin and I met with with our parent volunteers and shout out to uh Jen Zar zarit and John whan they have really been working with the students but we think it's time to to make this publication something more permanent supported by the district so Mrs sniffin has on the agenda this evening is recommending an additional advisor to support that we do have some money in the budget for next year also thank you to the foundation who really gave the seed money uh for the

011publication so it's been a tremendous success and uh it is is proposed tonight for the board's approval to make it a permanent uh extracurricular activity here here at helpme lastly um Steph sonheim into the woods is this weekend and I this sniffin just sent a little preview for me to watch before the meeting and it's very exciting I'm reminded of the The Amazing Music and and uh lyrics with associated with the place so if you can Friday Saturday or Sunday matina please come out and support the students that's make a reminder all right um we thank you so much sure we have two special presentations and the first one is about the Butterfield Library proposition that will be um part of the annual District meeting but you want to come up we're gonna ask you

012to come to the here and there's a clicker there's a what clicker clicker Blended right I don't know if you need these we do have printed them so you should get them that's right you brought them I actually yes people worked very hard to get these know not required but it is our our district cler all right so I'm gonna assume that well first of all thank you for your time I appreciate you having us here we really actually worked I speak for myself and the board I have three board members here with us tonight we worked really hard to not have to be here for the past few years um in fact the last time was 10 years ago that we um put a proposition on your the school budget so reality has set

013in um a few factors at play which I indicated in our uh presentation but I won't go through through everything in detail you all can look at that yourselves I don't want to take too much of your time but um one of the most important things is actually this year is the library's 100th anniversary and with a hundred years comes a lot of issues as we know um Building looks pretty good for its age but there's a lot of things that um structurally and um Staffing wise service wise that we need to address so one of the things that we always find interesting is um the question always being asked who uses libraries anymore well this is just you know few of the people in our community who use our library every day I know

014actually almost all of you here are big Library users so thank you for that but we do a lot of work in the community that I think um not everyone is always aware of they think it's just a place for books it certainly is a lot more than that um some of our statistics um we have 3,000 Plus card holders my uh percentage there is the registered School voters so that shows that almost you know a large percentage of the people who are voting have at least one card per household many people have multiple people in their household using the library but just one card so numbers actually probably a lot bigger than that so in total we have over 50,000 items circulated which shows that we're still getting that's a a big number um

015one thing to highlight there that plays into the cost that we're facing now is that our electronic materials um has skyrocketed so that number reflects where we were in 2015 we had 2,000 plus materials borrowed it's called um includes um audiobooks ebooks um videos that you stream now we have 20,000 so that's an 800% increase which is a big cost uh we also can look at the minimum wage which was nine bucks in 2015 and we'll be $16 in 2026 which is almost an 80% increase and that means that all of our salaries will have to increase proportionally with that we have a lot of Staff members who have been with us for a long time ebooks are our cost now is about $8,000 which is a 200% increase over just last year and that

016is because we are now required to pay for our sh share of our Patron ebook use umin our library system so that means we are responsible for a lot more and we can no longer wiggle out of that um we have to you know pay to play as they say um Insurance costs I mean these are all things we all know everything has just increased so much more um I don't know if you can really see these pictures don't necessarily show it in its True Glory but that's our seal um which has as I think some of our board members can attest you you know started out exists and is now that runs the entire length of the building um the one on the lower left there we also need to address our Ada um

017issues which we are we have received some funding for that but it doesn't unfortunately will not cover the breth of what we need to do um as you all know our building is a historic building we have amazingly beautiful heavy wood doors which um one of the reasons one of the stumbling blocks to getting those ADA Compliant was putting door openers on those doors that is going to be a huge cost and we're hoping to be able to retain our historic doors um those doors also now have uh lots of gaps which lets lots of stuff in so we need to address that um so every want to just stop by and take a look at our crack you're welcome to do that moving on um the library board is proposing a $25,000 increase um

018so that would bring the total tax levy to 98150 um again we've not requested an increase for 10 years we were really hoping to not have to do this um we manage to get by um we do passport acceptance um and so we do get some a fee for that from the state however actually Federal fund ultimately but because another library in the area will soon be doing that we get about 90 probably 90% of our applicants come from Beacon there're they'll soon be doing the same service which means that will bring down uh the amount that we make and that's um a big factor as to why we haven't had to ask for an increasement ble to use that funding for a lot of things and this amount uh you know we we're trying

019to be um very conscious of the economic realities that everybody is facing now we you know we've for all these years we've said this is not a good time this is not a good time well you know this is not a good time but we really need to do this uh this amount reflects approximately if you averaged it over you know if we had gone out for a a budget proposition every year for the past 10 years the uh ATL is approximately like this year it's 3.38% this would equal about what it would have been over those past 10 years um many libraries do do that where every year they ask for their you know recommended increase and we again tried not to have to do that so this is what it reflects um based

020on the number of Voters so it would be you know an approximately $5 to12 increase um for the year so it's been a very small amount yet it is again significant we are very aware that it is still significant for many this is what it would would amount to that $25,000 though would go very far for the library oh did I just turn it off a that's what you call Mic drop yeah well I be done okay thank you I don't know what I did I should not be trusted with one of these um so the $25,000 will go for uh part-time Tech help we also throughout the years um we've had people come and go to do maintenance for us but right now um maintenance here and as you saw from some of the

021pictures I certainly not capable of that but we we literally have we we do not have a handyman we don't have um any type of maintenance for the big jobs we do have um fabulous um person who comes once a week to clean the building but that's all we have we also will need um funds to keep Pace with the you know very large increase we're seeing in the minimum wage it will also go for these books that are patrons want now that um they are requesting more and more ebooks and these are two of our popular e- material platforms canopy and hoopla which Butterfield Library proud to say we have like one of the largest um circulations of these uh platforms but that also means it's a lot more money because we pay per

022item and I don't know if people are really aware of that and it's very hard to budget for um so we if some of you who may be users no we've brought down the amount you're allowed to borrow as the budget keeps as the usage grows because we haven't been able to keep up with the cost and we'd like to continue to expand the access TOS um if we don't get the increase one of the things that we might have to do is cut our hours we are currently um open seven days a week we're open two evenings there's very few places that can say that um and we might have to cut evening and Sunday hours as just a start the other thing is programs we might have to eliminate or charge for programs

023we currently do not charge for any of our programs um never have and the only things that you might see a charge for is something like defensive driving which goes directly to the instructor but in terms of what the library puts on we don't charge for anything um that includes our week of summer camp that we have done for historically for the past well probably 15 plus years um we might have to eliminate that we also have just again just an example we do chair yoga um we would start having to charge for programs like that also we'd have to further r or even eliminate canopy and importantly further defer our interior and exterior needs um which as we know just means costs will keep accumulating um this is a copy of our budget which

024is available also on our website and at the library and in this presentation if you would like to see it in more detail we plan to have Q&A sessions three separate ones one on the weekend one in the evening and one during the day time to try to you know have time for everybody to come and ask us any questions when they have that is me now I can do the mic drop should I turn it off or leave it you can leave it Dan thank you so much thank you valet sit or stay um why don't you say first second see but I just just to make sure that we're clear the the way that New York state does this is when libraries want to have these kinds of levies they appear on the

025annual School District budget vote but they're not school district taxes and it's something listen I'm one of the people that started reading voraciously during Co I'm one of your biggest OT users you know so I can speak from personal experience how much has gone a lot of it could be actually um so I do know and I mean it's a tremendous it is a tremendous resource so it's not to say that the this isn't a really important use of Community funds but it is in the school district's best interest to really clarify that these aren't that piece of what people are going to vote on on that particular proposition on May 20th um those funds go to the library they don't come to the school district and the way that New York state does it

026this is just how those absolutely that's how we are yes yes but anyway that was a really hopeful presentation I learned a lot good people are people have any questions or even people from the public since this is a community issue well I mean it's difficult to uh overstate the amount of use that the library gets in my house my son is doesn't do many things but he does read like nobody's business and um there isn't a time where I don't see people availing all the services multigenerational health I really appreciate you getting this yeah good luck yes thank you so much thank you for your time all right it's all good it's actually me I don't know um Gale do you want to wait until I do my little Spiel so you don't have

027to stand here the whole time stand the okay why don't you do that all right um so after a thorough and months long search Project later in our meeting tonight the board of education is going to appoint Dr Gail Duffy to be haldane's new superintendent and she will start on July 1 um so I'm just going to say a couple of minutes worth worth of things um 29 uh Educators applied for the position and the group included a number of sitting super sitting superintendents and assistant superintendents throughout the process the board was focused on identifying a an experienced smart leader who is committed to supporting all aspects of educating students as well as supporting our valuable staff and Educators someone who values the importance of continuous Improvement and reflection and someone who was really excited

028about coming and being part of our very special housing community because it means so much to us um over her 29y year career I hope I got the math right um Dr Duffy had has moved through just so many of the really critically important roles of the people who serve students in districts she started as a special education and general education teacher then became an assistant principal and principal then director and superintendent one of my responsibilities in this process was to speak with Dr Duffy's references which I'll be honest was really a pretty delightful experience um the people I spoke to had so many positive things to say about her and her ability to lead they they described her as a lifelong learner who is trusted and respected by those she works with a deeply

029compassionate leader who's also able to make and Implement tough decisions with needed but will do so with Grace and honesty and in partnership with others a strong advocate for teachers I have permission to say this one of Dr Duffy's references was a former union leader from one of her previous districts and that woman really had a lot of things she wanted to tell me so she's a strong advocate for teachers she's someone who celebrates successes but also strives for continued improvement improvement someone who can do uh the work to make a good system even greater so in Dr Duffy the board feels like we've identified someone who is compassionate highly respected and passionate about public education and um we're excited to introduce her to the community can stand up and hear so many nice things

030about myself thank you and thank you all for being here tonight I did prepare some remarks um I'm much more informal but a little more formal tonight so I'll just get started so good evening I stand before you tonight deeply honored and humbled as the next superintendent of schools for the howan Central School District and my heart is full of gratitude first to the board of education and to Megan to the administration team that I had a chance to meet and to Lyn Allen and Ne Bo from putam Northern Westchester bosies for the really beautiful warm welcome and the really thoughtful process I really felt from the beginning until now I've gotten to know so many people in the community and that's important to me because as much as you're interviewing me I'm interviewing all

031of you in a good way and it feels like the right fit so I'm really just so grateful and most importantly to my children Owen and Abigail you are my constant inspiration and thank you both for being here tonight okay so my educational Journey has been really enriched by every school Community I've had the privilege to serve and I'm thrilled that it's led me here to heling I'm eager to immerse myself in this very special Community to learn and grow alongside all of you I grew up in New Yorktown my family visited C spring often and then as a young adult I also visited did a lot of the hikes visited boscabel love Main Street and it's just it feels like too good to be true to be here tonight with all so as you've

032heard I've served as a teacher both ele Elementary and special education I've also been an assist parer of special education an assistant principal and principal in elementary schools director of curriculum and assistant superintendent for instruction and human resources and in each of these positions titles are titles what really matters is the work and so to me I've learned the importance of building strong relationships having open communication being an active listener especially in tough times and supporting the social emotional learning and wellness and not only students but our staff and our school community and that's everything I'm hoping to bring here to how I'm especially excited I heard you're doing a capital project perhaps really excited to be that work and also to be part of the ongoing work of calate Essentials the core of values

033and your strategic plan I aim to lead with authentic heart where all of the needs of our students will be prioritized and understood over the coming months I plan to spend time in the district to get to know staff and students and the community so that when I officially begin in July ready to Jo join you as a true blue devil and thank you again for this incredible opportunity so well Dr duy is making the rest of her rounds I too want to thank uh again the community members who participated in the focus groups and the survey um I know all of us referred to those materials um uh multiple times uh and uh you know definitely to uh Lyn Allen and Neil Bo boil from puam Northern Westchester Bose's I they were very supportive

034to me I think in particular was it felt like a big um and important task to undertake but they supported the whole board well thanks very much the board members and also thanks again uh to the administrative team who participated in the last phase it really was a a community effort so thanks and we got to see a lot of each other all right um all right and thank you so much for your kind words welcome um all right so now we have another H uh not a special presentation but a presentation from our student advisor so Zora kapor and gianina manfredy would you please come and do your presentation hi my name is Zora I'm the senior class Treasurer and I'm Jo Bina man Freddy and I'm the student B vice president um so

035the Howe drama club has been working hard to prepare for their production of into the woods the performances are this weekend at 7 pm on Friday March 21st and Saturday March 22nd and 2m on Sunday March 23rd into the woods the Steven saai musical meaning learning the music has been more difficult than some past productions um but the cast has embraced this challenge you can expect to see intricate sets and beautiful costumes um along with your favorite fairy tale characters due to a high turnout for the audition process a new bonus show has been added this year for the understudy cast um they will perform the first act on Thursday March 20th at 3:30 p.m. this has been a great way for more students to have opportunity to stay involved in the drama program play

036a larger role um and make sure to come see into the woods um students in AP Spanish and AP French will begin applying to be awarded the Seal of biliteracy in Spanish and French um in order to to apply for the Seal of biliteracy students must find a topic of interest that interests them and can be studied in the context of Spanish and French culture um they will make a presentation in either Spanish or French that explains their topic and includes references to literary literary texts articles and an audio recording a panel will hear the students presentations to judge if they have met the criteria candidates for the Seal of biliteracy must show Proficiency in speaking a foreign language and using it to understand and convey Concepts and ideas this is a great opportunity for

037students to display their achievements in their foreign language and dive deeper into the culture that goes along with it Juniors will embark on their trip to Washington DC on March 24th and will be arriving back back in Cold Spring on March 27th students will learn about deep culture throughout the trip and experience Interactive Learning students will be divided into groups of eight people groups will spend most of the trip together and will be paired with an adult supervisor students will have opportunities to participate in optional activities during the trip for example there will be a wreath Lang ceremony which is a tribute to the men and women who have lost their lives for our country this trip provides students with an active fun and safe environment away from home where they can gain more knowledge

038about our nation in addition to the Juniors attending their class trip the sophomores will also be making their Journey to the Bronx Zoo on March 27th students will have the chance to learn about different animals and observe them in their natural habitat they will be allowed to explore this zo safely with a supervisor in addition teachers and parents will be attending the trip to provide the safest environment for these students ultimately students will have a new sense of Freedom as they get to choose their activities for the day as high schoolers progress in their Journey they can gain freedom and opportunities on class trips it is crucial to recognize the value of Freedom students will be provided with throughout both the sophomore and Junior fast trips you taking questions yeah thank you for that presentation

039I are either of you going for your seal of V literacy um I am this year for French yeah okay I was want um how's your experience been so far and like how do you pick your topic do you get like supervision throughout that process um Madam Hopkin's been really great about it we've had each quarter we've compl completed one like mock presentation kind of and it's really allowed me to like get the criticism on how I view the topics and everything we're um given like a list of AP themes and context that we can choose from and I think that's really great because I can choose what um I care about and I can um pursue that with in French and it's super cool to learn about things that we don't actually learn in

040the classroom if it like um applies to a certain thing that I'm interested in for example like um I did a presentation on um beauty and fashion and I did a different one on environmental um studies so that was super nice excellent okay thank you and what years sorry I forgot um I'm a senior and I'm a junior so you're going to DC good that's exciting yeah I'm excited yeah okay anybody else any question thank you thank you both so much really app and you all are welcome to stay but don't feel compelled to stay because we know you're busy so you're welcome there's no isni that would be one so they sat they sat right away right look that principal so um right the next day the next item on our agenda is our

041Workshop topic for this evening which is the school um and athletic visit summary and detail report so um thank you um obviously this is just the high school uh overview for the school year um there were a lot of topics to think about this year and a lot of things that are going on um and so I reached out this year to the board of ed to say what do you want to hear about like I can talk about a lot of things um and these were the different items that I brought forward to the board um so my own goals as the principal potentially diving deeper into some of the data um that wasn't presented during Josh's report on regent exams um the proposed changes in graduation requirements that were're starting to hear more

042and more about some of our department focuses um courses course sequence building a master schedule which um often times for people they don't really know the ins and outs that go into that um talking more about the seal by literacy or Civic Readiness or potentially an update on some of the clubs and interest groups that are going on so I took all your Fe feed back and I was able to bring it to three areas but if you've noticed there are some of those other topics are woven um within many discussions that are happening tonight including some of the things that the students have shared so tonight what I'm going to do is going to talk about the principal's goals um and their impact on the building and where that stands and what work we're

043continuing with I'm going to talk about the shift in proposed graduation requirements um that the Blue Ribbon commission um has stated as a a branch of the board of regions and then I'm going to talk about um the work that our department chairs um have done with their different department so in terms of my goal the first goal related to curriculum um the summer work this year really did focus on um writing curriculum but through a lens of udl and I must say in reviewing and looking at the summer curriculum work that came back from all of the faculty um that definitely was embedded that udl uh lens through the curriculum writing um the core class unit overview Maps um most of them are now completed on the Shar drive to be able to see

044um We are continuing with our udl book study during faculty meetings we actually are only through three chapters right now um but we will we're not going to read the book in entirety there are a few chapters um that Dr silky and I um spoke about that we don't think are as essential for us to do because we did do some preliminary work last year around udl um science curriculum alignment with next Jed standards I know Mr Panella isn't here now um but he's been doing a lot of work in that area as well um and then explore other elective courses that might be options um moving forward in terms of data um this year all of our department chairs have now level one access to State data and data reports we were able ble

045to secure some planning time um and looking at nwaa data and depending on the department it depends on how much time they've been able to spend looking at nwaa so for example math has definitely spent a little bit more time looking at the data and maybe it's just because they're data heads and they're math people um but the way things have rolled out this year they've been able to take a little bit more time in that area um we have been able to review individual student progress and put into place some high leverage practices um this we're rolling out right now um thanks to Regina and some federal funding um we were looking at ways in which we can address some of the needs of our students that struggle with standardized assessments knowing that obviously

046that impacts graduation and what are some high level practices that we can put in place um so together um the teachers have identified students that could really benefit from these supports and and we're going to take some of that Federal funding to provide some tutoring for students um specific to Regions coursework um in addition we've expanded the Continuum um at the high school this year so again you don't work in isolation right that's obviously a project um together with Regina we've been working on and my third goal is the focus and the work on the whole child um so this year I believe at one point I have mentioned this um but unfortunately um we needed to make sure that we had a grief group for the children of the high school um and it

047was important that that grief group not be on campus but that grief group be off campus um and we've been able to work with the Hub um to provide that support so they meet once a month um and we've been able to connect families with that resource uh the jtk foundation came back again this year um they focused their work in nth grade and we continue our countywide collaboration with Sydney which is the distracted driving program for our seniors teen and kids programming um which is peer mentoring um our students take part in the Youth Forum which is coming up in April in addition to have many students this year that are involved in the Youth Court um in the area are um Nancy Martinez who is here and Jackie McGrath LED on the ancient

048generation book read and uh we're now taking that book read to the PTA and hoping that we can have a group of parents interested in in reading that um as well it really was all about um what I did wrong um with my son not my daughter um just try um that's why you have two that's why exactly um the other and in regards to the whole child this is just a continuation um a lot of interest groups really have sparked up this year um and we have a science interest group which Mr posnak um has been overseeing and they were actually quarterfinalists and our first ever science Bowl down at Manhattan College this year um we have a knitting interest group um this Saturday they were at the shop in town which was also

049a fundraiser for the food pantry and they were down there knitting um and Michelle Cordo oversees that Amnesty International interest group which has been Jack and McGrath overseas and they've been doing some work on um Asylum seeking Deca which is an interest group and I can't remember who stepped up that's on marketing it's marketing business design Graphics um students doing that and then um one thing that is still continuous that we have not gotten to yet is documenting some of theal work um that ubiquitously is within the curriculum So within the literature we read within um the social studies content um looking at where those seal standards tie in and documenting that so as we turn to um the Blue Ribbon commission um under the uh Board of Regents there is a lot of work

050that has happened over the last couple years in regards to gathering information from different stakeholders and what is important for a student um in regards to graduation and what does that look like is it still passing Five Regents exams um or are there other things to look at and we've already seen different changes happen we know we have two seals right we have the Seal of biliteracy we have the Seal of Civic readiness um there are um CTE conversations happening we've been working on our steam programming we know we're building a new steam lab what does that look like um so some of this work as I talk through it you're like but we're doing some of this yes we are doing some of this some of this obviously intentional work because we are also

051following what's happening at the state level so the Transformations that the um Blue Ribbon commission are recommended fall into four categories adoption of a portrait of a graduate and to me when I think about that I think about the heing and a lot of the feedback that the state has gotten fall into those categories that we have identified as important to us as in the housing Essentials redefining credit when I think of this there's a lot of conversation around voice and choice and I'll go a little bit more um in depth as I get to the next slides um transformation three is the sunset diploma assessment requirements which would be referring to the region exams doesn't mean we won't be giving region exams um but sun setting that that would be a must to graduate

052from high school um and then uh transformation four is moving to one diploma type none of this has been approved yet so it's really important that you're hearing this um from the Pres presentation that came from the Blue Ribbon commission but they have not yet the board of regions has not yet approved this there's only one piece that has gotten approved so far so transformation one is what I kind of said before here they're looking at what are the portraits and the skills and the knowledge that they that we want to see in our graduates and those were the top six that have come out right now and when you look at them you can see some alignment with our Essentials and the things that we're already looking to embed and working on embedding in

053our curriculum and in the work in our classrooms so do I see a hute shift if this is adopted not huge only that we may need to assess it and how do you assess it so New York State when we get to the timeline you'll see some of um the things they're working on transformation two um redefining credits and I had mentioned this I look at this one as a little bit more of the choice that students would have more choice in um what it is that they're seeking to do so work-based service hours or maybe senior internship um dual credit programming that came up tonight already the seals we already offer the two seals we know there's the option of a seal in art and we're hearing of a seal in Steam um so

054those two uh we don't have yet um we could work towards a seal in art um but the steam one is not yet defined um traditional courses um CTE the career and Tech programming which we often defer to bosis for that programming um so that is something that would be in transformation to that we would be talking about um and then also there are obviously AG exams are not again not going to totally go away transformation three is sunsetting what you see on the top so what you see on the top is the current graduation requirement the first circle is the 22 credits which all students need to graduate from high school you then have the English regions the math regions a science regions the social studies regions and then a pathway most high school

055students the pathway is another Regent exam because they take multiple exams they may take two maths they may they take two social studies um two Sciences three Sciences right so most of our students their pathway is in another Regions exam some students do um use their bosis programming some students could use the Seal of Civic Readiness as their additional pathway um we currently do have what's called non- diplomas which is the career development occupational studies commencement credential and those students do go to bosis and that would declare them ready for work um post post high school it's not considered a graduation uh high school diploma it's considered a credential two things that they have already um put out there um in terms of curricular things that they're focusing on is financial literacy and climate literacy

056um we do offer courses in financial literacy I think our board who visited members who visited actually saw um one of the those classes and I'm not sure if you went into environmental because I think that's an afternoon class and you were there in the morning so you didn't see that so those are two that um have already um been spoken about sure moving to one diploma type um the next slide gets to timeline so they're not doing all of this at once you'll see how there's a gradual progression of this happening um but New York state every high school has a different diploma uh I'm sorry a different transcript and they all look different um so what this is is there will be one diploma a high school diploma as opposed to what we

057have now um which is a local a Region's diploma or a Region's diploma with Advanced designation but we'll go to one diploma there will be multiple seals if this is approved so multiple options for advanced designation um we've talked about the seals and then there will be one state transcript um that's what's being proposed this is the timeline and so you'll see this current school year they still have not finalize the portrait of a graduate so 2425 was to finalize the portrait of a graduate they're still working on it just last week on March 11th this was approved the exemption for diploma assessment requirements for May major life events so we just learned last week that if there is a major life event or a major crisis in a student's life and it's days before

058a regent exam they can be Exempted from taking the Regents exam and still get the credit we just learned that this is the first time the teachers are probably hearing that um and then the 25 26 school year the credit requirements which will phase in in 2027 so that would be our current sixth graders it would phase in with but at that point regions would not be a mandate for graduation if this passes and I'm not I'm going to stop you can read the rest through goes all the way to 29 2029 is when we would have one transcript and one diploma type so that's the progression I'm going to quickly go through these um I wish I could just call on my department shairs are sitting here because a lot of them are sitting

059here and they can share what they're doing but it's it's right here um we talked already about the alignment um in science uh we are working with an outside consultant Naomi cup has been working with the science teachers specifically Earth Science Biology and then the teachers who teach six through eight um as Maryann mentioned in her presentation we are looking to expand the offering of grade8 biology um which would then allow greater access to Upper science level classes at at the high school school um and the science department has been helpful in looking at um enhancement and instructional practices that are related to technology so this is like what do we want in the steam room up at the high school um Mark and Gabe um have been helpful in the work in that area

060as it relates to math again we talked about data um one interesting thing that they're looking at is the impact that that you know we 3 through eight is now all digital computer-based testing and when you are taking a math assessment how does computer-based testing impact the learner um and how are they showing what they know on a computer so they've been doing some work in that area The English Department has done a deeper dive into AI um both from the teacher level and the student level and we're also now um thanks to the English Department starting to track students use of AI um when it's not specifically stated this is a project in which you can use AI um so some interesting data um being collected there the social studies Department last year we

061rolled out the Seal of Civic Readiness so they're reviewing that um and making some tweaks connecting the senior internship with the uh seal of Civic Readiness and um we are looking to propose a new course next year which is the human geography um and an elective in that so you'll be hearing more about that World Language um the World Language department has been looking at checkpoint a and checkpoint B checkpoint a is given at the end of year one or level one checkpoint B is given at the end of level three um checkpoint a has made a decision to move their endof thee assessment to the on Herer Madison bosies which has developed an assessment for checkpoint a checkpoint B is staying with the assessment that we have which was developed by putam Northern Westchester

062bosies quite a few years ago we are getting um some samples of the checkpoint B assessment from the Onida bosis because the state did just say that if a student passes checkpoint B through an approved uh assessment it can be one of their Pathways or their plus one so just like the Seal of biliteracy is a plus one now getting through checkpoint B could be a plus one um they're planning their full day immersion and they're in the middle of reviewing textbooks for their French hes so informative I do have one I hate to ask it yeah uh because that was a lot um you're the you just said that checkpoint B and the Seal of biliteracy would be both plus one um though it seems that the Seal of biliteracy is traditionally for students

063who attain more than a level three yes and so you know can you stack seal is that like what we're doing here so yes so on your on your diploma right which you get your seals at graduation yeah so you know I always say to the Juniors that are in World Language if they're continuing and they're going to take the AP course that when they're applying to colleges they can say a candidate for the seala by literacy they don't have it yet they don't get it that sticker until they're walking across the stage and they don't know if they receive the seala by literacy until after their presentation which take place the week before the AP exam got you okay I think the timing of the capital project could not be more perfect right with

064this portrait of The Graduate um coming down the pike with the the focus on Steam and CTE so I just want to highlight that really happy that that is working out and thank you for putting together the group of students that Sean and I met with when we first got there we had a really engaging conversation about AI in the classroom and how students are using using it and I found out that they tend to use it a lot more in their Humanities classes than science and math when they put in like a calculus question that completely stumps AI um which I find fascinating um one thing that a lot of them said they tend to use it mostly for developing their outlines when they're preparing a presentation or a piece of writing and I

065think that's interesting I also just want to say there's we should take a little Caution with that right English teachers you know what that's an a really important skill that kids should be learning you know as part of coming up with what they're writing to not have ai just be generating the outline for them so I'm just you know I was Cur I was interested to know that that is what most of them feel that they use it for and start using [Laughter] it like you're not already using I yeah I it was it was really wonderful to spend some time with with the students and my I I had a I had a sniffin that was one of my tour guides Kelly was wonderful an open as a lot questions of me which I

066thought was very stew and um I did ask since superintendant are on their on on my mind if they had a sense of what a superintendent did and not surprisingly no they didn't really know he seems to kind of move from one place to the other kind of glide through I don't know exactly what it is but I will say I will say that at least one asked if uh if superintendent Albano was a candidate um because they have really enjoyed having you here this year and um so that you know that's a wonderful indicator that this has been we made two good choices at the end of the day but I did have a question about the about the region exams and the distinction upon graduation between a seal versus what the add-on I

067guess impact of a region exam might mean to an outgoing graduate you know now that there no so first let's remember they it's not approved yet right um the federal government requires that there are standardized assessments given and so I don't foresee them fully going away unless the federal government is going to make some changes which that could very well happen um I think that um you know the Region's diploma which it's not going to be a Region's diploma anymore you're just going to have a high school diploma and then you're going to have a seal right and so do I think I mean 40 states do not have graduation assessment requirements like we do so do I think it's going to make a huge difference I don't um 40 states don't do it if

068you're applying to internal New York State Sunni schools that might make a difference um within it um they did talk about rigor right and and ensuring rigor while we're still doing this it's not like we going to throw out the Regents and it throws out rigor right you have to ensure that the curriculum is is um there it's written it's explicit um our lessons are developed based upon those standards um and so I I don't foresee the regions being an end all Beall anymore I think knowing that the regions isn't necessarily tied to the course can allow our teachers to be creative to go deep into areas that they believe the students need you know more Focus or attention on it can allow our teachers to be creative um in their lesson development right not

069and I I know our teachers aren't teaching tied to a test right um you know that's not what they're doing but you know come the end of the year you want your students to do a practice test you want to make sure they have the ability to sit for that extended period of time um you know so I that answer question that does that does um I think for New York State schools and colleges it might have some impact but beyond that yeah and we know that it's not gonna be on anybody's transcripts right right which is a whole different conversation which right now it is and nobody loves that chemistry what is the um the relationship like or the workflow like with the state when they when they make these am how are you

070finding things out and because I in terms of the work you're doing a lot of the work already some of you know some of the things that are going to are mutually exclusive but in terms of when you find things out is it stressful I mean is it a lot of changing that you'll have to do so I went to one of the first um Blue Ribbon commission conversations and um we were down at the southern Westchester vosis um and so you start to hear and you start to understand like what's happening around you based upon the questions they're asking you right so it's just like we do our portal to get feedback right they're asking like give feedback give feedback they throw out these emails we want feedback um and so when you see

071the questions they're asking you can kind of gauge where things are going and and what direction things are headed um you know I think our work over the last few years and and this work started a while ago like this isn't just like over this course of this year like the Gathering of information I think it was it was preo or was it right after covid like three years four years ago so I am making sure I'm reading what's coming out from New York State um I'm reading the emails I'm diving into when it says graduation requirements I'm making sure like it's it's packed in there um and then obviously you know having Josh too um is is great as you know back and forth and Regina as it relates to some of the um

072impacts on special ed and so I think when we come back from our meetings when I come back from my principles meetings um you know we we discussing it we know it's going to impact Us and how it's going to how it's going to impact us we don't know exactly yet but um your presentation the fact that you had all these topics to choose from and we only chose a handful of them and then your your presentation was still so full of so much information is a real reminder of the just the breadth and depth of work you know that's happening in all of our schools so um I know we all really appreciate it it sounds like y all had a great day yes we did thank you and so now Mr Cunningham will

073present um the athletic um had a different name yeah uh first of all I want to say congratulations Gail welcome AB board and thank you to the board for uh the opportunity here just to do a quick presentation on Athletics I also includ some some health stuff so uh we'll get going uh basically you know our vision statement this is what we tried this is what we strive for in athletics just to follow through on what we talked about a few years ago I think last year we kind of we came together as an admin group to can talk about our vision statement so just want to put that up there for us um basically going to break it down tonight fall winter spring uh we don't have spring numbers but I'll get to that

074in a few minutes but basically what you're seeing here is your your participation rates for boys and girls in the fall Sports um we broke it down there's 317 high school athletes 49% particip participated this past fall 47 for middle school athletes uh we had 27 seniors this season 18 boys and nine girls um so I thought our fall numbers were were pretty good across the board um one one big concern I think right now is our modified football so we're still you know our numbers are going to be you know we're we're light but we're we have a plan in place to make sure that we can keep that program you know sustain that program over time otherwise you know I think we've been pretty solid across the board with our participation numbers especially

075in the fall and we offer so much for our uh student athletes just a quick season recap uh um I just basically listed some things uh one of the key highlights I believe you know I think is our Varsity cross country They Are CL the boys were class D Champions this year and they competed in the state championship um they took fourth out of 11 teams throughout New York state that's the highest we've ever placed um Owen Powers became the first cross country Runner to qualify for the New York State Federation if you're not familiar with cross country the Federation race brings everybody together so that's Catholic schools private schools schools and the public schools up at Bowden Park so he uh had an opportunity to participate in that and that's by invite only so

076that was something that was one of our first athletes to ever do that so that was a highlight to our season there um our Varsity tennis team had a great season as well one thing about the tennis that we're seeing is our numbers are starting to increase in tennis um so it's it's been a it's been a nice surprise over the last few years um cross country actually I just highlighted her because she did qualify for the state championship as well uh winter sports um basically as you know we do offer you know we offer three Sports we have basketball for boys and girls and we have track for boys and girls so these are our numbers across the board um one of the things that we made a decision on kind of right in

077the beginning of the year for modified basketballs our numbers were low so we were able to work with Garrison to merge with them and I think it it benefited our our athletes in particular because it it created a larger opportunity you know it's I think Garrison had seven nine or 10 we had six so we discussed what would be a benefit for both teams so we brought them together and they they competed as we've done with other sports but this is the first time we've done girls basketball so it was a positive experience for our girls and to keep them interested in basketball our JB girls basketball numbers were a struggle this year we did start with about 10 we had four girls you know just decided not to participate anymore so we ended up

078with six so again we're we're working to increase those numbers for the girls in the winter season for basketball especially so this just wanted to kind of highlight a couple things um you see a low percentage of middle school because we do just offer for middle school right now boys and girls basketball if there were an interest in the future I'm not saying next year because I didn't put them in the budget but you know a possibility is if there is an interest there is modified track that's offered in the area so if there is an interest there if we need to look at you know looking for more participation that might might be a possibility in the future so I didn't really see the interest for next year but I think it it might

079peak in the next few years just something to think about uh winter season recap our Varsity uh boys basketball we're League champions again um I believe I I should have looked it up but it's I've been five time you know five or six in a row right yeah so it and this year this is coming off a you know a season last year as you know it was very successful so it was a rebuilding year and they had a had a successful year doing that our girls basketball were Class C finalists they actually beat a team in the semi-finals that beat them twice this year so that was quite an accomplishment for them so so they they started to come together towards the end of the year and then our indoor track for the first

080time in school history we were able to uh win the league championship for boys and girls and then we had the 4x200 relay team qualified for the state championship um down at um so the state championship is at Ocean Breeze in Staten Island which is was quite an experience and then they ended up taking fifth which I'll get to thater they ended up taking fifth place in the uh in the state and so did and then Owen p qualified for an intersectional re relay which means he competed with other teams in section one as a relay unit down at the state tournament so it's it was quite an experience for them for spring uh obviously we started spring Sports yesterday um when I wrote this it was 155 as of today it's 158 Varsity njv

081students are registered uh to participate in the spring season so our numbers are pretty solid across the board for all of our spring Sports our modified season will be next Monday um again we're going to solidify those rosters by the end of this week team accomplishments for fall Sports as I mentioned before we're class D champions in Cross Country fourth out of 11 teams went through the League champion class and all these I just kind of reviewing kind of our highlights from uh previous slide big thing here is our scholar athlete if you're not familiar with a scholar athlete is recognition with a certificate of team's average of GPA for 75 % of the roster must be greater than or equal to a 90 this means you take 75% of your roster and average their

082GPA so this year we are perfect we're perfect across the board for all sports for scholar athlet last year we were perfect okay so our spring teams have a little bit of pressure on them to fulfill that so hopefully that takes place which I I'm anticipating that's going to happen so um you know credit as you know we you know we have this the spring Musical coming up many of our athletes are involved in that so they're involved in a lot of things have a lot of a lot of other things going on and academics is still a priority so that's something that we should give them credit for just some quick little things that happen throughout the year every year around homecoming we have our uh Hall of Fame uh induction ceremony which is

083a which is a great weekend starts with a you know with them being recognized at the uh football game at Halftime and then we have a little brunch on Sundays just to recognize people the um nomination period ends April 1st so if you know people haven't nominated anybody that's that's up coming up in a couple weeks we have our end of the year athletic awards uh this past year we had it on we're gonna have it this year on June 4th it's a it's a great night because we bring everybody together um all the fall winter spring Sports and we recognize uh all of our a all of our Varsity athletes one of the big things that we started this year year is um as you see there's a framed H so every senior gets

084the the the letter you know their varsity letter H with their name on it that's something that started last year and then we just we gave out all section plaques all League plaques and coaches give a little quick presentation of their season so it's it's a nice culminating activity for you know the whole year um and the booster club does a great job bringing in uh food we had an ice cream truck last year they're going to do that again this year which was a big hit because it was really hot last year so it was uh it was a great end to the year for uh all of our athletes just to step into physical education real quick just kind of what our expectations are at each level um I did present this slide

085last year saying it's similar to you know I just kind of want to give an update of you know these are the things that are taking place uh what I did add this year is just areas of focus this past February they did Fitness February so grades 6 through 12 the middle school focus was on cardio kickboxing agility work and dumbbell work the high school focus was on circuit training uh high-intensity interval training and then the Elementary classes did a marathon activity so if I don't know if you've ever seen it but the kids do a marathon activity they run you know they the fette teachers set up a little course for them to run around in the gym so this year the elementary school classes ran 446 total miles grad K through five so

086it's a little competition for them to do it's exciting um hiking our Middle School classes this year new trails uh included Pon Pond harbard Lodge Loop and other areas of Fon stck Park and then um this past year we had two student teachers we had one in the fall and then we have one in the spring who was ending this week through Sunni Sunni courland and uh it's it's nice to have Sunni courland reach out to us to have them you know work with our kids and and our teachers so hopefully that continues because it's it's a great experience one of the things that um do recognize is the teachers come up every month with a each one comes up with a student of the month I'm going to get to in a minute but

087what we uh in what we added to outside the cafeteria is a monitor to kind of highlight Athletics so this is one of the things that we added to it so this is posted throughout the day so when people come down to lunch or they're down there for an activity they can see that it's scrolling through just a quick little up about health uh we're examining our health curriculum obviously our current nework state standards have been haven't been updated since 1996 um we we're collecting curriculum information from surrounding districts our health teacher attends collegial circle with uh other health teachers from surrounding districts once a month through uh p&w bosis so again anytime that uh uh standards are outdated you know we're always looking you know the state currently in 23 24 did update the

088fiz Ed standards after 20 something years so I'm you know I'm assuming Health's going to be next but we are currently following obviously our New York state standards and doing all those things but again it doesn't hurt for us to and I you know in talking to our health teacher the collegial circle is a big help talking to surrounded District so it's been been something that he's really worked hard on just a quick little thing that takes place throughout the year um obviously in the high school if you've been in the high school we have senior posters for each season if you notice in the in the bottom right hand corner there's a little emblem there that's of the hallan booster club so the booster club pays for those posters and at the and when

089at the end of the um season awards night the seniors are able to take their senior posters home with them which is nice um Signing Day what we did last year uh we had division one and division two anybody we did we take care of that in November division three we take care take care of that April early May so that'll be coming up soon so again that's something that we do in the gym we send it out to the parents we invite family to come in and then up in the high school we do have some just some little recognition parts of uh Team pitchers just a quick little piece of what we do for our coaches um one of the things we did add this year is every coach was given hallan Blue

090Devils like Athletics uh uh lanard lanyard thank you lanyard um we do have a coaches meeting every season within that coaches meeting we have a coaches folder that pretty much outlines everything that they need to have for the season that they can refer to and then this year we were able to uh provide some gear for our coaches as well so it's been a nice thing again as I said the monitor these are some things that take place that we post on social media on our monitor throughout this throughout the year so just you know hoping to give our recognition to our student athletes throughout the season and we have any questions that would explain why my kids health curriculum is the same Health curriculum I had I'm like well that's 199 that is amazing

091let's go State and nothing has changed the body don't change bodies don't change just wow very impressive Athletics program on the merges uh you know uh we saw hockey you know we've seen um the ability to kind of put swimming we've been able to put some students into positions where they could be successful through these mergers is that uh something that you see going forward is a way for us to uh kind of ensure that students have these opportunities is this something that you know as we you know looking down through the years we won't have we probably won't have enough hockey kids for a team or the swimmers for a team but this is something that's really working out yes I I I feel it is working out because you do have you know

092hockey swim Boys Tennis is another one where we merge with uh Brewster so the key with a merger is obviously the other school has to be accepting of you right um unfortun you know some situations with swim um especially what you're finding is the section changed some rules about mergers in that um you're not allowed like if you have more than one team like basically if you have two a two- team merger you're not eligible to win a league title or to advance to you know to win a section Championship you're not so they've kind of threw some loopholes in there but there is a way for us to work around that um so that we're still cons considered we can still follow a team it's called The Shadow but we would just be the

093howan team but you know does that make sense so we Shadow their schedule it would still be the same situation it's just instead of it being a merged program we would Shadow the other team and they would represent how instead of be for example for boy swi would be Peak Skill so we would Shadow their schedule and the coach would still coach our kid but that's how you know it's unfor fortunately when teams are successful with a merger which you can understand is when you have multiple schools merging sometimes it gives you an advantage over other schools that don't merge so that's that's kind of I think the direction that the section took on but we'll find ways to make that work okay and parents have to provide transportation rightly and as as the interest

094in tennis sort of expands and contracts I know that the ongoing conversation is about our own you know the the quality or the availability of our courts I is that does that account for why a merger makes a little bit more sense do we find that it's easier for our players to say being a Brewster and modifi so I mean if if we had the interest right for if we had eight to 10 boys interested in tennis then we would pursue the possibility of providing a team right right that's pretty much how we look at it yeah what's the you know what what do you see as the I don't know we one thing that we're always talking about is enrollment I suppose is being a concern here what what do you see as the

095sort of Chief obstacle to sort of the sustaining the program s the time I'm just curious if you I'm sure it's something that you think about something you we think about it all the time um especially you know we're going to be highly impacted at modifi and JB levels you know that's that's where we're going to be you know we're going to have to make a lot of decisions like we're you know for JB softball right now we're in that situation so you know we're taking this three or four days to figure out what we're going to do if we're going to have enough numbers for JB softball so it's you know we look at what our sign up what it's going to be you know what's in fifth and sixth grade right now because

096our seventh and eighth grade numbers are are a little low but you know what do we have down in the lower you know lower levels that are participating you know locally so you know it's unfortunately those modified number it's it's something we've always got to examine every season yeah and being really really nice and good to your little league Partners right yeah thank you and your travel team coaches I'm here that was great I was really impressed the number of kids who run indoor track oh yeah this was the lar I think this was the largest team we've had that is a hard sport because we don't have a track and those kids are out running you know all over the place meats are late too see the exciting yeah and they have to go

097far for the meats you know into the City and and uh I'd have to think this had to be one of the largest teams think in a long time who's the coach for that AJ M he's great does a great job preparing them to compete that's great thank you much apprciate it thank you all right you all sounds great um all right so now we're going to move into um a budget presentation to continue a conversation we've had over the last couple of meetings about the budget so thanks to Catherine and Mr Albano um the work together this so this is our third budget presentation we're going to move through the topics that we covered in past presentations rather quickly but don't hesitate to stop me uh if you have a question or you something

098needs clarification uh the goals were established at the very onset um you've seen them numerous times uh this is just a summary of all of the priorities that were identified um you know the internal budget development process really started late December when through January and February Katherine has had ongoing meetings with all of the administrative team um information coming up from Department shairs to our administrators to Katherine's office um and these were a lot of the priorities that that were identified and we thought could be supported in the budget and they are currently included in enrollment um no real changes except I will just point out once again that we're excited prek has 17 registered so we do think it's very likely we would hit that maximum of 18 would be perfect if we had

09918 register we don't have to turn anyone away uh and then we could access the full amount of state aid associated with that at the uh Middle School no change to enrollment again just looking at um the sections um by combining or or I'm sorry reducing one section of sixth grade keeping it in three sections currently in fifth grade it's in three sections it will enable some of our Middle School staff to teach some high school assignments and it will reduce some six period teaching assignments which is helpful when when a teacher teaches six periods that's really demanding and it takes away prep time collaborative planning time so we do see this as as a A plus not just on the financial side but you know on on you know our pedagogy and planning at

100the high school we also have a few changes from last time um Julia correct me if I'm wrong but I do think we have a few additional um Garrison students entering ninth grade I think we're up by three I think we also have a Garrison student uh that will be attending 10th grade so uh the numbers increased by four total um and you could see the totals there are almost identical year-over-year uh two less students here just a breakdown of and you've seen this before of all of the Staffing our proposal is to keep all levels of Staffing the same the only thing I will point out you do see uh um One Plus in the administrative column and one minus in the the teaching faculty column uh that really is we're talking about a

101staff member who currently is a teacher on special assignment who has been handling all of our technology needs I'll move on to this slide which explains it a bit more um the work has evolved we talked a little bit a little bit about AI earlier but cyber security this role 10 years ago looked very different so the person really uh is has taken on um the role of of a director of technology and is also willing to take on uh Chief Information officer reporting responsibilities next year so the recommendation is to reduce one teaching create uh keep the same person in the role but give the appropriate title uh it is just about budget neutral may be a few extra dollars but the person also will be here in the summer uh more days than

102in the past and and those summer days are really needed that's when a lot of the uh intense technology work has to occur to have a a smooth opening to the school year property tax cap okay turn it over to my partner okay Catherine so as we discussed numerous times um the allowable tax levy this year for the district is 3.38% which would reflect a budget to- budget increase of just about $770,000 uh we developed a spending plan based on a 2.8% tax levy which equates to a budget to- budget increase of 637 um ,000 which is 132,000 less than the maximum allowable uh we have identified existing needs that could be addressed if we do choose to go to the allowable tax Lo limit again just quick on Foundation Aid uh right now we're

103projected with the governor's proposal to receive a 2% increase about $58,000 and as uh Mr Albano mentioned earlier the details coming out of the Senate and assembly's one house budget proposals we do believe this to be an accurate estimate if not um a little low and hopefully we could end up with a little more Revenue in Foundation Aid on the flip side we do have a decrease unfortunately in our expense based Aid uh these are calculations based on the actual expenditures from designated programs and services from the previous year and we are seeing a decrease in our building Aid Transportation Aid Bose's Aid and private private excess cost Aid which is the decrease of about $161,000 this is primarily due to um decreased expenses in those areas uh also compiled with a slight decrease in

104our enrollment um there has been some discussion over the last two weeks about Federal funding in the news so we wanted to just present to you what this year's Federal funding looks like um our every student succeeds act funding which is our title one two and four funding for this year uh is Title One is 79,000 title two is 15,000 and title four is 10,000 we also are receiving the individuals dis with disabilities Education Act funding with our 611 it's 220 almost $227,000 and 619 is almost 7,000 uh I don't have lunch numbers for this year because it's going to be based on actual lunches that are served for the year so I looked back to what we received from Federal funding from last year's lunch funding and it was um $110,000 which shows that

105we do receive um about $450,000 of federal funding um I also just to to show um how we are funded right now I did a review of our fund balance um as you know at the end of the year if there is income over expenses anything that is left over can go into our fund balance um we think of it as savings accounts uh most of our fund balance is restricted meaning it's been put aside for certain uses and it can only be used for those purposes so on the left I just have a a summary of all of our currently restricted fund balances with a note that our Capital balance capital reserve right now has a million dollars in it but we have allocated that million dollars to the capital project so at the

106end of the year that that will have been removed out of our but currently it sits in fund balance um at the bottom you see assigned appropriated of $645,000 that's the money that we put towards balancing the budget each year that allows us to directly go and use fund balance if we have any un unanticipated expenses uh we also have our assigned unappropriated that's money that has been reserved from the previous year for outstanding incumbrances at the end of the year so it's expenses that were incurred but we had not yet received the invoices for for the year so it was paid during this year and then we have our unassigned uh school districts are the one of the only government funds that are held to a standard of only being able to reserve a

107certain amount school districts can hold 4% of their following Year's budget in unassigned uh we currently are able to do that each year this is money that again in the case of an emergency we have the the ability to uh go into our unassigned fund balance and pay for any uh expenses that come up that were not budgeted for and are outside the contingencies that are built into our budget so I did pre prepare our key figures um this year's budget was $2 29.2 million if we go to our maximum tax levy in the right hand on the right hand side of 3.38 it would be a budget to- budget increase of a million dollar and if we stick with 2.8 it would be $945,000 so our budget to budget increase would either be 3.24%

108or 3.69% and our tax levy increase would either be 638 or 770 based on what we decide tonight again here is the B the proposed spending plan for the district uh using a allowable tax levy of 2.8% again it starts with our rollover budget and what our rollover budget doesn't mean that everything that we spent in the current year we automatically roll over and say we're spending the exact amounts again I take it as a starting point and I roll everything forward the first thing I do is incre I put in all the mandatory increases like uh salary adjustments that are contractually related um I flatten out any expens expenses that are consistently either over budget or under budget if there's been one-time expenses placed in a yearly budget I pull that money back unless

109that it's been requested again to be become rollover and so I that's where I start the process with what do we need to meet our obligations and clean up any accounts and remove any unnecessary spending so I take from that the requests from the administration team and a match it to our goals and as you'll see we've talked about it a few times it's the new Ela curriculum mtss software implementing prek another increase to special education funding increasing the amount that the school can contribute to our students for their field trips uh we've been had generous support from the housing School foundation for all these years um but we would like to try to take some of it on in our school budget obviously we can't fund some of the larger trips but we're hoping

110to at least uh contribute a little bit more towards every trip that the students take uh we are going to do part of our air conditioning uh this year we're taking all the air conditioning in the classrooms that have consistently reached over 88 degrees we are planning to have air conditioners in those rooms this school year the increase in the budget for next year are for those classrooms that um are not dealt with this spring that consistently reached um degrees we also as we've talked about a transportation study and then we did have a teacher resign and we do feel that with that teacher we will replace the teacher but there will be some salary breakage um with the hiring of the different step that will probably come in for that teacher and then as

111Mr Alano talked about with the salary I'm sorry with the schedule realignment and the reduction in class sizes it does appear that there will be less of a need for um some sixth period assignments and so that is a reduction to our budget and that is where we came up with what our spending plan would be for a 2.8% tax increase we did then say what what if we go to the maximum you know um that would allow us to spend an additional 10230 $132,000 some ideas that have been brought up over the last few weeks uh we did receive the results of our energy study that the district paid for in 2024 and is also reference and and one of the items is also referenced in our building condition survey and that would be

112upgrading to LED lighting um so we do have in there a possible addition of LED lighting to all the main building the high school and if if available the district office and the ma Merit um we ALS we were informed by nerta who did our study that the anti ipated return on investment that that would be in over six years it would pay back for itself in Energy savings we did meet with um Mr Cunningham and Mr mcneel from facilities to talk about some outstanding projects that they would like to see done and one of them was a gym overhaul of our gymnasium with some painting and some floor refurbishment and then we also did talk about the idea in the budget is some Auditorium upgrades and as we all know we need a lot

113of them so we could put some additional budget funds to that project um we were asked about the building condition survey and the list of projects that has been hanging outstanding on that um our large scale building and site Works site work recommendations are included in phase are primarily included in phase one of our Capital project um we have a lot of smaller fixes already in progress and there are a lot of recommendations for the district office that we don't feel at this time would be our priority in the district because we don't know how the district office and the ml Merit building will be used in the future as we have additional space in the high school so those were just some ideas that we had if we did want to go to 3.38

114and I think at this point it would just be open for discussion as to what the board would like us to pursue um if you want me to just finish where we are I can just remind you of we do have proposition two which is our our vehicle purchase we had been estimating at at $175,000 for the beginning of the budget season we did receive information from our bus company that due to the potential for tariffs and the increase on costs they will not guarantee that they will um honor the estimate that they gave us it will be based on what the C cost is for the bus at the time that our bus is built um right now a lead time on a bus can be up to a year so we really don't

115know we uh spoke with legal counsel and they they um recommended that we increase the maximum estimated cost up to $25,000 um we also have a proposition that we're putting on the ballot to renew our capital reserve fund as we're using the million dollars that's the end of the old capital reserve fund so we need to reauthorize it so we were are recommending that we reauthorize it for up to $3 million to be put in savings and have the fund available for the next 10 years and that would just allow us that as we finish this Capital project possibly start another or want to work on the projects on the facilities Improvement plan we would have some money put aside for savings this would would not have any impact on the taxpayers and then again

116as you heard at the beginning of the meeting we are obligated to include the Butterfield Library proposition on our May ballot and so they the funds will go directly to Butterfield they are levied as part of our tax bills to our taxpayers but it comes in and it's immediately paid out to the Butterfield library and again just a summary of our propositions and we're getting close our next our next meeting will be on our estimated revenue and then we would hope to adopt well we have to adopt the budget on April 22nd well first of all I just want to thank you for I mean just that presentation honestly was very I mean the fact that you could give it so fluently and so efficiently thinks to what I know has been a tremendous amount

117of work that as you mentioned has gone back on for months but I know that even over the past couple of weeks there's been additional work and and I I know I speak on behalf of the board and I thank you so much for everything that you've done so far um so uh Katherine came back right that's what we asked we said um some some something changed um not in the major budget uh on I just just for some perspective on that bus so um that conversation the the number that initially was going to go out was what 175 and the new number is up to 205 and you're the numbers person what's that percentage equate to roughly oh glad I need a calculator I can't here I'm looking at a uh I Know M

118fluency um huh so looking at a significant so here you know we got a deal with the company to buy a bus right away they say hey boom Terrace are going to hit this and here's your new number and that happened in the past two weeks it happened yeah I I don't have the date of the email but we did just receive that email from the bus company in the last two weeks that they were going to no longer promise to honor it and again it will be based on the timeline of the bus the one thing that we can remember about our vehicle proposition that number although significant will not change the um impact on the taxes because we pay off our previous oh for sure so it is although it is an increase

119it does not have a tax impact to increase it to that it's a and if we are able to get numbers prior to borrowing we do not have to borrow the amount that we asked for it's just it allows us to if we find out that our bus will be that much more expensive yeah the concern I have is it's a bell weather or a barometer right so boy that was right in this conversation so it's just it's just wild to hit I do really appreciate the work that you put into this though and I do recognize it um and there's it's about a half percent difference from 28 to 33 and uh but but but still an increase at 28 and it also you also saw savings was was that original savings did that

120exist on the first one right on that breakage right yeah okay thank you very much and the other thing is you know as we approach April 1 and get the um fin State runs and if we do get to our maximum a number of because I budgeted for 15 preschoolers um you know so the the numbers are still I just we need to we once we hit our actual Target of what we want to do we can still massage how we might be able to um use the revenue or any savings that we potentially find that's great thank you and one thing to think about sort of if we go back to that the slide that talks about the potential in uses to meet the Le Levy at 3.38 um the projects that you listed

121there you know thinking of the the capital referendum work and getting the new superintendent up to speed and all the other projects that we have whole so do we have the bandwidth is it to to to do all of those projects and and then some I mean that's something right to to keep in mind too yeah I'm happy to um take that question you have a very ambitious plan for for the district going forward so I know someone is up for the CH ready but a a$ 28.4 million Capital project that will really ramp up next year this time you'll be preparing for shovels in the ground construction you know starting and and and that you know there's our director facilities and transportation but also our principles are impacted our our certainly the business office

122you have to start Bond anticipation notes it's a very complex project and and you do need to stay focused on it um and and stick to your timeline like even bidding you want to ensure that you're bidding early that's how you get the best prices if things are delayed and you bid late in the school year then prices tend to go up because most of this school work does occur over the summer so there there's a lot of things you need to be focused on and strategic about I just would also mention you know we also have this potential transition to electric buses the EPA Grant uh is still a possibility we've requested for buses and again you would use the EPA grant money the nerta money now tariffs may drive up the cost of

123v v buses I I would expect that to happen if the tariffs are implemented and and and and remain in place but still you know remember combining the two grants was was probably about $320,000 so you know even if e buses went from 350 to 380 it still might make sense and and be something that's feasible for the district moving forward but that's also an enormous undertaking transitioning um you know there's charging stations there's infrastructure um there you know that that is a big transition so you have you know and again it's I wish I had more definitive answers for you now um we're not going to find out about the EPA Grant till May so this budget has to be finalized but that is a real possibility and then uh you know going back

124to you know these initiatives too are you know uh there's a good list of of high you know high quality things that will improve you know students experiences and and improve the District uh you know some of the facilities and of course new programs um but yeah there there is a pretty ambitious