001hi um welcome to the March 4th 2025 Hing Board of Education business meeting I'm calling the meeting to order please stand for the pl Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the repu it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice okay president Clemens here vice president Valentine here truste mcnell here trusty copper here trusty clemenson here um I do not believe we have any changes to the agenda so approval of the agenda please be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the interim superintendent of schools the Board of Education hereby approves the agenda as written you have a motion please so moved second all those in favor I I any opposed all right so um we will meet again on March 18th at 2025 here at 7
002pm in the middle school high school library this will be a workshop meeting and the topic will be um our High School athletic uh our high school and Athletics uh detail report and it will happen after um two board members visit the high school and I believe Sean and Michelle are going to visit great good good time um letting uh the public know that uh petitions are available uh for anyone who's interested in running for one of the two open Board of Education trustee positions that are up for um uh election this may uh so petitions are available in the district office or by contacting our district clerk Megan Shields um they need to be uh get signatures and those along with the first campaign expenditure statement would be due l no later than 3
003p.m. on Monday April 21st in the district office um and then um we I'm actually going to keep my remarks really quite short we have a really important budget presentation tonight as well as a very exciting K presentation um the only thing I I will say is you know we the new most recent howan Horizons just came out and you know once again I think it's a great celebration of all the great you know so many of the great things that happen here and how they I'm going to continue to think about how we can get those into the hands of people who aren't on the email list at some point I don't know something for us to think about for the future I think they're very good um all right that's all from me
004and I'll head it over to to Mr Albano sure I have uh three updates and they'll be brief uh first uh on Friday uh the admin team and and some faculty members did visit the marau school district they recently completed an extensive Capital project that was actually very similar to ours as far as scope and projects it was a wonderful opportunity The Architects from CS Arch were there to help but the administrators and the teachers got to speak with other teachers we learned a lot especially things that potentially those teachers if they had a redo would have uh requested or done a bit differently it is a beautiful project we learned a lot Regina I think took some pictures for the team so uh it was very helpful as we continue to move forward with
005schematic designs um this Thursday we'll be meeting with the Architects and the project managers and we've made a request and and Maggie and Peggy are part of this uh owners team that meets uh you know every month but we've asked them to see if we could look at some priorities that are related to safety that are not really part of the design of the project so things like voice over IP our um public address system the carbon monoxide detectors some of those things we'd like to see if we can get an early start on them so they've done some research and we'll learn more on Thursday and we'll make sure the entire board is kept informed um also on Friday uh I was part of a meeting with Senator Rob rson uh the school boards
006Association organized that uh there um was a small turnout but I think there were three or four districts in our area uh he gave us a full hour and and I I found him to be you know very receptive we talked about the things that concern howan um you know funding for special education for electric bus transition uh and also some additional funding potentially for prek other districts had similar uh concerns that they raised with Dana lenberg a couple of weeks prior things like SRO expenses um you know could could the state potentially contribute to that um right now that that burden does fall on the districts and uh a number of other things so senator rson who is in the process of developing he's part of the Senate developing their on housee budget so
007I think that it was timely I found him to be receptive and I think he really appreciated learning he has a lot of insightful questions to learn about really some of the challenges that the districts have with regards to budget uh lastly I had the honor on Monday of watching our girls basketball varsity basketball compete down at the County Center um which is always very exciting so it was the final four matchup they they played North Salem was a close game the final was 4843 with helane being Victorious very exciting yeah so now Saturday um it is the sectional Championship also at the County Center so anyone who who can attend 12:00 um it proves to be exciting and and the competitor will be tuo so hdan versus tuo that I'm gonna try to make
008it myself so anyway congratulations to the girls varsity team and the coaches did a great job I have one question um you said that the teachers at Marboro kind of flag some things that they would have done differently and not to get too into the Weeds about it right now but was there anything in particular that you'd want to highlight that stood out I was at the ralson meeting and Regina's here so a storage I heard should I speak up absolutely sure so yes um it was definitely very helpful but I could say that some of the things that we've seen there as well as our visit to chapapa um was that storage is a huge issue so as we're doing these Innovative classes they're Hands-On learning they're building things there's stuff all over the
009floors there's things piled high we also saw some things like it was a they thought it was a great idea to put the some of the um 3D printers in a separate room thinking that it would be cleaner and safer but the teacher's like I can't be in two rooms at once so what they did was they ended up pulling the 3D printers out into the room where the teacher is most of the time and that other room became sort of a random work area so what we're doing is we're collecting the um the pictures but we're also taking some comments from the people who are there who got to say like this this has been our lived experience with this space and here's what we might have done differently if we did another example
010would be into the um student services Suite where they had the Counseling Center they wanted to have nice big wide open doors which was a great idea but in terms of safety to shut the metal grate to make it safe a person would have to stand there and hold the button to make the grate shut and you can imagine that in an emergency situation you would not want to be the person standing there holding the button to shut the great so um we like the idea of a big wide open door but we want something that was a little bit more efficient in terms of security so those are just two examples we also saw a nurse's office that was well done with a lot of lock lock storage so we took pictures of that
011so that gives you a sense definitely yeah thank you all right um so the first of our special presentations which is the budget presentation for the 2526 school year the recommended budget oh you got okay uh we'll move rather quickly through things that we've covered before uh the board and is very familiar with the budget goals that we set um here are some of the priority areas that we identified uh the numbers are relatively the same uh for um prek um Ela curriculum prek through 2 uh software platform for um our uh multi-tiered system of supports which that program is in place this is just software to make it more efficient uh launching our prek program which you'll hear about uh shortly when Miss jamond presents but uh that there is a district contribution necessary
012the state funds are not sufficient to run it we will receive just under 100,000 in state funds but the district must also subsidize it uh also we anticipate uh a special placements so we're asking for an increase in in our U special education funding uh field trip budget line you know field field trips uh we haven't increased this in quite some time and field trips have just basically become more expensive we appreciate what the foundation does but we think the district should also contribute more there uh softball field dugout um is something that there is some fundraising going on which we appreciate but we certainly uh want to make sure it happens and and making a district contribution and partnering with the fundraising U group I think will be helpful air conditioning uh what we
013plan to do we've identified classrooms that have last year uh exceeded uh 90 I'm sorry 87 degrees um and that is when you are supposed to vacate a rooms so in this budget we are going to address those classrooms this spring um with either portable units or window units uh these are not these are rooms that are not part of the the capital project renovation uh and then an additional 30,000 we've identified all rooms that that tend to go above 82 and this typically happens in June as you would imagine and we think 30,000 our estimate is that that will complete all existing rooms that that tend to you know there typic on the second floor typically these are rooms that get a lot of sunlight and again it's you know just to have window
014units or Portables to to uh mitigate that that heat uh also um the auditorium stage uh and performing arts equipment um was damaged from a leak uh we've been doing some workarounds to to get it to work but it's it's really in need of replacement uh we need some storage we need some refurbishing of the the stage floor and painting in the wall so uh there is money allocated for that um and also a transportation analysis uh there is bosis up in Franklin County I believe uh for $20,000 they will perform a comprehensive Transportation study for for the district and then that's co- serval so those are all of the priorities that we've identified most of them are one-time expenditures which is helpful um in the following year you may identify new priorities but if
015the budg budget is is is a challenging one uh these expenses you know will go away or or you may decide to identify new priorities can I just ask a quick question before you move on one of the uh priorities is a new geography class am I correct in assuming there's just not any real expenses associated with that yes okay yes we we think within the current curriculum budget curriculum and supplies that that we can cover that and there's no additional Staffing need we'll do that with existing staff now uh into enrollment uh again I won't spend a lot of time because I reviewed this but you can see at the elementary level uh we have very desirable class sizes in fact no classes are above 20 somewhere between 15 and 20 seems to be
016the average what we are doing is though looking for efficiencies so although you have the the same total number of of teachers and faculty at at the elementary school we're adding a prek so one of our existing teachers who is on a grade level that uh is smaller uh we're able to combine a section and and have that teacher move down to pre so technically I want to emphasize we are not hiring we're not recommending the hire of a new teacher we're launching prek with existing staff at the middle school in a similar way one of our budget goals was to look for efficiencies so uh you see this year you have uh one grade level in four sections and then seventh and eighth in three so what we're proposing is for next year uh
017to have three sections across the board and you could see the average class size is again still very desirable 2021 and eighth grade's a little smaller but what this enables us to do last year uh our middle school and high school principal worked on an aligned schedule and and a lot of time and energy went into that but it enables us to share staff between middle and high school so the district uh what is not shown here is that the district uh at times needs to ask teachers to teach a sixth period to cover sometimes you know High School classes electives uh various subject area classes by reducing four sections down to three it frees up teaching time and we do think we could eliminate about half of those sixth period assignments that in turn
018will save the district about $50,000 so there's some Financial savings and also at the same time we think these classes are are very manageable and desirable and that could increase that could actually increase teacher student contact time outside of the classroom because then they have then they would have another PR correct a absolutely Ezra you know in fact teachers they do it because they know the need is there but but teaching a sixth period is as you know it's it's very demanding and and and it's teacher contact time with students potentially but also teacher teacher collaboration time um so I think it's it's a win-win uh and it frees them up so you your secondary person will teach five classes have two preps and of course a lunch and the high school is you can
019see overall numbers I don't break it up the same way just simply because High School scheduling is different uh there's a lot of choice of course there are advanced placement courses there are electives so you know roughly uh you have similar U numbers total I think it's six students less overall that we're projecting uh so there'll be just about the same amount of sections and course offerings with the one new course uh being a job that we believe we can add with existing staff uh these are overall Staffing numbers this is a new slide and we just wanted to show uh year-over-year uh what we are projecting by different category uh now what you may see here um You probably will notice that um all categories are the same except we are um exploring uh
020adding one administrator and reducing one uh teacher uh staff member and and what that is right now we have a teacher on special assignment um who it started as a technology integration specialist so really supporting teachers in integrating technology into the classroom well that role has evolved she's been doing it almost 10 years and like anything else with technology uh there are more and more demands on school district there are things such as cyber security we're using more software we're relying on you know our communication systems and platforms so this job has has really grown exponentially and the person uh I would say and I'm happy to share a job description Proposal with the board which I will have shortly um I really is functioning like a director of Technology there is also we've been
021we've had uh one of our principles working with bosis has been doing some of the um information reporting so there a lot of larger districts have a Chief Information officer so uh we've been um working with uh our TOA the the teacher on special assignment in training her to also um handle the data reporting which would take it away from one of our principles it's not really a good fit with a principal because it requires you to shut your door and focus on data reporting sometimes you know like two days a month and it comes in Cycles there's a lot to do over the summer as well so the proposal is and and it will be for the most part budget neutral but it would be reducing a teacher on special assignment adding a director
022of Technology we do have have a few more details we'd like to talk with our collective bargaining units look at a little more detailed job description but I just wanted to at least put that idea out there uh and let the board know that we are working on this and and if there are any questions I'm happy to answer no okay oh and this just explains a little bit more exploring technology integration Specialists eliminating that creating do and CIO great okay okay now I'm going to turn it over to Catherine okay back to my property tax cap slide that we've all become so familiar with um just a reminder that the calculation of our allowable tax levy this year uh allowed us to do a increase of 3.38% which would have been a budget to
023budget increase of 700 and approximately $70,000 um I have veloped a spending plan based on some board feedback and some numbers that I've been generating a spending plan based on a 2.8 tax levy increase which is the same tax levy increase that we did last year um this equates to a budget to- budget increase of $637,000 which is which is 132,000 less than what the maximum allowable tax levy would be I know last week I mentioned that I was going to try to develop two budgets at the same time to see where we were um I I did start that process when we started getting some official numbers in from like the transportation study came in at 20,000 instead of 50,000 um and some other make you know agreeing to the uh sections in Middle
024School it ended up feeling like it was a year where we could do the 2.8 um and still feel that we're covering everything that we need including all of our district goals um and also uh not you know going under that allowable tax levy um you know this isn't solidified yet but this is the the budget plan that I will present to you tonight where's that 2.8 number come from it's just what we did last year so that we said we had a year-over-year flat tax levy increase so the 3.3 is given to us by the state we have no control over it whatsoever right it is a cap yes yes the determination to not go to the cap and have 2.8 comes from what economic like plan where are we tracking this out because
025tradition I say go to the cap because you can't control the cap so why don't you let Katherine finish her presentation because I I think well I think I think what he's asking is it was a one time can we make the budget work within these numbers without taking away anything knowing that in the coming years we have some uh retire retirements that are coming and things like that that may allow us to recalculate our budget um differently in the future um along with a lot of uh requests that I had and heard in the different meetings that we were that people were feeling that 3.38 was high well I agree with I just want to say I agree that it seems to me that that 2.8 number wasn't discussed here at public meeting as
026the the number that we're agreeing to we just sort of discussed that was the number that was put forward so it feels like that number was suggested rolled over in another meeting that was one or another just yeah just to kind of go back where we were last meeting we we presented the allowable and in fact yeah the slide was slightly different and it showed another possibility of 2.8 and there's a differential of 132,000 what has happened over the past week there's actually three things that enabled us to to reduce 130,000 right so we did have a resignation of a veteran teacher we think we could find a competent replacement for that teacher at about 40 to 50,000 less and still hiring someone with two or three years of experience so you know someone who
027is maybe at Ma step 12 would come in an MA step three a new teacher approximately 40 to 50,000 in savings uh the other savings we just talked about reducing a section of of Middle School free teaching time therefore we will need less sixth period assignments approximately an additional 50 in savings finally the transportation we did have a placeholder of 50,000 for a transportation study and then our putam Northern Westchester bosis referred us to Franklin Essex bosis I believe it is and they do and they and they do um dozens and dozens of districts that these are two very competent individuals that I spoke with so and there was 30 so so with 130,000 in savings maintaining all the priorities maintaining All Staffing and programs you can do it for 2.8 you don't have to
028do it for 2.8 there is an argument of course you know going to that maximum tax levy because what does the future hold correct we don't know so I've lived under I've lived under in my work life under situations for year over year not going to the cap and then you have to pierce the cap yes you do and that does not work particularly well so finding 60% and super majorities are problematic when you're finding savings for year I you know you're going to roll this out I look through the budget you you have these savings for this year right and I and I see that and it's fantastic of course who wants to pay more when they don't have to the concern I have is that what you do with the compounding difference is
029now you have in five years time artificially decreased $600,000 worth of what your budget of what you could have had for those five years and when and when you're short you have to pierce the cap with the 60% which is not easy to do you have to campaign for that you have to convince people far more than you normally do in order to get that and that is not as easy as you think and there are people's jobs that are on the line so the the problem that I have the concern that I have is that we we have this number 2.8 did we really look out five years what not going to the cap does when the political reality is the state gives you the cap so then you've instituted like we're instituting our
030own like cap okay we're like well we know better let's just go with our own cap so I have an issue with that right off the bat yeah so I hear you I'm gonna give some other people a chance to talk so that had been the agreement for Katherine to come with both budgets that had been and in fact when we met last week that was actually kind of what I suggested like we come with both and Katherine really felt like she could like she could accomplish what the district could do with 2.8 if the board and because that was what what was going to happen is exactly what we're doing now which is the conversation of 2 8 versus 3 38 38 and that is you know and that is a conversation that we
031can still have there's there's really not a need there's there's a need to engage in this conversation but not to assume that something nefarious happened behind the scenes No I just noticed that we were I thought we were doing both 3.38 or 2.8 and then when I open up it said this is my laptop budget right it's 2.8 that's our budget yes yeah absolutely and I can see that was um it it wasn't the Friday update so it wasn't really a big surprise you know there's been a few days and you have definitely reached out if you had had any questions about it but I do hear what I hear right now is that there are some real concerns on some members of the board about what it might be not to go up to
0323.38 and in a sense it denies the opportunity which is an opportunity for the board to have a a real discussion about what is to be gained by going to 3.38 and what would we not get just for next year what resources we bring into the community but what the implications are of that for the long term as well as to discuss the alternative Viewpoint which some members of the board have which is if you know to what extent is it absolutely necessary for both the short and the long term that we go to 3.38 so that's my two bits on this give other people a chance to talk I think the whole you know there's definitely a flip sided to that to that argument that Ezra was talking about which is you know these
033are public funds more than 90% of our revenues come from taxpayers um who are also faced with everything that's going on um you know and I it's it's there's many people don't feel it's the most responsible thing with public funds to be building a war chust um with you know for things for initiatives that we don't even know exist at the the moment um you know and I think I like the more the idea of a more transparent budget where if we need something down the line we budget for it or we talk about it and we put it out there to to the voters in that way and I just think that what you know we ask the the public um to vote on the referendum and that pass and that's wonderful and I
034just sort of my line of thinking moving forward is you know it's going up it's going to be difficult for some members of our community with that along with the regular tax tax so if we can you know retain the the the programming and we don't have to excise any staff um and we're still growing our our curriculums in the way that needs to be grown and nobody's over concerned about spending within the budget that K presents I don't see why we would want to you know I think you know you know wouldn't want to go over what what we talking about yeah so I mean that this presentation is following the the guidance that in the agenda setting meeting that that that Magie and I were presented which you you would you know we
035you saw in the Friday update um but Ezra raises an important question about you know building out over the years to come and that's certainly not a question I can answer it's only a question well and I also I think that one thing we have to be really in sync with is that this is likely not going to be able to happen in the future this this felt like a budget again things that we talked about over the last few weeks interest income is still really really good and we've been very conservative over the last few years I was able to budget additional revenue from that which we haven't been doing in the past that offset some of this um again we had a you know high level teacher resign um that once that happened
036it it freed up us to be able to have some breakage and some change in our six period assignments I mean I we obviously can spend another $132,000 it's just it would be like what's our why for that you know what are what are we doing with it what what's not included in this budget that makes us this year need the 132 I 100% agree with you that as the years go by we might go man I wish we had that $132,000 back but I it I don't I don't feel that way this year or else I would have really I I could not come up with where we going to spend it so you feel that the stars have aligned specifically in this year in which we can again you know this number of
0372.8 I I feel has been pulled out of the political ether but let's say there because okay um that's interesting feels like it's coming out of there it is shall we all take it um devices that's right mag Maggie's got it so she turn me off um the uh not sure what's happening that's cool so what I think is what you're saying is like it's gonna it's basically working for this year um comfortably because because you have one time spending hit right so a lot of the budget of which that increase is you feel are like one time spending hits correct like if we go back to look at maybe I can do it going forward um you know once we do the ELA curriculum you know I did speak with the the principles that
038were pretty well set with curriculum for a while so we're comfortable there um I mean 10,000 MTS s will probably have a 10,000 wish launching kitten Garden this year the most of the upfront expenses are this year to launch kitten Garden um so once we you know playground equipment curriculum classroom Furniture that's little size things like that um special education funding is always one that we have to be concerned about but we did a big increase last year we're doing another significant increase this year um I wouldn't say it's one time only but I think it's building us to a level of comfort in our special education budget um for for out of District placements which could change any day it is definitely one of the biggest unknowns in our budget but it's also one
039where if it doesn't happen that's money that we budgeted for that go you know goes into our Reserves at the end yeah um so my my concern is always like cutting off our notes despite our face no and I you know I stood up here for weeks saying it's leaving money on the table it's leaving money on the table I still do believe fundamentally it's leaving money on the table but I think if we were going to do it we found the right year to do it because of some other budget issues needs um again interest income Garrison tuition is higher because we have additional kids coming in than who are graduating it just you know um I don't think I I wouldn't have tried to go any lower I said you know let's look
040and see if we went to the same budget to budget or you know tax levy increase that we did last year here can I get a budget in Balance add what we the administrators and the superintendent and the board is saying are the biggest priorities for this year um and not you know I mean I obviously wouldn't have tried to go to a 2% or something like that that would be an unrecoverable about amount of money to leave on the table okay thank you I appreciate that is there an argument to be made though um for the fact that things are relatively uncertain at at higher levels you know we don't know what's going to happen with Federal funding and I guess we could also turn that you know into a discussion about what's going
041to happen with State funding too we just don't know um so it does seem like the potential is quite High to say a couple years from now or next year oh I do wish we had that $137,000 so I'm I'm hearing what you're saying and it's wonderful that we're able to meet our budget for next year at the 2.8 it would be nice to FL that to the community um however I am wondering if it is shortsighted and would like to continue the conversation about that the other thing that we could do in a future year if we felt that that is you know last year as as you might remember we very comfortably funded our reserves except for our capital reserve which we know we're working on for next year um there is reserve
042money available if we ended up with a year where we felt like wow I need that $132,000 to pay the TRS bill or something like that I have the TRS money Avail you know that we do have we put a lot of love into our reserves last year because of the excess fund balance that we had at the end of last year um so it's just you know again I still works out yeah I see what you're saying so it's it's really here's here's the moment so if you're GNA have the moment and it's a one I in my opinion it's a one it's probably a one moment and next year we're going to start seeing the impact of the capital project in the tax levy and it's just like I said I don't know
043that we're going to be able to do it in in anymore and I agree with you we can't do it year-over-year every school district that does that ends up regretting it they have to pierce the cap I sit you know with a lot of school business managers at our you know our monthly meeting and it is it's something that people are concerned about um this is the first time H has has done it in a while they've given it as tax warrant money you know lowered the tax warrant in in August um that just feels a little more uncertain than just doing it from the beginning right um so like you said going over something that we have not traditionally done in in a while right like I want to make sure that what we're
044doing is not unduly causing a problem it down the road it has never happened since the Tas cap was implemented honestly because I've been on the board almost that long whole time so the tag because that was in the mid 2011 yeah okay so it was a few years after that so it wasn't right away it's never happened as long as i' it's never happened as long as as I've been on the board I think the other thing I'm oh I think the other thing I'm often I'm often thinking about is these are complex issues that we want to communicate effectively to the public and there is a third thing that we are going that we're going to get to that we need to commun communicate to the public and I am always thinking you
045know how are how are people coming to these messages and that is asking to increase the I know Katherine's going to get to it but that is asking to increase the capital reserve total balance to $3 million right and so I think that's just that's just asking for what we could put in there yes yes education yes I I I I don't I don't I completely agree with that but it's also it's explaining it's it's explaining it's explaining you know not that people are can't get it but it's it's a lot it's a lot to communicate you know that you know this and this and this and so that is something that I you know I guess the psychologist of me is really thinking about and the library and the library is gonna be on
046there too it's always to me thinking about okay so what are people what can people comprehend and again you know just to um I realize this is a change if I had to do it again I would have sort of really brought this to people's attention a few days ago I without I would have needed to do it without getting into any you know violating any open meetings laws but I did really take Katherine and Carl at their word when they said that they felt like this one year right this particular year it was appropriate to bring this as the recommended budget even though it came in under the tax cap but I if it caught people by surprise that's something I certainly want to avoid doing you know in the future and I'll you
047know I'll just add you know we left this slide in just one more time because again I think if you look back to 2022 2023 there was a lot of pressure on school districts and to Ezra's Point those who did not maximize previous year's tax levy increases really regretted it the past two or three years um no one has a crystal bull right we don't know inflation the trend is moving down um year-over-year it was just under 3% I believe the last reading so you know presenting the public with an allowable tax levy that is similar to where inflation is but you know with tariffs with with other going on inflation could ramp back up you know we can't make a guarantee that two three years out as Michelle mentioned you may look back and
048say gee we left 130,000 on the table what we what we are 100% confident on is that this year there's contingency where contingency ought to be in your budget you're preserving all your programs you're preserving all your staff and we're doing a good number of projects on top of of course all all the time and attention that has to go into the major $28 million project so there there will be a lot going on next year and and and and the following years this I have to say just personally this worries me the tax Camp doesn't work in in an inflationary environment and if I think Katherine mentioned this last time if you took if we went back to 2011 right the beginning of the tax cap you will see inflation at 1.5 1.8 2%
0491 % and it it it was like a parallel line with allowable tax levies and the inflation rate but that Spike put a lot of districts under pressure and not not all have recovered from it but we you know in in our analysis you are in good shape this year there there's no question about that and the future is you know it's a legitimate question to say what do the future hold but we just don't know any other thoughts I mean if members of I mean it seems like there is some concern with some members of the board about possibly leaving this money on the table and if that's the case well let's get through the budget you know I I have concern right 100% because getting to that moment you know the question is
050you know our role our number one role is to provide opportunities for children we have staff whose careers are here who have you know make a living here and that we provide for and so my concern is is always you know like you said we've we use we go to the cap right the cap is what's given to us um by making budgets that go to the cap you're doing the most financially sound thing you can possibly do with regular majority votes the concern is going to be if the inflationary picture does not look great next year or two years down the road and there are threats to our district fiscal threats to our district that that equates the people you know that is you know we're going to look back at March 4th and
051we're going to say you know did did we you know take off our nose to spite our face the what I'm hearing though reassuringly uh from Katherine is that you know yes we recognize that problem but for the most part things have aligned accordingly for this year with one-time expenses in which we'll be able to move this through and so when you look at next year's budget we're not in as dire of a straight because onetime expenses are ideally one time right and so if we're going to do this we goes against our tradition which is US imposing our own cap which I fundamentally disagree with then if if we're going to do it the time is now well when I hear you say fund fundamentally disagree I mean I you know I mean fundament
052I because you're kind of saying two thing I mean because it is within the boards right to ask to see another budget right I mean if if there are if there are three people Budget on the board who are who have a real concern with this it is absolutely positively within it's our prerogative you know for those you know to to ask for another budget and to see what it would include and then to make a decision about which one to put in in front of the public I I think the I think what Katherine said and and what Carl point pointed out is that in this budget specifically because spending exists in a certain way the question is you know you're gonna you're going to hit a point where you're G to say well
053what we're you know basically Ezra what you're concerned about is 2026 and I can really only give you a budget for 20 or 25 26 you got me you're following me 2627 right like my concern is 2627 and she's like but I can only give you the budget for 25 26 which I get so so I got you right you know I'm there with you and I understand where you're coming from um it's just you know the irony of doing this on March 4th right when things just hit right on inflationary it's just too much for me to literally stay quiet um and also you know where this number came from 2.8 it's not I mean you're right it's it's imposed by us it was a a number that I think I'm assuming I don't
054want to thr Catherine on the bus but I think Katherine was like well you know there might this would be this is an alternative because it reflects what we did last year I I don't think it's it's um it's not an aberation to B year-over year that when you're looking back on that but I just want to you know I'm not comfortable with the budget that I still think there's inefficiencies that we could be talking about and we could even go lower I know that's not on the table and I know that we don't want to talk about that do that well we could we've got class sizes that are running you know less than where they should be my opinion maybe um and so there's efficiency so when we hear that I don't know
055what we could spend the money on for the next year I mean I think we should take into consideration the people who pay the tax bills I am worried about and it's a probably a smaller percentage of our community at this point but there are so many people on fixed incomes so many of those people who work at this school who are worried about the $75 to $200 that a you know that a increase in the budget is is going to be for them you you're on top of of the you know Capital referendum and I just feel like that's sort of where I'm coming from that you know not everybody has a dual income not you know these fixed income that I'm worried about there's people really stressed out about it so yeah my
056tax dollars I feel good about if I'm going to have to pay tax on anything I want of public education because how wonderful is that to be able to find everything that we want to do but I just I think we do have to think about that in a district that is Major majorly funded by you know people who live in this community right and I think you know I mean to get into the into the the generational piece and I think you know because I'm both older and have lived here you know longer than some people I mean those are the people that come that I end up talking to the most right the people who are really you know who are concerned more about taxes and tax increases and uh I don't disagree
057with Ezra at all when he says you know our primary respon primary responsibility is providing really you know a fantastic public education to the children in the community I I completely agree with it um I do also feel beholden to um to taxpayers and so to think um I guess I because I don't and just think strategically about when there may be an opportunity to not raise um property taxes as much as we could but anyway so I've spoken Maggie spoken Ezra's spoken it still gives Sean and Michelle the opportunity to say oh I would like to see you know I would like to see a budget that goes to three I mean I feel like or not um to be completely Frank I feel like now that we've presented a budget at 2.8 there's
058no going above that my chief concern is that I thought we might see two budgets side by side so that as you said for clarity's sake we could discuss what the distinction between those two might look like yeah so that there would be space to say I really feel like 10 years from now when they don't have that $1.3 million and then some because of compound because of how money that that we will be able to confidently say yeah we are exposing ourselves I think what you were talking about is uncertainty is yeah I've heard it that we don't receive a lot of Title One funds but we also don't know what's going to happen with Medicaid through which we receive money we do not know what's going to happen with idea B funding you
059know we receive $350,000 from the federal government right now they're talking about shifting this to block grant so we could suddenly like that not have money coming from sources that we depended on you see that $200,000 up there for an out District placement that could be a 21y year commitment and that's not you know we'll get a we'll get a rebate maybe how long will that last and that will continue to be our mandated responsibility so anytime we leave money on the table I'm going to be I'm going to be apprehensive about it so but I don't think that at this point I don't think that seeing the other budget makes a lot of sense and and I'll just say one one last thing you adopting um we also continue to meet with the admin
060team weekly these are projections you know we're we're predicting 6 eight months down the road what the district will need over the next you know until leading up to that adoption potentially something could change and it could be something what what what would what could prompt us to come back and and ask for 3.8 or propose 3.8 to the board could be an additional family moving in um that that a child needs an added District placement and there's another you know easily $130,000 so you know thing things may change but where we are today we we we feel confident except even I'm gonna push back a little bit here right because I think Sean just raised a whole series I think Sean raised a whole um well so you're right we're not adapting the the
061budget until April but there's one more meeting until we adopt the budget right so it's not that they like there's a lot of time for the board to consider things I mean you know Sean did raise um you know a number of issues that you know reflect current realities that we're not you know that we're not aware of so I don't it's it's interesting to you you you raise a lot of good points I mean I'm not going to force you want to see another budget but like you just rais a number of good points Michelle has raised concerns I mean there's no reason to be like super cut and dry about it I mean you know again um I there's always needs in the district I mean there always needs in the district there
062are there are always needs in the district and so I think you know by by seeing another you know when I hear a lot when I hear an understanding but concern a high level of concern and I from a bit that Michelle has said a level of concern it seems uh premature to completely say like no we're not going to consider something else and so um uh and I and I really I mean this is an issue on which I think there is a real difference of opinion right in this board in terms of how to move forward and I think the only fair and you know people can disagree with me but I think that the the the the fairest way to move forward both for ourselves and for the public is to possibly
063consider what another what what a budget that goes up to 3.3 38 would look like I'd like to take a look at that I I think I I mean the the the board has to feel comfortable and making Mak sure that it has as much information as it can have before before moving forward right and um uh it is not incredibly often that we are not all on the same page but this is absolutely an issue in which we are not on the same page and so I think it's critically important that we move forward with the most information that we can have so I'm sorry to ask you to have to do more work but it was the work that you kind of had expected to do anyway and it's not that much work
064I mean look could simply go back to a building condition survey that's exactly right which has millions of dollars of projects and quite frankly 130,000 doesn't go that far but maybe we could look at one of those high priority projects and again you know that that is something and that's not a terrible amount of work but I think you know we we have to defer to the board on that and if you'd like to see us come up with a a potential other priority we we certainly I I think that's important um this is a board I think that can withstand a difference of opinion I think it's a community that can you know responsibly engage in this conversation together there is um there's no reason for us to to shy away from it honestly
065I'm going to click through to the end just so that we look at the calendar just so that we can make a plan because I don't know if I want to go through the detail to then have it be different so we have March 18th I could present both you know it right because we're at March 4th now so in two weeks I could come back with the slides that I had this this week that show two different numbers and we could you know Carl and I can come up with where that 132 would take us that still gives us a decision on I would say we probably could make a decision hopefully on March 18th as to what we think the right answer is um which still gives us time we really don't adopt
066the budget till April 22nd so that still allows us the April 1 meeting I mean I don't think we want to go much past the April 1 meeting just because of all the communication and the and the paperwork and everything that H needs to happen um in the district to get a budget out for vote um including when is your first well legal the legal notice I was just looking and we can do our legal notice the legal notices start going out before we have adopted so that dollar amount all the other propositions the language for all the other propositions is included so in that piece we just have to make a change to our legal notice for the remaining yeah I mean in that piece we're okay we um yeah I would agree that
067it would be great to not go past April 1st on a decision because we will have also developed all of the explaining that we need to do in our newsletter and that that is printed like the second after we adopt the budget so we will have needed to talk about how we are explaining the Budget prior to the 22nd right and so but you know we have the a month right I mean there's always the possibility of putting in another meeting meeting well we have two so right right all right good thank you so I think that I would at this point I would just go back quickly just so that we just know what's happening in the note here again we won't say we just want to go over our propositions again so that
068we can at least come to some consensus on some of them the budget number is still to be determined our proposition two will be our standard vehicle purchase we have worked with maintenance and they are comfortable with that we need one large school bus um for a maximum of $175,000 so this proposition is is well well set and we are fine with this one our capital reserve fund again this is going to be a education um point so that people understand what we're actually what they're actually voting on as you'll see at the bottom we added that this enables the district to increase savings for future needs the use of any funds that are saved do have to be approved by the community and just so that a reminder is examples of our recent tax
069neutral capital reserve fund use was replacement of the turf fields carpet and we did put $1 million towards the capital project um I am recommending that we up the capital reserve fund for another 10 years and up the amount that we can save to $3 million um and again anytime we use that it would take voter approval to be able to use it but that would be for capital projects in the district over the next few years and then just a reminder that we are going to have a proposition from the Butterfield Library this year um this is not this has nothing to do with the howan budget uh public schools are required to include Library propositions on their annual budget ballot when the library requests it this is the first time that the Butterfield
070library has been asking for an increase of funds um since 2015 2015 so it's been 10 years um we do Levy the tax the money for them but it it comes to us and we immediately turn around and pay it to the Butterfield Library again it's I do think we have a lot on our ballot this year that's going to take some explanation to the voters to make sure they understand what they're voting for and then again just here's our propositions and the timeline but I think you know I think it would be uh premature to show the rest of my budget slides right now I'll I'll present them for next week so we can actually have a a compare and contrast if that's okay with everyone thank you um and also I think someone
071from Butterfield is going to come to one of the meetings they're going to come at the beginning of our next meeting just to share a very brief overview of what they're requesting of taxpayers good thank you okay thank you thank you all right um and our second special presentation um veral prek this is very exciting all right so I'm here to update you on where we're at with universal prek so some of this uh you guys have seen a couple of times but just in case anybody new is here or Lo is it later we have funding of $232,000 from the government to fund our Universal prek program that covers a 5H hour program and it assumes the inclusion of 43 students we are not planning on having a program of 43 students we're planning
072on having 18 students here at helding and then we issued our RFP um to see if there was any additional seats outside of help so you can offer upk in two ways you can we're required to set aside 10% to work with uh community- based organizations and then the remaining 90% is for can be used for um District based programs you can offer it purely with Community Based organizations we tried that first when we didn't have space within the building that was not successful and luckily unluckily our enrollment has decreased and uh we've been able to now allocate space and Staffing um to now offer upk here in the building so with our unexpectedly small kindergarten class coming in um we have been able to reallocate a kindergarten classroom um and then another small kindergarten
073class now following up behind them we've been able to reallocate as teaching staff so last year's small kindergarten class gave us a classroom this year's small kindergarten staff um is giving us the teaching program so last year the small the extra teacher um we did not replace that was um Miss Wendell's retirement we didn't fill and then this year we're shifting that uh teaching uh staff member into the upk program so we're shifting a staff member with the development of the program we put out a request for proposal in January uh to see if anybody was willing to work with us for the remaining seats beyond the 18 um for a variety of reasons we've had difficulty with those and again to recap this is stuff we've talked about before uh the fact that if
074you're going for upk and getting funding for it you have to have a certified teacher or director your building has to be approved by ocfs and the compensation rate being this just the $5,400 per student which works out to be about $30 $30 per student per day we haven't had very good luck partnering with our community based organizations but this year we did get one application so Stepping Stones did put in an application to work with us they uh put in an application to offer four seats we have not finalized a contract with them the applications uh for a propos all the proposals were due to us on the day before spring break so they put in a proposal to work with us for four seat for four seats um and now comes the part
075where we partner with them and see can we make that work can we put together a contract and can we finalize that so that's the stage we're at right now so that is not a definite where we now have like the next week or so to see if we can fully finalize that I will say I spoke to them and they are they're a little bit nervous um it means giving up the possibility of a higher paying space to somebody else um and if we because it has to be a blind Lottery if we have somebody who then lotteries into one of their spaces who doesn't need before an after school care then they lose out on the possibility of a slot with somebody who does need before and after school care and that's that's
076a risk so they're open to it they really want to but um but it's a risk and they're nervous um so it's not 100% but they are really wanting to partner for it I would say they really want to offer that to the community and work with us and to be part of opening the program and um I'm hopeful um it may be that maybe we get two seats but uh I would say that we will for sure have a definite answer on that by March 21st because that's the deadline that I've set with them to say like we need to be able to then reach out to our families and say the lottery closes on the 31st we need to know your first and second choice and we can't get that answer from our
077families that are entering the lottery if we don't know if there's a second choice so we'll need to enter a contract with them by the 21st so that then our families know what their options are by the 31st and then we can actually conduct the lottery so it's at least a a step in the right direction of possibilities which is exciting and it it would be good for our families to be able to say there is an option that has before and after school care um so I'm I'm hopeful we're in full swing with setup Miss mhler who is a third grade teacher is moving from third grade to our prek program and she's very excited about it she's had the chance to go and visit um we visited three different prek programs to just
078see how they run in different places um we've been exploring curricular materials the math program that we adopted this is our second year of the math program so Eureka squared which we have K through five does have a prek component so that's an easy adoption and that then it feeds right into our kindergarten program and then for um Ela science social studies the other components we're currently reviewing as we talked about during the elementary detail report we're reviewing our um Ela resources so the um foundational uh phonics resources all tie in with um those aren't really grade levels specific in the same way you could use any foundational phonics program uh to support um prek reading strategies um but the core reading uh programs some of them have a prek component some of them don't
079but there are some options that we feel really good about that are um core prek resources that we would be able to use that um even if they aren't the exact resource that we may end up using K through five Ela we feel like there's strong resources that would um align well into the kindergarten programs so we feel good about those so classroom materials have been put into the budget with two sections of kindergarten there are some materials that will'll be able to shift over um if we have a bookshelf in that was used as the kindergarten bookshelf there's no reason to then say like no we're going to put that in storage that's a kindergarten bookshelf we need a new preas shelf um it may mean that you know 2 years from now if
080we then get up to three sections of kindergarten that then we're saying okay we need to now re purchase furniture for um either the third kindergarten or to move those back to a kindergarten classroom and ship things around but um we're looking at our prek numbers um I won't be surprised if we have two sections of kindergarten again the following year so there's no reason to put Furniture into storage for two years to then spend money on furniture right now that's not useful there's some furniture that um you need smaller chairs than what we have we have actually uh just with breakage and um different uh just over the last couple of years we've run out we have exactly two sets of kindergarten sized chairs so we need to order chairs we would need that
081whether there was three kindergartens or a um we need a couple of tables that are the right size um but those kinds of things we've budgeted for the playground um the fire truck is actually doesn't have an age and safety rating it's older they call that a classic yes thank you it's vintage vintage and class got own charm um it is Charming um but all of our other equipment except for the swings is rated for ages 5 through 12 um so the swings are rated for preschoolers the fire TR is vintage and classic and does not have a safety rating and so we're looking at all right does the playground does does the fir truck need to be updated regardless if it doesn't have a safety rating even for five six seven year olds um
082and then is there equipment then that's appropriate for ages to through 12 that um we should be putting on our playground um so just looking at those things as we are going into next year and including them in our planning our current registration so we have um I have those numbers on this first page so we've had 20 families attend our events um so we had a prek informational night uh registration information sessions with Miss Watkins we actually have 13 students fully registered for prek lottery um and then so I feel like that's a that's a good number um that would get them into the lottery which would run March 31st now that's not to say if we end up with 13 students that are in the lottery students can enroll in prek throughout the
083program they could a student could even move into the district if we had 17 students in October and a student who's aged for prek Moves In in November they can join then get a prated amount if they move into the district so it's not that then if we have an open seat it has to remain open um so if a family learns about it a family um didn't realize they could register they register in uh June July August that's fine it's just the lottery uh will will be running until March 30 the registration for the lottery will run from March 31st and that initial selection will run in the beginning of April if we then have open seats students can register on a first come first serve into any open seats that we have after
084that um I watched the board I know I wasn't here for the board meeting last week so just while I'm here there were questions about our current kindergarten numbers there are 30 students that are eligible well 30 children that are eligible for kindergarten for next year um those are the students that I know names of children in the district who are eligible to go to k the kindergarten at howan um I anticipate that 24 of the children whose names I know would come to Howen and then there are the children who I don't know names because they're not in a preschool they're home with their families and there are always those children who who register later um they're you know they're home with Mom they're not in a preschool program and they register at a
085lader point so thank you for that that's the that's the number and so with that number being at 24 that's larger than we would run one section um so we're at a two section kind thank you K and kindergarten questions uh just you did it already but just another um thank you to Stepping Stones for being interested and you know to explore partnering with the district um we've known for years that it um that for our uh private preschool programs it introduces an a a financial burden potentially to them uh to to do this and those are very good reasons for these are small independently locally owned businesses there are very good reasons why people might not so for them to even reach out and explore um and be interested in supporting this effort um
086I mean thanks from you know they've had multiple phone calls and exploratory conversations and and it's great if you to have explored that with them they're I I would I would um I would say the same they it's really wonderful that they're willing to consider it and that I would say the reasons for considering it are really wanting wanting to um that's great wanting to be able to support the families of housing which is great and um if we can make it work I think it'll be great and I would say if we can't make it work um you know if the risks are too much for this year um I think they're not taking that POS possibility off the table for next year and as we know more about preschool numbers and the lottery
087and you know have a more solid you know this year a lot of preschool is is unknown you know how many students are we going to have how many families would need the before and after school how does all of that look we'll have more solid answers for them next year so it may be that if it just feels too risky and too unknown for them this year it may be that I can give them more solid answers next year and then they able to partner with us even if it's for a smaller number of seats um you know one is hard because there are requirements about the partnership about providing professional development about site visits you have to go visit you know four times a year and um all of that so offering one
088seat is hard because then you know we're going and visiting for for one seat but if if a CBO was willing to offer two I think yeah hey that that becomes worthwhile for us to get two of our kids into a program that really helpes them so I have another question but I want to wait to ask it to make sure others have a chance to ask I have one quick one super super fast uh we provide or the rec provides uh before care here the ref provides before care here would that be open to pre it isn't because the state does not allow prek I did ask so the state does not allow prek student well prek children to be in a before or after school program with anybody older than kindergarten so if
089the wreck were going to offer a before care or after Care Program they'd have to have one teacher for prek in kindergarten and then a second staff member for first through fifth grade and then it throws off their ratios yeah their numbers so um it also throws that's an interesting regulation right now the recre has one space that's approved by ocfs if they add second spaces they have to redo their licenses so um for those of you with elementary students you may have seen we put out a survey about before and after school care needs um we are looking at partnering with another organization so that we opened it up to the wreck and I've been in uh communication with Sue Richardson it's all above board we're not trying to undermine the wreck or anything
090else um but they are not at this point exploring after school care back here at Hine they don't have the Staffing or ability to expand prior to covid they had it before and after here in the building it's a whole another license they've let that license expire they're happy with the program that they're running after school with the transportation to the wreck and so with their full blessing they said if somebody else is willing to do after school program at howan we aren't interested at this time in in doing that so we're exploring whether we could offer after school care here but we still run into those prek can't be with anybody above kindergarten um so again with the unknowns we wouldn't be able to do after school with prek for next year but with
091more known in future years if we knew hey we have enough 3K and kindergarten students that it'd be worthwhile for that organization to run a classroom of prek and kindergarten and a classroom of first three 5th we might be able to offer after care through that organization in future years it's just we we can't start it that way because right now we only know we have 13 prek it's just too many unknowns okay thank you I might have missed it but did you say that the um age appropriate playground equipment was part of next year's budget already it is okay thanks great it another thing like it's already within the 2.8 excellent thanks um so this is a question I should know the answer too and so I apologize in advance for asking it so
092you're not allowed to forget anything so what is the rationale for offering a prek program that has a different schedule like a different St and stop time than kindergarten so it's a five hour program the state says it's a five hour program the state does yeah and um with the with the logistics and the way that the state mandates are if we there's a number of things so if we run a six-hour program you might logically say okay great then they could come on our bus and come with their siblings but if we do end up partnering with a CBO um we have to offer transportation to all our cbos then so like we explored and we didn't get any offers at this point but it would limit future options if a CBO in Beacon
093said we could offer a program for 10 of your kids now we're transporting to Beacon too so it right now we're not offering Transportation um we're not uh our our teachers still need the lunch and prep um they're they're following our same teacher contract so right now the way I can schedule it with a 2:00 dismissal dismissal would go 2 to 2:15 their prep is 2:15 till 3:00 so that's what allows us to staff it for the full five hours of the program yes yes yes yes because they're not right because they would not get the full special time all the same release times that our other teachers are following yes our specials being we would we're planning on doing you don't they don't get recessed the same way either within a five our program
094because recess is not considered instructional collaborative play isn't is considered instructional as long as your teacher and your Aid are supervising and teaching kids how to play how to cooperate how to do those things but then your teacher has to be there so that's not a time that the teacher is released so her lunch then has to be the time that they're they're at special and eating so those things have to block together so to get the to use a staff member who's on a teacher contract contract you have to build those things into the de that's very helpful thank you and makes a lot of sense we could do it where we then offer them a full special full we can't do that with our current Staffing it might be something to explore in
095future years when fifth grade moves to the middle school could we schedule it differently but I don't have it for next year that's very it's help just because I think um I think prek is so important um I want to make sure T like this is our first year there's I think we've already learned so much um I would anticipate that not just me but within the community there's a desire to have a high quality in school pre-ap program be as accessible as it can be to as many children who might benefit from it as possible so I don't know I see this as uh not the first the second or third step because you've been working on it for such a long time in our um in our exploration for how to support um
096our youngest Learners in the district I youve work explore it differently as we go through different iterations of it but I think with our with us trying to keep it as a as close to budget neutral as possible um this this is the way the schedule would right right and that's something forway you've worked so hard on this thank you so much did you did you have question to no all right thank you thank you all right give Maggie a chance to come back up Carl um so we're at our first communication from the public to how howan 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 anybody who wished to address the board we'd
097ask them to sign in keep their remarks to three minutes or less and to avoid disparaging remarks all right we'll move into information report um oh actually these are just information reports these are the the financial documents that we'll um act on at our next meeting um next is a consent agenda um uh minutes may I have a motion please so move second all those in favor any opposed uh next we have very very busy time oh I guess it's actually quite a a few uh committee minutes that have happened over the course of a couple of months but the wellness committee has met and provided their minutes that are available to everybody the code of conduct committee the technology committee and the districtwide Safety Committee is there anything anybody wants to add about any
098committee meeting they've been at that they want to point to no all right consent agenda Financial may I have a motion please so second all those in favor I I any opposed consent agenda Personnel may I have a motion please um just you can tell we're moving into spring Sports by approving our spring volunteer coaches and appointing an assistant baseball coach very exciting um all those in favor I I any opposed an unfinished business um superintendent search update quick board and others in the district have really been investing a lot of time in this um and you know our timeline Remains the Same that we expect to be able to U make an announcement at to me spring and this circumstance comes after March 21st so spring I'm thinking very literally I think spring is
099March 20th so expected in Spring it's nice is is my comment um and uh back to the exciting conversations about the howan school district calendar I'll let Carl talk about this all it well just to remind you where where we left off was um discussing you know potentially not having a full February break uh the downside of that is bosis and and I think nearly all the other uh districts in the area in putham meaning butam County school districts uh do uh are offering a full February break next school year um I must say we did Circle back to to to the staff and you know I I I think there's just a matter of preference you know we could do a full two weeks for the winter recess which includes Christmas and New Year's
100um right now it's not a full two weeks so you'd have to take that those days from the February break to make two full weeks there uh there was some question about the Monday after Easter uh we did hear that for travel one person raised religious reasons but um what we um adjusted was make that a give back day so if if we have a mild winter next winter then then it's a give back day that would be the first give back day so there's a strong likelihood that the district would end up with that Monday off barring any you know nor easers and things like that so um I think what I think what it's boiling down to is you know people Some people prefer two full weeks for for the winter break some
101some two two one full week for February break and I think it's just a matter of preference and I I I think you know if if you pull people you you probably get a lot of different opinions or if you continue to pull people I think we've already you know got a lot of feedback and I think you know in my judgment being aligned with bosis is you we don't have a large percentage of students that attend bosis but we do have enough and and and it is somewhat of a negative impact if you're not aligned because we you know we we have to then look to try to fill fill those days and provide teaching for them and it's not within a a normal school day so I I leave it up but ultimately
102it is the board's Co here so we defer to you makes sense to me yeah I like it yeah I mean I think that to me the the the point of you know that that there are a lot of different opinions about the calendar there was certainly not a consensus it appeared um and to come down to having a line with Bose's um you know those are uh Junior and Senior year for students who are in the Bose's programs those are very very important times for them and so um I think that's a good um academic reason for it so all right okay so ready to go may we have the recommended action please be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the Su interim superintendent of schools the Board of Education hereby adopts the
1032025 2026 Hing School District calendar as presented uh May have a motion please so moved second um oh I guess we actually should have had the recommendation for the conversation but anyway um all those in favor I any opposed all right new business the Cesc cpsc recommendation be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the interim superintendent of schools the Board of Education hereby approves the recommendations of the Committees on special education and preschool special education as present Ed all those in favor I I any opposed right so let's go ahead and have the recommended action for the approval of the fuel trip and then we can have any conversation we want to have be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the interim superintendent of schools the Board of Education hereby approves the following
104overnight trips the junior class to Washington DC March 24th to the 27th the senior class to Philadelphia IIA March 26th to the 28th and 8th grade to F to Frost Valley May 7th to the 9th um may I have a motion please second all right so is there anything I think this is pretty self-explanatory I think these are traditional they are these are great great learning experiences um uh all those in favor I any oppose and communication from the public the second opportunity on any school district matters um and uh any board Reflections I have one I have I'd like to announce that Hing for the very first time sent a team to the science Bowl uh it was sponsored by the United uh United States Department of energy National Science Bowl so a club
105was formed this year Seth Lun and PAC is the president and he got a team uh you know a group together the um faculty adviser is Lee posnak and they got a team together and they competed the morning was um I guess like kind of an elimination period to see if they were up to Snuff the afternoon they entered real rounds they went against stent they went against uh Hunter College High School and they so they made it to the uh quarterfinals and then were eliminated so but they had an amazing experience and I talked to Joey he's been in touch with Seth and I think you might see a little press about it but very cool thing very cool thing that uh that hdan those are some Heavy Hitters cool so yet again H
106punching above its weight always that's that's awesome um yeah we've had a lot of discussions about how you measure success and um you know I had a conversation with one of the parents whose child is in RK to Second special program and it's you know to be in the presence of a parent who sees growth in a child and what that means is very moving and um I just on you know on her behalf I wanted to express um her gratitude for the support that she knows um her her student receives um and um that it feels like a home and that uh her family feels taken care of in the district so I think it's important everyone knows that wonderful that's great feedback just gonna second what Mr Albano said earlier about the girls
107varsity basketball team they um they're playing tuo and it's a very remembered to be a very very tough team so the girls could use any support that we could give them down noon at the Westchester County Center and it's so fun for the girls to have the opportunity to be in a gigantic Stadium like that that should be wish them all the luck for that just to add to that I think 10 points of those hame points were scored by two sth graders oh that speaks for exciting years to come it does it does stuff great thanks all right thank you to everybody all right um uh Mr Alan do you have anything all right so the board is going to um convene into executive session to discuss uh for the purposes of discussing contract
108negotiations and the purpose of appointing um uh or identifying not appointing but just discussing the hiring of uh the the the new superintendent so I'm going to move to go into executive session may have a second please second all right and we'll adjourn from that meeting there we won't make any decisions there all right all those in favor I I any opposed