001I'd like to call to order the work session for the Mount Vernon City School District. Today is January the 13th, 2000 I'm sorry, 2026. And I would like to say happy new year to each and every one of you. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Roll call, please. >> Trusty Brown. >> Trusty Kelly. >> Trusty McDonald. Trusty Middleton >> present. >> Trusty Peterson, >> Trusty Scott, >> Trusty White, >> VP Mitchell, >> President Marabel, >> present. We have a quorum. Student Trustee Adora. >> Thank you so very much. Uh, we'd like to just get started. Um, I hope everyone had a fabulous end of
0022025 and walked into 2026 with a new purpose and a new energy. So, welcome tonight. Uh, we will begin with the superintendent's budget survey results. Dr. Strickland, >> Max. That's the That's the But that's the treasures report. We need the uh presentation for the superintendent. >> Great evening everyone. President Marabell, Vice President Mitchell, board trustees, students, families, our staff, um, both at home and present, and the greater Mount Vernon community. Thank you all for attending this evening's presentation where I will be reviewing results from our budget priority survey, which was available to the community from December 4th through December 19th. Next slide. With over 1,000 participants, nearly half were parents and guardians throughout the district. Of those, nearly a third have children in grades K through three, followed by high schoolers in grades 9 through
00312. Faculty and staff made up a third of the responses with community members and students making up the rest of the participants. Next slide. Stakeholders from each school as well as Mount Vernon residents participated in the survey. Mount Vernon High School and Steam Academy made up the most responses, but we had a good number of responses from each other school. Thank you to everyone for taking the time to assist us as we work to develop our budget. Your input is so important to making sure that our district supports everyone. Next slide. Our first question about changes to programs and services garnered a lot of responses with extra support for students. Whether it's with extracurricular activities or afterchool programs for special education and gifted students, many responses indicated a desire for more ways to support our
004children. Tutoring and academic support in math and reading also fall under that category. Improvements to technology, equipment, and building maintenance were also suggested by several survey takers. Smaller class sizes and increased staffing were also listed as suggested improvements. Next slide. We also asked the community what the school district should prioritize in the survey. The top five responses were reading specialists, mental health services, technology, building upkeep, and playground equipment, and math specialists. These priorities show that our community wants to see a big push for math and reading improvements while also focusing on the social emotional well-being of our students. Technology is also such an important part of the learning experience these days, and it is clear that we have to continue investing in ways to meet our students needs. And of course, having a safe building
005to learn in with a well-maintained facilities is a major area of importance. Next slide. Overall, we saw a lot of variation in the priorities of our community. And you could see here how the remaining areas were ranked. There are so many different ways a district needs to support its students. And these are just a few of the areas that we want to make sure we are strong in. Next slide. Students spend a majority of the day at school and we want to make sure that we have a high quality facilities for them to learn and grow. There were several specific concerns and needs that were brought up in the survey such as functionality of locks um which we have been and continue to take uh close looks at as we mitigate the issues and problems
006uh in real time. Next slide. Educational programs and services were a big theme in the responses to the survey with a majority of the responses listing reading and math specialists as most important. We strive to provide a diverse offering of academic opportunities for our students and that will be a guiding principle for how we develop this budget. Next slide. Teachers and staff are a vital are so vital to our student success and we saw a lot of responses about how we can improve our support for the people who do such important work the most important work in our schools. When I came into the district, one of my top priorities was signing fair contracts for our bar bargaining units. That commitment hasn't changed and we will definitely continue to prioritize that in the upcoming budget.
007Next slide. Extracurricular activities including athletics, arts, clubs, and afterchool programs were also mentioned in many responses. We want to provide all of our students with positive growth opportunities inside and outside of school, and extracurricular activities are an important way of doing that. As I mentioned earlier, technology was se was seen and is seen as a major area of improvement, especially due to its importance in a student's academic success. All our students should have devices and we are working towards making sure that all students have a working updated functioning device. We must develop a budget that ensures our students have functional technology that can enhance their education even further. As we develop the budget, we will continue to analyze all of our options for techn technology improvements. Next slide. Overall, this survey showed that there are
008many areas that we need to be investing in for next year's budget to set ourselves up for success. Many of these were mentioned earlier, but here are a few areas of investments that the community called for in this question. As we go through the budget development process, we must we will go back to the survey to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our entire community. Next slide. And finally, we asked the community what other information they would like us to know. they would like us to know to help develop the budget. We got similar responses to our previous questions highlighting the work that we need to do over these next couple of months to meet the need of our students, staff, and community. We saw calls for transparency, accountability, and community involvement in
009budget decisions, and I am in complete agreement. We want to do everything we can to support our community, and your feedback on our budget is vital. Next slide. We will keep the community updated as our budget process continues. And you can see the remaining dates on our budget calendar here. They are also on our uh website. These are the dates from April to uh May 8th for the next one. Sorry. Next slide. And finally, in May, we will send our budget newsletter to the community and receive absentee and early mail ballots. On Tuesday, May 19th, the vote for the budget and trustee election will be held. I encourage everyone to mark their calendars and come out to vote. If necessary, the revote will be held on June 16th. Then the new fiscal year will begin
010and we will begin on developing the next year's budget on day one, July 1st, 2026. Thank you again to the entire Mount Vernon community for your feedback. It is truly appreciated. And are there any questions from the board of trustees? >> Vice President Vice President Mitchell. >> Okay. I have I have two questions. Um, so we've been dealing with the laptop situation. I know you mentioned technology. Can can the board please have a some sort of manifest so we can see where we stand at this point considering it's already January. We know that there were still students missing laptops as as recent as last month. >> Yes. >> Um, >> so we have a technology presentation that will be um given right after Dr. Strickland's report. So if we can hold that until that presentation,
011appreciate it. Absolutely. Great. Thank you. The only other question I had was so we've heard surveys done in the school district in the past and we've seen those type of percentages of replies but we never got a clear answer. How many how many parents, stakeholders, families actually did participate in the survey beyond the percentages? Because you can have 70 people out of over a thousand parents and you can have 70 people reply and all of a sudden you get percentages like 80% 70%. But that doesn't really account for can we get an idea how many people >> on this first I think on Dr. Strickland's first slide it indicates the actual numbers >> of individuals that actually participated. Dr. Strickland would you like to give a breakdown? >> So the number of staff which I
012um we definitely sent out blast to to the staff um that was to the total was >> Can we go back to that first slide please? >> The second slide. >> Oh second slide. >> Thank you. >> We had 331 participants. Slide number two. Yes. >> And our parents and guardians were 488. And um apologies in advance. We definitely kept sending out robocalls and blast um and text messages encouraging individuals to uh fill out the survey because again um it's it's not just my budget. Yes, I put the budget forward, but it is the budget of the entire community. >> Thank you. Because I I just want it it's it's it was worth it to spend us a couple of minutes just visualizing it because >> when we went through it, I I wanted to
013see this is something we could have used prior. This is very helpful so that we could get an idea just how many people and we really need more folks to respond to these surveys when they come out, please. because this is how we get things to discuss when we're here on this day is so that we can give it the attention it deserves. >> Have a followup. >> Thank you. Do we have um any other questions from other trustees? Uh Dr. Strickland, you have anything else you need to add? >> No, I just uh want to completely agree with you in the future. Um I want to go beyond surveys and actually do participatory budgeting. Um that's something that I instituted in my last district where we actually talk about once we have a new
014mission and vision. Once we have uh clearly cut outline goals that are accepted and understood by the community uh then we start putting weight on to what priority what things I need to prioritize. Um so I I want to take it to the next level. Um, you know, we do a lot of surveys around here and I know it can be cumbersome, but this is my, you know, uh, seventh, sixth month, seventh month, uh, in the district and I I want to see it go beyond just asking, uh, for survey advice. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you, Dr. Strickland. Uh, we now have a technology department update. Mr. Ramirez. Good evening, president of the board, vice president, trustees, superintendent, Dr. Dearius Strickland. It's my pleasure to do this presentation on technology update uh and the
015work that we've been doing to advance the teaching and learning and bringing equity across MOO city school district. Uh next slide. So the technology department has several priorities but uh we are now focused on the equitable access to technology. We know the problem that we have with the deficits and the subpar technologies that we still have presently in the hands of our students and we've been working strongly on trying to address those deficits and bring new devices to the students, repair the ones that we can repair. So we are also responsible in terms of the tax money that we uh use and all of this is with the goal of having instructional readiness. instructional readiness because devices are for the instructional purpose. It's to support the work of the teachers in the classroom is to
016support the instruction of the the students and to promote teaching and learning to the in the in the next uh in the next level. Uh we also work constantly on terms of cyber security and data privacy protections. As you probably know in the during the holidays and all these uh end of the fisc the regular year many attacks fishing attacks were detected and neutralized in our network and this has been happening not only internally but also externally and the individuals. You can see that even coming in the as a text message that has a link or some sort of information that you click and then you get you get trapped into the fishing schemes, right? Uh and at the same time working with our technology committee sponsored by the board. We've been working on regulatory
017compliance. We are in preparation with our instructional technology plan for the year 2629. That will be our long range technology plan and replacement of devices. Next, um, some of the achievements that we accomplished in this, uh, first portion of the school year was to improve the teaching and learning of the one-to-one learning environment. We found that during the time of the PSAT, SATs, we didn't have enough devices. So, we work in collaboration with our central administration and we identify where those needs were, specifically in grades 11 and 12, and provide devices. We repowered the devices that we could, but we noticed that there was a deficit. And this deficit goes back to the times of COVID when the district acquired equipment that was in a configuration that was not the most efficient for the use
018and instruction. Um, we also uh were able with the support of the board and the administration to purchase uh devices for students in grades preK and four. So we now have a full implementation with iPads in the classroom in grace prek all the way to grade four. This where the last purchase was 1500 devices covering three grade levels. And we also working on continuing promoting the exposure of our students not only to iPads but also to laptops and productivity software like Microsoft Office and we are working on an implementation of Google for education with our superintendent. Next, cyber security and data privacy is our concern. We always try to be in compliance and be proactive and working on defense of our data and our network. We have uh we follow the NIST standards. That's the
019National Institute of the Standards and Technology. And happy to report there are five major standards that we've been following in terms of detection, neutralization of the risk. And right now we have a secure software process for our instructional software and our network support software. Um we currently try to exercise the best practices in data protection and through a partnership with our CTE program and the high school Mr. Simmons we start developing uh a partnership to identify in our student population the future local experts on cyber security that we can actually hire at one point in the district. So the goal is to basically emp empower that program to produce the technicians of the future for our school district. Next, next slide. Other activities that involve the data privacy and security. Hold on. It's basically the
020campaigns that we do in the email. Our staff receive emails where basically we are testing the identifying basic trends in terms of the domain name or anything that could be a fishing attack. So they get this training and if they click on any of these um campaigns they will be directed to a self a self-service video that will instruct them on how to prevent that to be an issue in the future. We also have enhanced email verification services uh in place and we continue doing staff training uh as we go during the school year. There is a rapid incident response that we establish that allow us to actually neutralize any attacks every day. There is a cyber security uh cyber guardian that we have in the in our staff that goes and reviews everything massively
021to prevent any any damage into our network. Next. So this instructional readiness is basically being prepared for computer-based testing as well. As you know our incoming assessments is going to be all in computers grades 3 to eight. Right now we have already cover grades preK to four with iPads and we are acquiring with the assistance of our business office new devices to provide for the remaining grace. So everybody will be ready for the computer-based testing. And we're not forgetting our secondary schools. We're going to prioritize attending to our secondary schools as well. We're strengthening our infrastructure, Wi-Fi access, and also connectivity so we can have the readiness that we need for computer-based testing. there is coordination with the school leadership in this effort because there are sometimes areas in a school that during the implementation
022of Wi-Fi or connectivity could have not been part of that process at that time probably they considered that a launch area or a launch room was not an area of use for instruction or for assessments and now that we need to have power and connectivity in those areas we're identifying those locations and attending to those needs Next. So, what is what is coming? What is coming is we are acquiring 1,000 new student devices. These are their laptops that will be ready for deployment at the end of this month in time to be ready for computer-based testing in time to attend to our population in secondary schools. These devices are prioritized for the grade nine students. So the students will receive a new device, return the device that they have. We will recover what we can
023recover, repurpose and repower and we will cover all the students in the three high schools in grade nine. The remaining devices will be used to attend to the deficits that we identify in the schools. Very important. All of this is basically through the efforts of continuing using what we have that can be used. We don't want to dis uh basically dispose anything that we can actually reuse and it's a process of training as well for our technicians so they can actually see the way the different ways that they can actually attend to these needs on repowering devices. Um our focus is on equity and continuity business continuity. Next, uh the last part is the instructional technology plan that we need to prepare for the state to approve. This is a multi-year strategic technology road map
024where we basically going to put in place our replacement plan of devices, all the finances that need to be in place, how we want to approach that investment. As of right now, after this purchase of the thousand dead laptops, we should be closing the gap severely. So there will be probably need for a replacement plan, but it's not going to happen immediately. So we'll get a little gap of time to actually recover and replenish what we need to do in our fleet. uh all of this is in alignment with the state education department goals or the portray of the graduate in the state of New York and at the same time also the inspire New York principles. So our focus is on teaching and learning and innovation. Next, as I mentioned before, the last item
025that we have is basically working in governance and planning. It is crucial that we submit the instructional technology plan by April 15 to our local regional information center so they can do the review and provide feedback. Um there are several uh aspects of this survey that need to be completed. When you get a copy of this PowerPoint presentation, you will see that the in blue it shows the draft ITP. That's basically the actual survey that the state requires. That is not a comprehensive plan. It's just the survey. The comprehensive plan is what we're working with our committee of technology sponsored by the board. Uh NYCD New York State Education Department will have to approve this plan by June 30th 2026. And we also developing SOPs which is a standard operating procedures for the hardware, the
026software and the access to the ter to specific areas of via request on work orders. And we want to ensure that we are all in compliance but at the same time we expedite the attention to the needs of our teachers and students. Next. Thank you. Any questions? >> Okay. Thank you. Um trustees have questions. Um we can start on this side. >> Trusty Peterson, did you? >> Um thank you Mr. Ramirez for your presentation. Um my biggest concern and I have voiced this with the superintendent is that now it's January. We are midway through the school year. I can speak for Mount High School. We still have students who do not have devices. We have students who are sitting in classrooms with no device. We are sitting we have students who are sitting in classrooms
027with devices that do not work properly and it is causing a major issue in the classrooms at the high school. And here we are and it's January. So, while I appreciate this presentation, for me it's very frustrating to see a classroom where it is now what are we four or five months into the school year and these students do not have devices. It it is it it's it is unacceptable for me and as a parent, as a taxpayer, as a board trustee, it's unacceptable. >> Thank you for your comment and and I definitely agree with you. It's unacceptable that we had that situation. But as you know, there were several financial aspects of this that prevent us to do larger purchases. We were able to work out this recently with our new business official. We
028there was a transition also in the business office. So right now we are acquiring a thousand devices that will address not only that deficit but also provide with new devices for our secondary students in ninth grade in the three high schools. and we'll keep you posted on how we go with the implementation in the first >> question. Do the iPads that the uh preK through four have, do they have keyboards with them? >> The students in grades three and four have keyboards. The early grades, the the recommendation was to do touchentric devices. So they don't have keyboards, they have the virtual keyboard in the device. So now is that the best decision to have while we are struggling with students coming out of COVID and not and struggling with cognitive you know fine motor skills
029is that the best decision to have prek first second >> so uh some of these implementations predate me uh I will say and I did not uh actually pay attention to the fact that students in the lower grades under grade three did not have the um >> keyboards. >> Um I I have been focusing you know going into classrooms and you know looking at what's happening um >> and now hearing that we need to make a change because they they should be typing early and in my previous district um they had keyboards on all of the devices regardless. >> Um let me just make sure that everybody gets an opportunity to weigh in. Um, I saw Vice President Mitchell had his hand up. Uh, excuse me. Excuse me. I'm I'm going to actually just piggy
030back off of Trusty Peterson. She hit it on the head. I'm sorry. Just from the that's speaking from the from the high school Steam. That's our technology school. We got students in there with no computers. And we're talking as recent as I don't know maybe yesterday. And I'm thinking if we were to will we be be able to pack this room full of kids who can say I don't have a a device that works. So that's an issue for me and and we've been talking about this since the beginning of the school year. So I know you just mentioned budgetary confinements, but I'm going to say this. We passed the budget last year. I sat here right and this is before Mr. uh Dr. um Dr. Joseph, you were aware and there was a budget
031presented to us that we didn't make sure that we had funding in place to make sure the kids had unbroken and functioning laptops and devices so they could learn this year. >> But but you were involved in making sure that you put numbers in. You have to submit numbers for what you need to meet your goals. Right. >> Correct. So, you got to understand where my frustration is as a taxpayer and as a board member sitting here because I passed the budget and I feel like there's no way that Yeah, I know. I we got to go in and look at it granular to a good extent. This is unacceptable. I'm going to just repeat unacceptable. We're in January. School is over in two marking period, less than two marking periods and we got students
032who walking around with laptops that the hinges are hanging off. Unacceptable. So now I need to see number one I'd like a matrix and I'm going to this this this request is to the technology committee. Can we please have a I would like can we take a poll of the board members who'd like to see a manifest of how many students per building are still missing laptops. Dr. Strickland, is that something >> we have this? >> We have it and we can provide it to you. >> Oh okay. been working in preparation to resolve the issue and I sounds like I'm going to have that before I have coffee tomorrow. Is that what you're saying? >> Yes, I acknowledge the the concern and look it's unacceptable. I'm not going to deny that. However, as we
033submitted our budgets, the budgets were also modified because of the needs and the restrictions that we had in the finances. It's not something that was planned or not planned. is is basically the availability of funds that we have and we are resolving the issue and we've been looking for ways to actually resolve it in a meaningful way and with responsibility as a as the money is coming from the taxpayers and I appreciate you coming. >> Yeah, I'm typing on here now because I'm sending you the email. I'm going to send it to the right people. >> Okay. So, Dr. Strickland has a followup and then I'm going to hear from Trustee Scott and then I'd like to hear from our student, our ex official member, Trusty Adoro. >> So, uh, just two follow-ups. One, um,
034regarding Vice President Mitchell's concern, uh, definitely understand where you're coming from. I will say that, um, one of the things that have not been carefully planned are maintenance plans. So with computers, they get old and nowhere was it accounted for that you have to replace the fleet that first came in a long time ago. So that's I we had to find monies uh in the budget to actually get the thousand to update part of the fleet. And as we move forward, we have to continue to do that process. It can't be a oneandone. And uh I've asked the technology department to have that plan in place. And then uh for Trusty Peterson, uh I do want to thank you for your uh looking into the legislation, myself and the council actually did uh uh talk
035about our plan for allowing students that have a functioning advice. It would have to go through a stringent uh piece like a a approval process because we don't want to open up the walls to well this is my this is my computer and we know that cell phones have been an issue in our schools. So, um that takes time and uh do know that that uh recommendation was very much noted and um looking to move forward with next steps. >> Trusty Scott, >> thank you very much. Um Dr. Strickland took something that I was going to say in regards to reviewing what is available and upgrading. So, that was definitely something because that's something that we've talked about in our technology um committee. Um, what we've also talked about in our technology committee is because
036one of the things that happens when I've been able to go to the various schools and visit is I see technology computers not being used. So, they're just in rooms and not being used. So, I'm saying why don't we take that because I see that's one of the things in terms of um remaining devices allocated to the schools and bring it to those students who don't have it, right? versus just having it just laying in a school dormant and not being used. Check it first and make sure that it's um something that is usable and then give it out to the students that do not have or ones that aren't working substituted for the ones that are just sitting in um schools not being used. So that's something that we've talked about and we've had
037some very um hard meetings, right? So we've talked about things that need to happen with respect to technology um going forward and strong maintenance plan was definitely one of them because we need to make sure that we're as you said trustees not waiting until January to think about giving a student um a device when the school year is almost over. So we're hoping that we will get on course with that and we'll see how things go. But I just wanted to state that um in regards to my comment. So thank you. >> Trusty Adora. Do you have any comment um from the student side? First, um I like to say happy new year to everyone. Um yes, actually I do have a comment. Honestly, this hasn't um this issue has been there since last year.
038The only difference from between this year and last year is that um the new law was passed and uh phones and personal devices were taken away. So back last year um instead of the uh people using the broken laptops, they use their personal laptops. And this year honestly is people walking laptopless. um we have um students laptops being taken away because well we can't have it in school and other reasons and I have people complaining to me and parents and other issues. So yeah um I can't do anything personally as a student but as the student trustee I will advocate for all um or yeah advocate for all this. >> Thank you. >> Do we have any other comments from other trustees? >> Okay. Um I do have a a couple of questions. Sure. >>
039Um I believe that we actually voted in April of last year in order to replenish the computers that we had from COVID that we we knew were expiring of of a a 5-year period, right? So my question is when did the order go in for us to actually um secure these computers and why is it taking so long for them to arrive? So what we discussed in April was actually the adoption of the iPads and that was the first attempt to address those deficit with those devices and we did but there was a large number of these devices that were still present in the fleet and those are the ones that were coming with these issues with buffering and slowness and all of that. So this will be probably the moment that we actually reduce
040or probably eliminate the gap for sure because this is thousand devices that will come into that fleet and our inventory control. Um the efforts and the support that I got from the board to do this I appreciate it. I think that all the students can recognize that that work is difficult with the financial difficulties that we have. But I I I basically I got to recognize that we have the support from you and and we continue that work, continue the preparation. We continue looking at every area that needs improvement but responsibly because we don't want to dispose of devices that we can recover that we can repower and uh those that are cannab definitely they will be disposed >> and do we also have computers that are in some of the schools that that may
041even have computer labs that are inoperable and students don't have access to >> there were situations where we have computer labs that are you know not maintained and that's the maintenance plans that we been talking about and these devices could be recovered, repowered and those could be computer labs that could serve the purpose of the assessments will serve the purpose of the instruction is since we implemented in co time the onetoone initiative push because of the of the emergency that was something that was not planned to that extent but now we already have all the experience and we have the devices that we can attend to that >> and I guess my question is do you have the support that you need in order to ensure that all devices are operating when they do break
042down that we have someone that's actually going to maintain them and also whether or not you have enough people to distribute to ensure that all of our students have the devices that they need as well as the staff. >> Yes. And also we implemented these purchases with the care with the maintenance included. So that means if we have an issue with any of these devices, they will be replaced in the window three years and it's all embedded in the same cost. So the maintenance that we need is basically for those devices that will be out of out of warranty or out of that protection with the maintenance and we have the resources now to do that. >> Um Trusty Mcdana and then Trusty Mitchell. >> Oh, you have Thank you, Madam President. Thanks for this
043presentation. I guess I was curious about the cost per unit for for a laptop and the useful life of a laptop. Do you have that information? >> The cost per their laptop is $580 in this purchase. >> 58 very substantial reduced uh working with our business official. We were able to do a competition between different vendors. Lenovo came out with a very good model and price and Dell beat them to stay with us but they can probably a loss because Dell is probably the larger brand that we have in the longstanding brand in the relationship of the district. So when you do a request for proposals the competition benefits the end user and the client in this case the district. So we got a very good reduction on the cost without sacrificing configuration. >> That
044sounds high to me. 5 580 for a laptop. >> Is a portion of thatable? >> That's kind of expensive. >> But is a portion of I think um Trusty McGon I think a portion of it isable reimburseable. So can we talk speak to what that looks like and then I'll have Trusty Middleton ask her a question. >> Just sorry just a quick followup. I found that resolution back in April. So it's a it looks like it's a five-year agreement with Southern Westchester Boseies for for a million dollars. >> Correct. So plus 160,000 for interest over that period. >> What was the IPA for the 1500 iPads? >> Okay. So million dollars for 1500 iPads. >> 1,500 and >> a million dollars for 1,500 iPads. >> 1,500 iPads cover three grade levels basically. And that's why
045we are now a preK to four. >> Okay. And we had also devices that we purchased to replenish you know laptops that were in in the hands of teachers and stuff like that all instructional. Okay, that was the priority. >> And uh just to round up on the terms of the bosis aid the expectation is that every year when we look at the bosis purchases it increases the aidable portion. So the expectation is that these purchase will be aidable probably at a rate of 60% 65% in best case scenario. I just want to point out that 1,500 laptops for a million dollars is about $660 each. That's not a good deal. To say that it's aidable just suggests to me that we're wasting taxpayer money. That that's just not that's like the golden toilet that
046Nassau is buying. It doesn't matter. You know, it's aidable. That's not a that's not a reason to be overpaying. I mean, if you want, we can find someone else to purchase these things or we need to go to Southern Westchester Boseies and say, "What are you doing?" I mean, what what is going on? Just just to clarify, it's 1,500 iPads plus 300 laptops that were in that IPA. You can look at the >> Okay. >> Plus 300 laptops. Okay. >> Including the insurance and the Yeah. the accidental damage insurance and all of that. The cost of the iPad >> about the maintenance they >> if I may if I may clarify the iPads were cost at 475 about >> that was the cost including the Apple Care. >> Okay. I can I can circle back
047to you um Dr. Mcdana. Uh, Trusty Middleton, you had a >> I don't particularly have a question, but I just want to say that our students are number one priority in this district, and sometimes I think we get it all mixed up, mixed up. We I have sat here, this is my third year, and we've been singing the same song with different words with the same people in the same position, and our students are on the back burner. And we need to make it happen because we bring everybody else in and everybody else can get money with percentages added to what they get. But our students are still sitting on the back burner with no laptops that are working. And if they are, they sitting somewhere with nobody caring enough to make them um work
048or to be where they should be. So I I want to say we need to make this happen. And it's January 2026 as Trusty Mitchell said and there is no reason why our students should not be ahead when it comes to we are Mount Vernon and we are like down here compared to other school districts when it comes to our students be being ahead technologically. So technologically speaking we got to make it happen because what are we in position for? Getting a paycheck. I guess I'm talking to myself. >> I agree. Trustee Mitchell. >> So I'm just going to say you mentioned we know the testing is happening. Our students already in a place where they're mo how many of them are not going to be prepared. Right. Testing is happening. We closed three buildings
049and in in those buildings those students had laptops and devices. Are you are you telling me that we didn't salvage recirculate those or you telling me that three buildings worth of laptops? Hold on a second. I see you're ready. You're telling me that three buildings worth of laptops and devices, they were all broken. How did with the with with the budgetary confinements that you mentioned, how was the leftover where are those devices? Number one, that's number one. But number two, how did that all those leftover devices, how did that not somehow impact that budget confinement that you mentioned? >> I need I need I I understand. >> Let let me clarify that part. the students didn't leave. The students were reassigned to other schools. So, the students kept the devices in most cases. However, there
050were some some instances where devices were left at the original school. They were collected by somebody and then were staying in there in a closet. We've been identifying all of those thanks to the geolocation that we have on these devices. But that's a process and that process has been happening since we start the school year trying to recover what we could recover. What we find ourselves is that the three schools closed but you didn't have anything remaining or leftover. It was the students went with those devices to a new location. What we have is whatever was in terms of desktop computers but that's basically the main offices the administrative part not really the the student devices. The student devices stay with them. age devices, subpar devices. That was the reality that we found. >> Okay.
051Trusty Mcdana, did you have something else you wanted to do? >> Right. Does anyone else have a comment or a question? Dr. Strickland, did you want to um follow have a follow up? >> Just just my followup. Um I I I definitely echo the sentiments. Um, it's hard for myself and the team to go into these schools and we we go into the schools and I I'm there for multiple hours and I see, you know, broken devices. I see smartboards that are not operable, some that are on the walls and it really does need a comprehensive review. um it needed a comprehensive review. But uh what we are really doing is just trying to be responsive. I was just looking at my my list. Um every Friday our principles send me updates about what's going
052on in their schools and we're trying to be very responsive to what the needs are. Um that's why we were finding how we were going to get to replace these old devices where they are like dilapidated. um literally I've seen them and and and it is hurtful um to be in that situation. But as I stated before, the maintenance plan was not strong. Um so that's the first thing that I identified. I said in in previous districts, there was a strong maintenance plan. Once those students graduated from being a senior, those laptops are gone. You know what I mean? Because they're no longer usable. I mean many of us it's like a a a a leased car every five years we get another one. Um so you have to do that even especially you know
053when students are tugging a laptop from place to place. Uh but nonetheless I do know that uh change is is definitely coming. We uh I take all your notes um and we are working diligently to fix this. Um, and that is one of my budget priorities. Uh, I've I've had that in since probably October. Um, and um, all of your comments are understood and appreciated. >> Okay. Any other questions or comments before we move forward? >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Ramirez. >> Thank you, Mal. Thank you. Uh we will now hear the treasures report for November 2025. Dr. Joseph Good evening, Dr. Marble board of education members and the community Dr. Strickland and Dr. Wilkins that uh being presented to you is the the cash flow for the month of no November. So for the
054month for the month of November receive we begin with a balance of 21 million789623.34 and when you go down that line we have property taxes that we receive $1.1 million sales tax 264,000 we got um um state aid 556,000 and all the way down total receipts 8,365,4945 and combined with the with what's been rece what was received for the month of November as a dispersement these are monies that we um we expended through payroll and or accounts payable um warrants or the the payables were 7,327,623 and payroll totaled 10 million11,200 and we had debt service $1.8 8 million and we had some inter fund transferred um 389,000 and 389,375 for total dispersements of 19 million615,297 um $297. The ending balance on um cash on hand was 10,539,820 and we had in reserve $479,925 thou $25
055which give us an operating cash balance at the end of November of 10,59,89541. Thank you. Do we have any questions on the treasures report for November? >> Thank you, >> Trusty Mcdana. Ju >> just a question. The the December through June, are those the numbers from last year? Is that what they are? >> No, this is budget or >> this is projected December onwards. >> Oh, this is like a proforma. Yeah. >> Okay, got it. Yes. Any other questions? All right. Thank you, Dr. Joseph. >> We will move on to Are there any comments from the board? Um, thus far, any questions or comments before we move to human resources? Okay. hearing none. We are going to look at human resources 4.1 and I just want to just share with the public that the board
056receives this information through board docs and that we are able to review this information in advance and so if there are any questions pending questions then we will pull any of the resolutions so that we can address them. But if there aren't any pending questions I don't want to belabor the resolutions by going through them um individually. You can see what they are here. 4.1 through 4.11. So, um, after your reviewing, are there any questions any resolution 4.1 through 4.11 that you would like to pull so that we can have further discussion? >> Max, may we have it on the board, please? Excuse me. No, we're on resolutions >> for docs. I'm going to give you just a few moments just to review to ensure that no one has any item that they'd like to
057pull. And just for the uh just for the for notification is that these items, if we don't have any questions, they will be moved at the end of our meeting. We will vote to move them to a consent agenda and we will vote on them at our business meeting on January the 27th. just so you know what's actually happening. So there are no questions. >> Okay, Trusty Middleton. >> Okay, we're on four. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> We get to five. That's okay. That's all right. >> Okay. Okay. So hearing none on 4.11 we will she wants to vote now move to well at the end. Okay so we will move on to section five curriculum and instruction 5.1 through 5.7 uh trusty Milton do you know which item you'd like to Okay >> 5.1
058the Leman College Plus program. Yes. Is that in addition to if we still doing this too the Mercy College two-year program where they should receive a two-year certificate and this is just No, it's different. Okay. So, >> can you >> what's the max credits that they can get if it's it said three credits, right? To in an acceleration program. It's three credits that they can get. >> Yes. Um per class per course. Yes. Um I have to get back to you with the maximum amount of credits. I'm not quite sure. >> All right. I just want to know. Thanks. >> Okay. Any other questions or any items on section 5, curriculum and instruction 5.1 through 5.7? I'll give you a moment. you. Oh, Dr. Strickland, you have a comment. >> I just wanted to let
059uh the trustees know uh if you look at 5.2, you see the pre kindergarten program after school was started. Uh that program, excuse me, that grant had been accepted by New York State. Um but we continued to have problems with our uh other ESSA funding with Title One. We have since resubmitted it, made sure it was organized, made sure that it connects to the SEPs. Meetings have been happening with each and every single principal to talk about the programs that they want to do after school. And you should see something at the board meeting uh with incorporating schools into the um afterchool program or having after school programs as well. >> Okay. Thank you. We will move on to section six, student personnel services. Are there any questions on 6.1? Hearing none, we will move
060on to section 7, business office items 7.1 through 7.4. Any questions or anything you'd like to address or discuss? Which one? Trusty Middleton. >> Can I just get clarity on um 7.1? Dr. Joseph read the tax proceedings the refund pay. >> Dr. Dr. Strickland, you'd like Dr. Joseph to respond to that or >> Yes, Dr. Joseph. Uh can you respond to Trusty Middleton's question? >> Thank you. Sorry. 7.1. These are I guess I believe they're court cases where they have appealed repealed their taxes and there has been a decision by the court that stipulates what we must reimburse. Um we've had these a couple of times before, but Dr. Joseph, would you like to please elaborate on that? >> Yeah, sure. Yeah, these are called um tax certies. This is when um when you have
061an organization or a business or home where you have where the a certain amount of of money is assessed on the property and then the people grieve the tax and then he gets a reduction and um that's the reduction that's being reflected here to the court cases. Okay. >> Any other questions on 7.1 through 7.4? Okay, hearing none and having no items um being pulled, we are going to go to eight items to move the items to consent agenda. And so I'm going to entertain a vote to authorize to send items to consent agenda. This is item 8.1. May I have a motion, please? >> Okay, it's been moved and properly seconded that we will move these items to the consent agenda. Any discussion? All in favor? >> Any oppose? Any abstensions? Motion carries. Thank
062you. We do have some items that are timesensitive that we do need to vote on. Um, so you see them in section 9. The first one is the adoption of the New York State minimum wage. It went into effect on January 1. So we don't want to belver that so that we can ensure that payroll is not delayed. Uh we also have the um 9.2 which is an establishment of remittance of payment to the Mount Vernon public library. I will be recusing myself on that particular vote. Uh 9.3 is a general release agreement in connection with an employee. Um so you have that information in our content. And then the other item is for independent hardship waiver for all districts. So if I may, I'd like to have a vote on items on item 9.1.
063If we can have a motion, please. >> May I have any discussion? It's been moved and properly seconded that we adopt New York State minimum wage increase for 2026. All in favor? >> Any oppose? Abstensions? Motion carries. Uh um Vice President Mitchell, would you mind um running 9.2 for us, please? I will recuse myself due to the fact that my sister is the president of the Mount Vernon Public Library Board. >> Sure. >> Just call for motion. >> It's just for a motion. Qu motion. >> Yeah. Can I have a motion for 9.2? Two, establishment of semianual remittance schedule for Mount Vernon Public Library Tax Collection. >> Motion >> second. >> Hearing hearing fully motioned and seconded. I have a Can I have a vote? >> All in favor? >> Discussion. >> All in favor?
064>> I. >> Any oppose? Abstain. Motion carries. >> Thank you, Trusty Mitch. Uh, Vice President Mitchell. So, we will do 9.3 and 9.4. Uh, may I have a motion for 9.3 and 9.4? >> Can I have a second? >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? It's been moved and properly seconded. Um are there all in favor? >> I. >> Any any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion carries. >> What is he? What do you >> What do we >> We're only showing the resolution. Well, that's >> okay. >> That's it. Okay. >> Okay. Okay. >> Uh, >> yeah, we did. >> We're good. >> We did it. Yeah. >> Okay. >> 9.3 and 9.4 together. >> Okay. We do we do have some items for executive session. So, um, if we would have the clerk to read those
065items and then we will have a vote on whether or not we will enter into exec. >> Okay. Can I have a motion please to enter into executive session for the purpose of discussing pending litigation, the financial history of a particular person or corporation or matters leading to the appointment, employment, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of a particular person or corporation and to receive legal advice on a pending matter. Can I have a motion please? >> Motion second. >> All in favor? Any oppose? Abstain. Okay, motion carries. >> We are now entering into executive session. Um, just for the uh public, just to remind you that during our work sessions, we do not have public comment. We will have public comment during our January 27th meeting. And please remember to sign up with our
066district clerk by noon on the day of January 27th if you would like to um comment before the board. Uh we will not return to this room after executive session. Um after executive session we will have a training with our uh our board. So um we want to just say thank you for coming and have a fabulous evening. Um thank you. Thank you.