001Good evening everyone. I'd like to call to order the board meeting for the Mount Vernon City School District. This is a work session. Today's date is March 10th, 2026. Let's please stand for the pledge. May we have roll call, please? Just to acknowledge that our vice president, uh, Trusty Mitchell is out ill today. So, we just want to keep him in prayer. >> Thank you. Trusty Brown >> present. >> Trusty Kelly. >> Trusty Mcdana >> present. >> Trusty Middleton >> pres. >> Trusty Peterson >> present. >> Trusty Scott. >> Trusty White VP Mitchell and President Marabel >> present. >> Okay. We have our quorum and student trustee Oduro. >> At this time, I'd like to call for our cash flow report for February 2026 led by our district treasurer, Mr. Joe Lynn. Item number resolution
0022.1. >> Good evening trustees. Uh >> good evening >> students. Uh staff. Um so this should be a pretty quick report. Um if we could focus in on January. So in terms of receipts this in January we had uh a large largely driven by um property taxes. That's usually the collection period. Uh this is the due date uh the second collection. So you you had um 46 million there. Um then you have also the star reimbursement that came through which is the other uh big uh chunk of revenue. And then um we also had um state aid that came through uh in January. So that drove drove up to have a 59 uh 68 million uh revenue on the dispersement side. Uh not allowed change uh significant changes except for of note except for the
003uh library taxes. um warrants declined a little bit, but the taxes was a big one that uh library taxes was a big one where we uh sent uh dispersement out. So, our net for January was 49.75 million. Uh from a cash flow projection standpoint, we're looking uh in uh pretty good shape. Um if you could uh actually go to the very end Scroll to the right. So, we're looking to end the year with uh 14.86 million in net cash. So, um right now as is everything looks uh to be pretty good. Um >> can we just enlarge that a little so that it can be seen clearly? Thank you. Okay. That with that being said, we're we're continuing to uh work on uh you know as going through the details of uh our appropriations. Next
004uh board meeting I'll be presenting a little bit more for the February including a initial appropriations report. Um so and as we go through process improvements and continuing to improve things, we're hoping that uh these numbers will continue to get uh greater and greater accuracy in terms of the projections. >> Thank you. Do we have any questions for our trust treasurer >> regarding the cash flow report? Okay, hearing none. Thank you so very much, Mr. Lynn. We'll now hear from our superintendent, Dr. Deario Strickland, on district goals update 2.2. >> Good evening, President Marble, trustees, students, staff, and members of the Mount Vernon community. This is my update on the district goals as it pertains to the superintendent's evaluation. Next slide. This slide presents our four district-wide goals for the 2526 school year. These goals
005were established as part of my superintendent evaluation framework and reflect our highest priorities for student achievement. Each goal represents a meaningful, measurable improvement over over our June 2025 baseline. Goal number one focuses on grade three ELA proficiency, which is our foundational literacy benchmark. Goal two addresses grade five mathematics where we know early numerousy skills predict long-term academic success. Goal number three tracks nth grade credit accumulation which research consistently identifies as the strongest predicate pred predictor of graduation. Finally, goal number four is our four-year cohort graduation rate. the ultimate measure of our students completing their K through2 journey. I will speak to each of these goals individually in the slides that follow. Next slide. Here's what we are committed to to ensuring that every student in Mount Vernon experiences high quality learning, equity, and success in
006every classroom every day. This is our gyms of instruction is in the majority of our classrooms. Every teacher has one. It has both uh student actions and teacher actions and we continue to measure uh what the what is happening in the classroom based on these gems. Next slide. So goal number one centers around centers on grade three ELA. Our baseline is 48% of third grade students scoring proficient or above on the New York State ELA assessment in June 2025. Our target is to reach 53% by June 2026, a 5 percentage increase. Third grade literacy is not simply an academic milestone. It's a gateway. Research shows that students who are not reading proficiently by the end of third grade are four times likely to drop out of school. Our work in this area includes strong tier
007one instruction, targeted small groupoup interventions, and intentional use of data to identify students who need support early before gaps become entrenched. And as you could see, um, and I apologize, I know it's a little, uh, small. Yeah. Um we are moving towards meeting that goal. Now we are not expected to be there um as we you would think because these our students are acquiring the standards as the year goes along. Now I do want to take you to the uh third column of excuse me uh the New York State measures of interim progress. uh that is this orange column that is actually going to be uh something that we are going to look at as a cabinet and as um a leadership team in general uh because those are the marks that schools must meet
008in order to not be identified. We need to ensure that students are at least achieving a two or more on their New York State assessments. If every student alone achieves a two, we would be we would continue to be in good standing. Next slide. Goal two focuses on grade 5 mathematics. Our baseline is 39% of fifth grade students scoring proficiency or above on the New York State mathematics assessment. We are targeting 44% by June 2026. Mathematics proficiency in the upper elementary grades is a critical lever for secondary success, particularly for students who aspire to careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Our curriculum teams are working closely with building leaders to ensure that instructional strategies are aligned, that teachers have the professional development they need, and that we are using data from assessments to make
009timely adjustments. Again, this is the same situation. This is the I Ready benchmark. Uh we see that there's a number of schools that are reaching or developing. Uh we want to get them into the effective and highly effective columns and not this one. Yeah. Um we want to make sure that they uh continue to push and get towards highly effective. And once again, we have the MYIPS, the measures of interim progress that we must meet. As you could see, three of our schools are making great progress and uh our other schools have some work uh to that needs to continuously be done. Again, I'm not uh fretting because it's not the end of the year. like we want to make sure that we teach the standards that are needed for students to be successful. Next
010slide. Goal number three measures 9th grade credit accumulation. We are tracking the percentage of nth grade students who earn five four five or more credits by the end of the school year, which is the threshold research identifies as strongly predictive of four-year graduation. Our baseline is 75.8 8 from June 2025 and we are targeting 80.8% by June 2026. When students enter high school with a strong support structure, clear expectations and early intervention, they be when they begin to fall behind, the data shows they are far more likely to stay on track and graduate on time. Um, so we see that Denzel's Washington School of the Arts, uh, currently is at 92.6% on track, uh, which is great. Um, you know, they do have an advantage considering they have they had a sixth grade cohort that
011they've been working with and able to push along. Um, same thing with Steam. Many of the students that attend Steam are those students that come from honors classes that have credit in algebra, biology, and a language. And we see Mount Vernon High School is 55.9%. Although it's below the threshold, um I am quite confident that the the individuals at that school are working to ensure students in nth grade get the support that they need to get five or more credits. Next slide. Goal number four is four-year cohort graduation rate. Our baseline from August 2025 is 79% and we are targeting 84% by August 2026. I want to acknowledge both the progress that has been made and the distance that remains. An 84% graduation rate means that for every 100 students who entered ninth grade with
012a cohort, 84 will earn a diploma in four years. Our job is to make sure that number hires every single year and strategies you will see on the following slides are designed to do exactly that. No child in Mount Vernon should fall through the cracks and our system exists to ensure that it doesn't happen. Uh and as you can look at the chart uh these are measures that I just uh have always used. Uh we are looking at the current senior class meaning cohort 2022. Looking at the number of students that have 16 or more credits because that means they are on track to be um a senior. uh looking at the students that has at least three regent exams. If they have three regent exams, they generally are only one away from being able
013to graduate. And uh that's how we sort of are projecting out. Um as you see, um Denzel Washington School of the Arts uh has an effective rating as of now. Um and our steam academy has a highly effective rating uh but overall uh developing rating. Next slide. This slide outlines the interventions we have put in place to support students across all four goal areas. Tier one instruction is the foundation. If our core classroom instruction is not high quality and rigorous, every other intervention and work is working against the grain. I want to be honest with this board and community. We have identified gaps in our curriculum that are affecting the consistency of f first instruction across our schools. Dr. Dogget Dr. Dogget and I are actively addressing the gaps and that work is priority for
014the remainder of this school year into 2627. For students who need more now, we have supports in place. Online credit recovery, marking period recovery, extended learning time programs, and Saturday and evening programs. Our early warning system and multi-tered systems of support allow us to identify students who are beginning to struggle and respond before a small gap becomes a large one. These are not programs operating in isolation. They are part of a coordinated school by school strategy even as we continue to strengthen the instructional core that makes all of them more effective. Next slide. And finally, this slide reflects the direct school level work underway to move our students towards these goals. I want to be clear, this is not the work of one department or one leader. My ex my entire executive cabinet and cabinet
015are engaged in this effort. Whether it's curriculum and instruction, student personnel services, business and operations, legal and compliance, every member of the leadership team understands that student achievement is a shared responsibility and that their role to role connects to what happens for children in classrooms. Data reviewed meetings with building leaders and principles are not a formality. They are structured conversations about what is working, what is not, what needs to change. Professional learning communities, curriculum meetings, and instructional coaching are part of how we support teachers and keep our strategies coherent across the district. The ongoing data and action planning cycle for leaders mean that no principal in is operating in isolation. We are a system and every part of that system is pointed in the same direction. And and finally, thank you for your time and
016attention this evening. Uh the work reflected in this presentation is being carried out every day by our teachers, school leaders, support staff across all 13 schools in Mount Vernon. And I want to thank them all and I welcome your questions. >> Do we have any questions of Dr. Strickland on the district goals? Dr. Mcdana, >> thank you, President Marbal. Thank you for the presentation. Just a couple questions. Uh, one, how are what is the definition of the of the MYIPS? >> I don't I didn't Yeah, I don't understand what this >> Yeah. Okay. So, generally, we were looking at uh proficiency as the end all beall. I'm looking for students that get a three or four on the New York State assessments. Those are students at or above grade level. Now, what the state is
017actually looking at, they're looking at for students to make growth. They're looking at students that are actually at the level two range. And each uh student that scores a level two earns a certain point. And they add uh those points with the grade people that earn threes and add another for fours. And all those together have to equal be equal or better than the um number that's shown >> on that slide. >> I see. So for effective what is the threshold? Is it 130? >> So >> or or >> I'm I'm just went back to the um what is it the math one? >> Sure. >> So 113 is >> so um >> 13. Right now we are seeing 130 one 113.1 which shows that we're developing. So uh the individuals that are in the
018130s that is that's probably the actual target. I can get you the actual target. >> Yeah. No, it's okay. That's all right. I get I get I just wanted to get a a sense of the framework. And then just one other thing you so you you had said that you were talking about the state and how if every student in the district got a two >> we would be considered by the state of school in good standing >> or LSI. >> Is is that is that a statewide standard or is it or is that just relative to Mount Vernon's progress? >> Uh so I believe it is actually a statewide standard. If every student gets some points on those exams they will actually show uh some progress and actually meet MIP. Wow. That that just
019strikes me as odd because with ELA, a two is not proficient. So, it seems odd that the state would consider that a a a standard that keeps you in good standing. I find that alarming. This is actually a slight change that a lot of uh education policy uh and superintendent across the state were actually pushing for because we have so many students that were identified as level ones. And we our goal is to see substantial progress, not just see a student a student that goes from a one through a three. I'm starting to like get some flags go up. They're going up in my head. What's going on in that class? You know, it it's great, but you you you rather see increment growth. Um because that student is going to at least uh be
020sustain sustainability. >> I I understand I understand what those things mean. It worries me though that it just, you know, for the state to say that you're in good standing, it seems like it's a it's a way to maybe avoid having to ratchet up more funding, right? That's for me. If you if two means something more significant, then that that would have to compel the state to fund uh more by saying two is okay. Um that's that's my worry. And it's again, it's two is not proficient. If you if you go through your life at a two, you're never going to be a proficient reader. Yeah. Yeah. So, I guess I'm I'm I get what you're saying. I don't think I'm being as clear. Two is just the threshold to get points. Um and then
021what happens is, and please Dr. Wilkins, if you will, um we do have students that get threes and fours and those actually help elevate students that get ones and the twos. You know, it's it's overall goal, overall calculation, >> right? And also I think that they have also taken into consideration the COVID factor because there was a lot of um mised instruction. So I think that they're trying to compensate for some of that. But uh again, >> yeah, it's a it's a cold world, you know. I mean, >> I agree. Still need to know how to read. >> You got you got to read, you know. >> But that's not it's a little different than that. >> Okay. >> Do you want me to address it or >> Oh, can you please, Dr. Wilkins? >>
022I'll do I'll do a little bit of addressing. What happens is that you have your threes and fours and they stay that way. Those are the that are basically on grade level of not above. You just you look at your ones and twos. If you eliminate the ones and and you have all those hop up to twos, that's um you get points for that and it shows growth in literacy or numeracy standards and you're not getting identified. So he's like getting to the shortcut of it. But you're right, two is not where we want them to be. We want them to be at proficiency. But back a couple of years ago, you get a level one, you get nothing for that child. So, a child went from a low one to a high one, you
023see the growth, but it doesn't really mean anything. But when you see that child go from um a high a middle one to a two, you're going to get some points for that, but it's also showing movement. It's not good enough, but if you're looking purely from the point system of what you're going to get, all twos will leave you in better standing from the state measurements, which comes again from the feds. So, that's what that's about. So, again, literacy is the three. We want them at grade level, but you're playing with numbers right now. So, that's what that's about. Basically, we're just getting credit for we're getting credit for the growth. Is that what they Yeah. But it's about literacy. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? >> Trusty Adoro. >> Hello. Um honestly this
024uh presentation was honestly um good uh in my opinion especially with the intervention to support uh students um especially with parents that are you know overworking and doing other things to even focus on their students. Um but these are some some questions how I would personally ask like how would this be implemented and how would parents and communities alike would be able to know this is going on for the kids and lastly how would who is going to be responsible for that because um as we all know it Marvin is kind of tied to staffs and a lot of things. So um yeah thank you. >> No thank you. Thank you for your kudos. I would say one of the reasons why I actually am doing this presentation in public is to alert our families
025and students to as as to what actually happens in our schools because too often we're such uh in silos and you know people may assume that things are not happening or they are happening um and I want to highlight that things are happening to really try to move the nozzle um and get our students the finish line which is that graduation. Um so in a lot of respects everything might not be happening in every school because every school needs something different but something is generally tailored to most schools and I collected all of it. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. Uh, at this time I'd like to know if we have any board committee reports. Anyone that would like to report out a trustee Scott, do you have anything you'd like to share? >>
026Thank you. Thank you. Um, >> that's technology, correct? >> Technology committee. Yes. Um, we had a a nice discussion on Wednesday, December. Oh my goodness. March 4th. I guess I'm preparing for Christmas, huh? um March 4th where we talked about what's happening um districtwide and I'm just going to share um summary of what that is and for those that were in attendance at the mean please um chime in if I forget anything. So basically we talked about device readiness um and at this current state 93% of the students have a district owned device assigned. Um the remaining 7% of students may need to get receive a new device and because of aging computers and that's being um worked on we know that 500 new devices are being distributed to grade five districtwide um and there
027are some weekly readiness reports that go out to the superintendent and to our state monitor um which I also receive and we share to see what's happening across the district in regards to those um those devices and things of that nature. We are looking at planning for device maintenance which is well needed in the district. So I know that um the director and others are working very hard to identify what best plan we can have for those devices um going forward. And those devices will be in order to repair, repurpose, monitor, dispose. So it has all of those things embedded in it. Um we're also the district's instructional technology plan which is due April 15th and I know sections of that is are being worked on now and then be reviewed. The full report is
028due June 30th. So we are we only have three months left but I think we are working in a way where things will be submitted will be reviewed and submitted in a timely manner. So we are on pace for that. And we're also looking at a student access home use policy um which will you know allow for those take-home rules procedures for lost devices, damaged devices, charger management and single sign on capabilities. So there's a lot that's being done right now um by the technology division along with other um folks. So we're in a positive place. So, I hope to continue to report out on the um success as we um progress. So, thank you. >> Thank you so much, Trusty Scott, for that. Do we have any questions on the technology committee report? >>
029Okay. Dr. Strickland would like to make a comment. I do want to assure you all trustees and the community that we are already starting to look at next school year uh 202 2026 27 having a plan in place so that we are not where we were last year that it's unacceptable will not tolerate and um we'll be all right. Thank you, Trusty Peterson. >> Good evening, everyone. So, last Tuesday, uh, March 3rd, Miss White and Serita and Hillary, we had an amazing family and community engagement meeting. Uh, it was I have been a parent in this district for the last 18 years. Oh, Lord. And this year was the first year I can ever recall us getting summer school information in March. Like we were like I was like oh my what did this for
030June? I'm like for this year it was they presented the programs that are going to be going on this um this summer. Uh we discussed uh feedback about the afterchool program which yet again my daughter loves this after school program. I don't know what they're doing but she loves it. And um we discussed the methods on how to increase family uh family engagement across the schools at all different you know um uh school age levels and elementary to middle school to high school. It was a very engaging meeting. We had the afterparty afterwards. We were still on there talking and just throwing ideas and just getting it was it was just a great meeting. Um our next meeting is Thursday, April 9th at double check this way. 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 9th. Um, and everyone,
031don't forget that Friday, April 17th, will be our Edith Kaplan scholarship dinner dance held at um, what is the place? Green Tree Country Club. So, that information, it should be already on the district website. So, we encourage everyone to come on out for that as well. >> Okay. Right. Thank you. Any Trusty Adora, do you have a report? >> Um, no. I was going to ask a question to Mr. Scott. Um, Sure. >> So um last time when I came to well I came to America 4 years ago which we already know and I remember last time they used to take the laptops during the summer. Am I right? Um is that going to be implemented? I mean it would make sense why it would be implemented for the sakes of the safety of the
032laptops and us students not damaging especially from lower grades. Well, >> do you say trusted Scott? Do we we want Dr. Strickland answer? Do you have a response for that? >> Sorry, we didn't make that decision yet, but uh you'd be surprised um with with the comment about our littles. Um it's not the littles, it's it's the older ones that are losing their items. Um we don't have the iPad shortage, it's the computer shortage. Um so we have not made that decision but um we when we make that decision we will be sure to communicate it holistically. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Sure. >> I'm sure that that will come tied with the maintenance plan on how to manage the flow of people having it and who has it. >> Is your mic on?
033>> Hello. >> Can you hear me now? >> Yes sir. Thank you very much. >> But what I was saying was basically the um maintenance plan would be great in terms of being us being able to manage something like that when the decision is made so that we can know where these um where the equipment is, who has it, where it's being used, things of that nature. So, I'm sure that's um to come. >> Trusty Scott, can I just um just for clarification, do um because it's my understanding that there are trackers on the computers or they're not are they don't exist. I thought there were trackers on them. Okay. Not okay. Great. Okay. Thank you. Older older models. Okay. Oh, great. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? Trusty Ador, do you have a report?
034Would you like to report out now? >> I mean, um there is I mean the report only for um the school district, not school district, but Steam Academy is known for the newspaper which is now going to be located at the um Mount Vernon Library. Sorry, Mount Vernon website um has everything on it. But uh for the community, Dr. Pierce is finally back in student academy if you guys must know. But yeah, thank you. >> Okay, thank you. Okay, do we have any old business that we need to bring forward? Okay, let's move on to section four, human resources. Are there any items 4.1 through 4.7 that you would like to discuss? If so, please identify that resolution. I'll give you a moment. Okay, we ready to move forward? Okay, moving on to section five,
035curriculum and instruction. Is there anything in section five 5.1 through 5.7 that you would like to have discussion on? >> Dr. Dr. Strickland, did you need to add anything to any of the resolutions? Did you need to explain anything here? just 5.6 there's a change uh in price due to uh a change in entry fee. So uh there was an increase so we had to amend Hearing none, we'll move on to section six, student personnel services. Are there any questions on 6.1 or 6.2? Okay, no questions. We'll move on to section seven. I believe we do have a guest here for part of our uh that is was here to answer any questions that we may have for item 7.3. But is there anything else that you'd like to address in section 7, 7.1 through
0367.6 excluding 7.3? Is there anything in seven section 7.1 through 7.6 that you would like to discuss? We're going to isolate 7.3 since we have a a guest here that's going to be able to answer any questions you may have for 7.3 hearing none. We will look at 7.3. Are there any questions on 7.3 authorization to opt in agreement to participate in the city of Mount Vernon school bus stop arm enforcement program with bus patrol trustee Peterson. Hi, good evening. Um, so in looking over the contract, um, my main two questions were what type of what type of revenue would the school district receive from this? Because I didn't find any within the contract that stated us receiving any type of revenue from this. >> Okay. Let me just introduce our guest. >> Oh, thank
037you very much, >> Dr. Strickland, if you could just introduce our guest. >> Uh, Mr. Ryan Monell. >> That's correct. >> Right. He was here on January 29th, I believe, and did a presentation on bus patrol. And so he did answer a few questions to the trustees. Trusty Mcdana and Trusty Brown raised um a couple questions that night, and you did answer them in real time. So um and so Trustee Peterson is asking a follow-up question to that session. >> Well, thank you, President Marble. Uh Trusty Peterson, thank you for your question. Dr. Strickland, thank you for your your time this evening as well and as well as the rest of the trustee board. Uh really appreciate the opportunity to come back and answer questions. Uh we look forward to the potential partnership with the
038with the school district and the community. Uh to answer your question, uh really it sort of comes down to the state statute. So uh we actually as a vendor we work with communities across the state of New York, uh including Westchester County, uh Eastchester, the town of Eastchester just north of here. uh and many others across the state uh under uh uh state statute 1174A. And so what state statute 1174A uh allows for is a local community and the local community is defined as either a county, a city like Mount Vernon, a town or a village to enter into uh an agreement with a vendor like bus patrol to effectuate an enforcement program that allows for the installation of school bus safety cameras on the on the cameras that would capture a violation if someone
039were to pass that vehicle if the bus is stopped and letting kids are off or on the bus. Uh the way that we would op ultimately operate is number one, we install the the cameras on uh the buses, but then effectuate uh sending evidence uh to the local law enforcement. In this case, it would be either the Mount Vernon uh police department uh or it could be the city's public safety department to basically review that evidence and make a determination on if a ticket should be issued to those who pass the school bus illegally. Uh now the way that the law works uh is effectively uh the agreement is with the city. So we would enter into an agreement with the city uh in which uh this process would be facilitated. However, considering that the
040contract with the school buses is with the school district, there was an intergovernmental agreement that is necessary that in that creates a partnership with the city, the school district and bus patrol to affectuate the program. The way that revenue typically works is that the law uh number one establishes a ticket amount of $250. Pretty egregious offense passing a school bus when a child is getting off or on. So the severity of the penalty uh accounts for that, but it's set at the state as $250. Uh and ultimately that revenue goes back to the city. And so uh typically what we see is we enter into an agreement. We typically facilitate uh paying for the equipment that goes on the school buses. and then ultimately of course effectuating everything that is required to operate the program
041and then we are reimbursed through the funds that are captured through violations from the city. However, revenue is typically left over as well. Not everything goes towards paying for the program. Uh and in that case it's the city who makes the determination on how that revenue is ultimately allocated. Now in certain jurisdictions across the state, we also operate across the country. uh that revenue in many instances is shared between the city and the school district. And so in this instance, it would be uh ultimately a decision that would need to be made and negotiated between the city and the school district as it relates to how that violation revenue uh is ultimately allocated uh alongside what is necessary to pay for the program. >> So um >> Paul hold on let me see. Does anyone
042else have a >> my question? Okay. Each person gets a question, then I'll come back to you. >> But I still have this is still part of my initial question before him, >> but you get one question and then another trustee gets a question and I can come back to you and you can ask another question. Okay, that's how Robert's Fools of Water works. >> Trustee, >> Mcdana, uh, hi. Uh, in your in the this uh opt-in agreement, it says the city has entered into an agreement with bus patrol. is I'm guessing it hasn't happened yet. >> It hasn't happened yet. Yeah. So, we're actually kind of going the city was really interested in hearing ultimately what all of you thought about the program. And so, it's a little bit in reverse. Uh ultimately, they
043wanted to see uh if the school board and the school district thought this was something that you wanted to pursue and go forward on. The next step would be uh hopefully with Dr. Strickland speaking to the city. The process with the city is ultimately not only entering into a contract but the law affect also calls for a local law to be effectuated enacted. And so if the local law is enacted uh we can enter into a a master services agreement with the city to basically facilitate what I outlined as it relates to the scope of of what this program is. And then of course to gain access to the school buses that uh the district is contracted uh to oversee uh we would enter into an opt-in agreement. So the opt-in agreement also would need
044to reflect the local law for for the city of Mount Vernon as well as the master services agreement. >> Do we have any other questions from trustee? >> I have a question. >> Okay. Since there's school buses, why are we making a contract with the city? >> Well, so on account of what the law recall calls for, right? Um really what it is is a is an intergovernmental agreement. So, uh, basically, since we would be effectuating the program on behalf of the city to facilitate enforcement, uh, however, of course, considering the school district controls the bus fleet, this is really seen as an intergovernmental agreement contract to allow for that asset, the school bus, to be outfitted with the stop arm cameras to facilitate enforcement. >> Oh, hold on. Okay, Trusty Brown, >> is this
045thing on? Um, good evening. Thank you for your uh for coming in to answer our questions. >> Um, like the last time I asked, we wanted to know what was the monetary um hit to the district and I understand it's none. >> Yep. >> Um, and so I know you keep talking about the intergovernal intergovernmental um agreement, basically anou. >> That's right. >> And that's what we're going to be entering and we Again, just want to clarify that the district is not spending any money. You just need us to approve this so that this particular so that the camera arms can be inact can be installed on the camera on the buses and that um if we decide as a group in our own conversations about any revenue that that's an additional conversation that we
046would have with the city. >> That's correct. Yeah. So, uh, just to go a step further, Trusty Brown, and I really appreciate your question, the law actually requires, uh, this program to be revenue neutral for the school districts. And so, by statute, the the, uh, the program cannot cost the the district a dollar. And so, ultimately, um, you know, we we facilitate the program, uh, of course to abide by that statutory requirement, but the other aspect is we also want to facilitate the program to not cost the city a dollar. And so what we typically do is as a vendor uh we will facilitate the debt servicing to install the equipment on every school bus. Uh it's about $10,000 a bus. Uh and our agreement uh is effectively a violator funded agreement. So, it won't
047cost cost a taxpayer a dollar for either the city or the school district unless you pass a bus in which case that violation will be captured and ultimately that revenue uh not only will go towards paying for the program and for us to recoup our cost and investment we made for the safety equipment but ultimately hopefully will create additional revenue for uh the city and hopefully if there's an agreement with the school district to go to the school district to help you uh account for and pay for other priorities that you have. >> Okay. Trusty Middleton, do you have Okay, I didn't want to miss Trusty Scott. >> Thank you very much. Um, unfortunately, I didn't get to see your presentation the last time, but I got to scan through what the PowerPoint. My question
048is around the violations. um especially when um the county the residents get these violations, there's probably going to be a lot of calls coming to this to this building about those violations versus going to the city. So my question to you is you're going to you said in your um a little while ago you were going to send any I guess evidence or whatever to the city for any violations or tickets that may be um given out. How can how can you reassure me that one we won't be bothered by people calling to find out how they can fight these tickets, how you know where they can get video of this um infraction and all of these other things. will and since we're not the owners of this, I'm guessing that we won't have access
049to whatever you will be sending to the city in regards to a violation. Is that correct? First, >> that's right. Yeah, >> we manage that when those calls come in. >> No, that's that's a tremendous that's a great question. Uh, a few things I'll I'll mention on that front. Uh, number one, you're correct. Uh, so if a violation is captured off of the bus, uh, that is data that we want to make make sure is secure. And so ultimately what happens is uh the violation is captured off the bus. Uh it goes through a back-end processing system uh in which uh that evidence that we see from a vehicle passing the bus is paired with uh DMV information on the register of the vehicle uh as well as additional information on when the violation occurred
050and where. uh that's then sent through a secure portal uh where uh a public safety professional with the city of Mount Vernon will receive a credential and they'll ultimately be reviewing that evidence for every violation and only if Mount Vernon uh the city of Mount Vernon public safety professionals uh review that and and approve it to be issued as a ticket will it be issued as a ticket. So the idea number one is it's always going to be a communitydriven enforcement program. Uh the second aspect that's incredibly important though is that you if you receive a ticket in the mail, uh part of the process for transparency and accountability is that you have a link on the ticket that you receive to to a website. And on that website, you can plug in your license
051plate for the vehicle that committed the violation or or uh is being accused of committing the violation as well as a ticket number. and you yourself can also view the same exact evidence that was utilized by uh the city of Mount Vernon uh to issue the ticket. Uh so that occurs uh uh uh and it will be available for anyone who receives a ticket. Uh the second thing I would say uh is uh on account of you know we don't want you to be uh fielding a bunch of phone calls. Now, obviously, we can't guarantee that you won't, but we do on the ticket provide a call center number that is uh staffed with professionals who understand the law and the program and how the local program is working in particular. And so, you're not
052going to be have having to field those calls because we're providing a direct number on the ticket for the appropriate number for folks to call. Uh the last thing I would say I would say is that for every uh program that we facilitate including Westchester County uh we're talking to New Relle, Eastchester, Tuahoo uh we facilitate a public safety announcement in a campaign to basically tell folks number one this program exists. Uh we do that in multiple languages uh and however the community wants to see that done and ultimately tell folks how not to get a ticket because at the end of the day uh that's the whole goal. We want to make sure we're decreasing violations uh and you know we want to make sure that's done very effectively. And so we try to
053pair everything as it relates to enforcement with education so folks in the community know and it's coming from the community resources and uh we're reaching people where they are that ultimately you know this is how you don't get a ticket and how this program works. >> I'm going to circle back Trusty Peterson. >> So back to my initial conversation with you. Um, your company has very poor Google reviews. A lot of the complaints were from residents who received uh these fines and they weren't necessarily the car involved in the actual passing of of the bus. So, what I don't want this is to be another burden on our residents in Mount Vernon who were driving across the street, but they got a ticket as well because that's what a lot of the complaints about your
054company I've read online and on um social media. Um they were complaining about. Was a study even done to see if this a service like this is needed from Mount Vernon? because I don't recall seeing a any type of traffic study presented to us about >> so >> is that for Dr. Strickland? Dr. Strickland. >> So, first um this whole situation came up in a conversation with the mayor. Okay. It it it was initiated with Mayor Patterson Howard. Um I live in Mount Vernon and I'm sorry to say some stop signs are optional. Stop lights are optional and when we're talking about students and student safety, then we got to do whatever we can do to make sure we protect that. So, something else that uh got me on the phone um with him to
055present was the student that was hit by a car outside of one of our schools. that was enough for me to say we need to actually go ahead and get this started. Um I I understand what you're talking about in terms of Google reviews, but I I just think that those individuals would call and hopefully they would um that that would get knocked out. Um I also wanted to make you all aware that I talked with the mayor and I said I'm not going for this uh if you getting all the money. So, um, we going to come up with a split or how does that look? And not only did she say, "Yeah, we would talk about that." But she would also think about how we can continue to make our streets safe, like
056that funding amount would help our uh areas around our schools, areas to enhance safety. So, I can't um assert the other items that you mentioned, but I do No, no actual traffic study that I'm aware of, but I do know that the city actually took that portion on first and then I because of prior experience with bus patrol um went on in. >> So, so there have been studies done. I mean to for Mount Vernon specifically, no. Uh uh I I'm not aware of a study specific for for your community. Uh however uh there was uh a recent uh survey done by the National Associ Association of People Transportation where 39 million illegal passes uh were were tallied for the last school year. Uh now uh that is actually going down. Uh the year prior
057um it was it was closer to 50 million. And one of the things that we see is sort of one of the of the drivers in terms of why it's going in the right direction uh is because of the utilization of automated enforcement at a greater scale over the course of the last two years. And so we're hopeful uh that that continues to be the trend. But when you look at the rest of of Westchester County, when you look at Long Island, Rockland County, Putinham County, Olter County, Duchess County, uh Yoners, New Rashelle, all the communities are facilitating this uh because they see the need and uh we believe that the need is here in Mount Vernon as well. Uh but to answer your question specifically, there hasn't been a study. >> Trusty Brown, I'm
058sorry. Um, so I get I will share with the public that I as a child was hit by a car and I was in a full body cash for six months at the age of five. And so this is very dear to me and it's something that is hitting home and I see the need for it. Um, and so I'm very transparent. I it's it's my story. It's who I am. Um, and I'm here today walking and thriving and you know by God's grace I'm here. Um, with you talking about your company will is going to staff this this staff by you with professionals and since we're here at this juncture where we have to create thisou I work for the city of New York and we do the red light cameras and we've had
059to employ additional employees to monitor this and since we have this opportunity and since we're working in conjunction with the with the city of Mount Vernon And since you employ staff, would it be something that you can look into possibly having as part of the contract that there would be Mount Vernon residents that can work on this? >> We're more than happy to to >> to help to to bring to bring a potential job and revenue to the Mount Vernon residents. And since we have this opportunity now while we're writing it, like we have we have that power to be the author and we should be able to hire Mount Vernon residents. I know that I'm currently building new buildings throughout the five burrows to house staff to monitor this because like Trusty Peterson says,
060you get so many people who's going to call. This calling center is going to happen. People are going to call. They're going to want to fight and dismiss charges. And trust you, the the New York City is is making a million dollars a day on red light tickets. So, I can only imagine we may not make that. I'm not saying we're going to do that, >> but we should be the author and we should be able to have Mount Vernon residents also be taught and be professionals as you said, who's going to know the law and that's going to be able to help with this and also that will help with that community engagement part because now they have a stake in it. >> Now they know what it is because right now it's conjecture.
061Right now it's a lot of words and you know people don't want to get tickets. I myself have gotten a red light camera ticket. I don't run past buses because I was I was part of that. But it should definitely be something that we are now able to be the author of that. And if we can work that into it, however many people you have, you you do the numbers. You know how many people you're going to need to staff that. And a percentage of that should be a Mount Vernon resident. If it's if it's gonna be within us, it needs to be us, too. >> Okay. >> Well, we appreciate that, Trusty Brown, and and thanks for sharing your personal story. Uh wholeheartedly agree. Uh just to kind of give an idea of some
062of the folks that would work on a program like this. It's everything from from uh installers on the on the bus equipment, folks who can maintain that equipment. uh we we service and and and uh uh need uh technicians to help review and and make sure we're sending through the appropriate evidence to the city. Uh we need folks who can help support community engagement on the ground so folks educ are educated on how not to get a ticket. Uh so certainly are more than happy to talk about that, make that part of the uh the conversation in the contract and uh we appreciate you bringing that up. >> Trusty Mcdana. >> Hi, thanks. This is a question maybe for the superintendent and our legal counsel. Um we contract out uh for our busing services. So
063this would impact those vendors. Um could this possibly open a contract up again? And if it can to what extent can we require a private contractor to do this? if they want the business. If they say they don't want to put the cameras and they don't want the business, then all of a sudden we have to renegotiate with another vendor to do this, which could increase the cost of our busing a lot. We know that if once you go back out to bid, then you have to um you know take market rate. So just I think we should be mindful of that. >> Just just Oh, I'm sorry. >> No, no, you go ahead. I was I was going to ask our legal counsel if he wanted to respond to our trustee, but I'll let
064you go first. >> Yeah. So, uh, thank you, trustee. Um, so great question. Uh, just to kind of give you a little bit of perspective on on, uh, New York. We we we currently are on about 25,000 buses, a little bit under 25,000 buses across New York State. If you think if you look at New York, it's very similar to what you have in Mount Vernon where the majority of school districts across the state that we serve don't don't own their own buses. And so number one, we have a really strong relationship with the majority of the the private operators in this region in particular. Uh your bus provider is for student if I'm not mistaken. Correct. Uh >> leave a few >> and cross county. >> Cross and cross county. So >> all county.
065Yes. >> All county bus. So we we already have a relationship with all county bus and uh and and for a student. >> Yeah. So so both of those are are you know existing relationships. They know our equipment. They know our our team. Uh and so we don't anticipate any issues with that. And then the other aspect I would say is if you know the contract for your operator is up, you decide to to switch operators uh as part of the program, uh we would decommission your fleet and reinstall on your new fleet and do that uh to make sure there's a continuity of service for the district. >> Uh in house council, uh Russell, would you like to also respond to that? Well, it's not necessarily a response to Trusty McDunnana's uh statement and
066or question. It's more of a question um for uh the four corners of the contract. Um I would say that it's a there's some questions that we still need to have answered here because one of the contingencies in the contract is that we have our third party vendor agree to sign on to this. And I don't know if the board wants to be in a position to negotiate that with the third party vendor versus if you already have a relationship with our third party vendor. That is a conversation that goes between your company and them. And then when I look further in the contract, I don't see anything that really speaks to and I don't know the equipment if the equipment is damaged. Um is the third party vendor responsible for it? Are we responsible
067for it? I do understand that there will be a call center, but people in this county and when it comes down to public and municipalities, they know foil. So, they're going to foil request us for that information notwithstanding any link that we have. So, um as a thought in moving forward, maybe there needs to be a presentation that is made to the third party vendor. So, uh, your company to get them to buy in or if they already know you or know the company, then it's less of a pick, you know, a pickup for us as as a district notwithstanding the split. And when it comes down to the maintenance and the damage of of the equipment, some assurance that we as a district is not accountable for that. We we don't have to deal
068with that. That is something that happens either between you and a third party vendor or the third party vendor takes on the responsibility to do that. I don't know if you have the answer to the questions now, but that's some of the things that I would like to work out before the board considers it in in another way. >> No, really appreciate it. More than happy to work out language. It's part of the process. Absolutely. Don't see this as the final draft whatsoever. uh to answer your questions uh uh now though uh I think uh first more than happy to engage uh with your v with your operator directly we're used to doing that uh all across the country that's not a problem whatsoever if you would like them to be privy to the uh
069to the contract that's something some districts do some don't so we're more than happy to make that uh uh part of the the process and them signatory if that that uh creates a little bit more certainty for the district as it relates to the the maintenance. The district's never going to be held liable uh for the equipment. Um and by the way, typically we're going to know before you all do uh if there's a problem because we have a like a 247 monitoring service if if a bus camera is down or if a piece of equipment's been damaged uh to where we can dispatch uh a a tech hopefully someone who is a Mount Vernon uh resident uh to come and fix uh to fix that equipment on that bus. So, uh, just to answer
070more succinctly, the district would never be liable for that. Uh, and we certainly would be, uh, in a position to make to facilitate that maintenance by working with your operator. >> Trusty Scott and then Trusty Adoro. I'm just trying to go in order. Oh, I'm sorry. Trusty Kelly, you did. I apologize. You did. Trusty Kelly, then Trusty Scott, and then Trusty Adoro. >> Trustee U Peterson, I would like to see a study. I'd like to see a return on investment. I would like to understand why we have to go through a third party in order to do this. In New York City, the city takes care of traffic enforcement. Um, sharing of revenue should happen anyway, but I would definitely like to understand why we don't do it on the properties where the children actually
071are. They have to cross streets. We have a short shortage of uh crossing guards. Uh, kids are more in danger from crossing the street than the bus. That's a state law, not passing. So, I'm confused. Maybe I need to have more of a presentation, but I don't see the necessity. Um, and nothing is free. So, what's your cut when all this is done? Because you're providing a lot, >> but I don't hear about we may not pay for it, but there is some ROI on this, >> right? Yeah. Look, number one, and appreciate the question. Um, you know, out of transparency, we're a for-profit company. Uh and and ultimately, you know, what we try to do is is effectively make a very robust public safety uh uh program uh that ultimately has been demonstrated to
072make the street safer for children. Now, certainly understand that you'd like to see a traffic study. We're more than happy to uh connect and and identify ways to maybe make that happen. Uh but ultimately what we've found across the the the region uh the state the country is that our programs work uh and effectively uh you know there's a lot of uh inherent benefit to keeping children safer uh as well as potentially revenue is generated from violators uh to ultimately help pay for other public safety education uh community initiatives. Uh for us uh you know we we effectively provide a violator funded program to where ultimately uh you know we take on the cost on behalf of a local community. Uh there's really no catch to that. All of our contracts basically are hold harmless
073contracts. Uh if the revenue doesn't come in from violations uh no one's ever going to be on the hook from the city for example in Mount Vernon uh to pay for this program or to pay for this technology. However, uh you know, obviously we are a for-profit company and so after paying off a certain aspect of uh the uh the program, there might be uh revenue that is generated on top of that to help us go and serve additional communities in other parts of the country. Uh but you know that is a decision that the community needs to make as it relates to uh the public safety component of this program. But we believe very strongly this is a a true public safety uh benefit and you know uh the fact that the majority of
074the communities in this region including New York City by the way who has an RFP to ultimately choose a vendor uh including potentially bus patrol uh for the other automated enforcement programs in New York City that is done through a vendor uh that works with the automated enforcement unit at uh New York City DOT. Uh but uh uh totally understand this needs to be a communitydriven decision and uh you have choices as it relates to who you choose to work for. We're hoping it's bus patrol, but uh that is the decision for the board and ultimately the city. >> Trustee Scott and then Trusty Adoro. >> Thank you. Um I think legal counsel asked the questions that I had and it was around the maintenance and repairs and how that would be done because I
075didn't see a section in the contract and If it's not in there, then there's no guarantees that it will it's on. Can you hear me? >> I'm not gonna put it in my mouth now. So, but basically um that's something I would want to see around that because I with this type of equipment, things always happen where they are damaged, especially in um the winter months when we have these heavy snows and all of that great stuff that need to be cleaned off of the um buses. So, I would definitely want to see that before I would ask the superintendent to put his signature on that. That's something that I would definitely want to see around the maintenance or repair of anything that happens with these u with the equipment. >> No, we're more than
076happy. I'm I mean and thank you trustee uh for your for your question. Uh again, uh bus patrol will always be the one responsible liable uh uh for the equipment on the school buses. And we're pretty good at making sure that it's always operating and able to capture uh quality evidence for for violations. Uh but we're more than happy to give you a presentation on on sort of what that process looks like, how we facilitate that, and of course in the contract if you would like to see additional uh uh language around uh what each party uh signatory to that to that contract or that to that agreement is responsible for, we can certainly add that to the contract as well. >> Trusty Adoro, >> um I do have some questions though. Um, in general,
077from my understanding is that uh basically this cannot be implemented without the school's approval, if I got that right. Right. >> Well, we certainly need the school's approval to to enter into uh an agreement to install on the buses. So, the the school district uh is is essential to the to the program as well as the uh the contracting process. >> Okay. And also from what I've basically like researched and looked at the uh the program basically is it basically sees a crime happening but doesn't prevent it. Right. >> No. So so basically what I would actually see say this is akin to is if there was a a police officer next to every school bus stop. And so ultimately the camera is going to be capturing a violation. If someone passes the bus has
078to be completely stopped. The lights have to be blinking. If the vehicle entirely passes the bus, that violation will be captured via a camera that's installed on the bus and that evidence will be processed through to to public safety professionals at the city of Mount Vernon to make a determination on if a ticket should be issued. And so, uh, not create not stopping a crime in real time on next to the bus, but ultimately hope hopefully helping to uh identify that an illegal pass of that bus occurred uh and allowing for a ticket to be issued. And hopefully that will create uh a deterrent going forward. What we found in in Westchester in Rockland is that uh nine out of 10 times if someone uh receives a violation in the mail, they don't receive a
079second one. So that recidivism rate is very very low, meaning that behavior truly changes uh through the through the program. >> Okay. Thank you. Um >> hold on. Do we have any other questions before >> Trusty Middleton? And then I'll come back to you. I'll circle back. Um, I just want to ask, so if the camera on inside the bus does capture um a a fence or whatever it might be, who checks at the end of the day? Because it happened to me. Um, I had a there was a all county scraped my car to no end, right? and the bus driver never reported it, >> but they checked the bus camera and I don't know if he realized that there was the camera on the bus and they saw everything that did happen. >>
080So they fired him because he never reported it. Okay. >> So at the end of the day, do you actually check to see and just in case there is no report? >> Well, so so it sounds like maybe the camera that was utilized in that instance with all county was the interior camera. >> Yes, it So there's two different systems on the bus. So the system that we would utilize for enforcement, >> these are cameras that are installed on the outside of the bus. Now those cameras would only be rolling uh when the bus is completely stopped and the hat and the ambers are on and can only that video can only be utilized to help enforce the law against an illegal pass. So from the perspective of an interior camera, uh we do offer
081those as part of the program if if the school district would need them. It doesn't sound like you do. Uh but that is a different system. It's it's entirely self-contained uh separate from the enforcement system and that is controlled by the operator. >> The operator would be >> out and in and out. Got it. >> But yeah. So I was just wondering if if it's if it would be the same. >> So the operator would be the one that would have access to that camera and be the one to be able to check that for you. >> Okay. Sorry, my computer's updating. I apologize. Uh, Trustee Brown and I know Trusty Then I'm going to circle back to Trusty, >> you have another question as well. >> Trusty. Okay, I know Trusty Brown raised her
082hand. So, >> well, wait, I have one question. So, me and Trusty Pearson had the same question, so I'm going to let her take the ladder. My My question is regarding these cameras. How are they How are they powered? because I'm big into monitoring my carbon footprint. And so, how are they powered? How what what is the energy consumption? What is the energy output? What does that look like? >> So, they're very very low low power. Uh they actually are hardwired into the bus. And so, they're just running off of the the the battery, the typical battery that you would have on the bus, uh but takes very very low power. Um they're they're really only triggered uh when the stop arm is deployed that the bus is stopped. That's when the cameras come on.
083Uh, and so ultimately, uh, it is a is a very low drain on on energy and power for the bus, but it uses the existing system on the bus to power the camera. >> I have one, but I know I have >> Okay, so hold on. I just want to make sure everybody gets their their time in. Um, I'm going to I'm going to let the student May I defer to the student trustee first, um, Trusty Peterson, and then I'll come back to you. So, Trusty Adoro, >> thank you very much. Sorry about that. Um it was actually a follow-up question for what I was asking about if the cameras actually prevent well prevents it or not in general but um this goes towards the board in general. I mean I've lived in a um
084basically in my rent for four years and basically I've known how the um community basically would operate and how would they react. So in general, how do you how do if we were to implement this, how do you how do we balance increas increasing safety with making sure families and community members um don't feel like the school transport bless you is being used for civilians or revenue. >> Well, that's a great qu uh question, trustee. Um, so first and foremost, uh, you know, all enforcement needs to be paired with education and investment in the community in regards to how the law works, how the program works, how not to get a ticket. And so we would want to make sure that we're working with you, uh, with trustees, with the school district, the community to
085make sure that this is a program that people understand and works for the benefit of the community. Has to be a bottom-up process in that regard. Uh the second aspect is uh you know from a data retention perspective that's something we take very very seriously. The law is very very clear that the evidence that's captured uh from a camera on the bus can only be utilized to enforce uh an illegal pass of a school bus. And so uh and that and that footage is ultimately upon adjudication or if an upon adjudication or if a violation uh is determined to not have occurred uh once it goes to the city is destroyed. And so ultimately we want to make sure folks are very very understanding that that's the process and secondly that that is abided by
086and upheld every step of the way. And so um through those two things I think enforcement paired with education uh as well as ensuring that we're abiding by every aspect of the law uh hopefully means that this is a program that will work on behalf of the community. >> Trusty Peterson. >> Um my question probably is for Dr. Strickland. other um companies been vetted to be able to um participate in this competitive bidding process for a company like this will be presented by with other companies. So again, um the the process was facilitated. It started with the city and I had previously worked with uh bus patrol in the previous district to get that that uh going and uh I could attest to the things that we were doing to make sure people are safe.
087Um I I'm not sure about those technicalities though. Um and I'm just being flat out honest. I have no idea what other companies are out there. I just know Bus Patrol. >> Okay. We um we I think um if do we have any other questions? Um I want to thank you um Mr. Ryan Monell for coming in and answering all of our questions. And I also I don't think that they're exhausted to be honest. I think that they're going to uh think about them and flesh them out a little bit as well. Um so with that said, we may want to talk about doing maybe some other things, maybe a town hall, but I think that because it sounds like the board is a little unready. I think that um I would like to um
088ask the board if you'd like to pull this particular resolution for further and deeper consideration. Um would that be um May I have a consent for that? There's anyone that that objects to that? Okay. So, right now we have items 7.1, 7.2, 7.4, 7.5, and 7.6 that we are um comfortable with. So, we are going to pull 7.3. Okay. All right. Thank you. Let's move on to section eight. Um, thank you so very much again, um, bus patrol for coming out and sharing with us. We really appreciate the thoroughess in which you responded to our questions. I'd also like to know if legal has any other comments that they'd like to make before uh, we move on to section 8. Thank you so very much. So, we are now at section 8. Board of Education,
089are there any questions or items that you would like to further discuss on 8.1 8.2? Trusty Brown. My question is >> which item is it? >> Uh 8.2. >> Oh, let's let's just read it so that everyone is aware. Um 8.2 is authorization of the designation of May 22nd, 2026 as a snow day giveback. Um before you ask your question, Dr. Strickland, would you like to expound on that? And then he may answer your question before your question. So I'll let him expound and then we'll address we'll come to you. So, uh, trustees, unfortunately, we are in a situation where we have fallen to 178 days of instruction. The commissioner's regulations calls for 180 days. However, because uh at least two of those days were actually de declarations of emergency by the state, county, city,
090um we would actually I feel confident after talking to our district uh superintendent um the Bosei superintendent. Uh no, I was like I'm not supposed to. >> Yeah. Um after talking to uh them that we would Dr. uh we would uh qualify for the exemption for the one day to be at 179. Um we will we have to file some paperwork with legal. We have all the declarations uh that were filed. So I'm confident that we will be able to uh get that. However, we do need to get to the 179 uh because unfortunately, you know, it's it is what it is. And I feel awful, but I mean, I can't control mother nature. And um I I also don't want to take a risk in not um taking the days back and then the
091state or the commissioner comes back and says you did not meet the requirements and we are taking your funding. I cannot do that. Um I have talked with the union representatives uh about um the give back date. I have different ideas as to how that would look because I know that people have plans um and including myself. But I, you know, am going to do something that is um in line with the law to ensure that we meet the requirements of the um the rules. >> So So with that said, Trusty Brown, you have a question. Unfortunately, no. I tried public. I tried. But thank you for that explanation and I think it's helpful for them to hear it because they've, you know, some have read and some have just heard it. So, it's good
092to really have you say it. So, I I thank you for the full explanation. So, no, I don't have any questions. >> Okay. Do we have any other questions on 8.1 or 8.2? >> Okay. At this time, I would like to entertain a motion to send all items some from 4.1 through 9 8.2 excluding 7.3 to consent agenda. May I have a motion? >> May I have a second? >> Okay. Has been moved and properly seconded that we authorize all items 4.1 through 8.2 excluding item 7.3 to consent agenda. Any discussion? Call for the vote. >> All in favor? >> Any oppose? Abstain. Motion carries. >> Thank you. Do we have any comments from trustees before we entertain a motion to enter into executive session? Are there any other final um for the good of
093the order? Any other final comments? Okay. Hearing none, District Clerk James, would you please uh assist us in moving to executive session? Can >> I have a motion, please, to enter executive session to receive legal advice on pending matters? All in favor? >> Any opposed? Abstain. Motion carries. >> Thank you so very much. We are now in executive session and we will not be reconvening to this space. We thank you very much for participating or for listening and hearing uh the conversation tonight. Thank you so very much.