001[Music] Evening. Welcome to the Mount Vernon City School District May 20th regular school board meeting. 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. Trusty Mcdana, present. Trusty Marabel, present. Trusty Mitchell, present. Trusty Middleton. Trusty Injinga. Trusty White present. Trusty Cerwin. VP Kelly here. Vice uh President Saunders here. Okay, we have a quorum. There is no legal requirement to recognize public comment at meetings of the board of education. However, the board recognizes the critical importance of community discourse and involvement in the education of Mount Vernon's children. And accordingly, members of the public are invited to speak at each regularly scheduled board meeting subject to the terms of the
002board policy. Please state your name, address, and the organization, if any, you represent. A speaker must register in advance by no later than 400 p.m. the day of the meeting by contacting the district clerk in person at 165 North Columbus Avenue, Mount Vernon, New York, by phone at 914665-5235 or by email. The board welcomes all respectful comments, whether praise or criticism. However, identifying and criticizing a specific student, parent, teacher, administrator, other Mount Vernon education official, or employee is strictly prohibited. Any such complaint must be presented and addressed through the proper administrative channels. Each speaker is allowed three minutes to speak. Up to one additional minute may be used for the speaker to summarize and conclude their remarks. If appropriate, board trustees and/or the superintendent or other staff members at the direction of the superintendent may
003immediately respond to a speaker's remarks. Our first speaker this evening is Linda Castro. Hello. My name is Linda Castro. I live at One Park Lane here in Mount Vernon and Okay, thank you. And um I'm not associated with any group, just with the children. Um I stood in this room 28 years ago, almost to the day, as the A, the entity that controlled the school system for decades, attempted to steal the 1997 election from SEPHA. That was truly a battle between diametrically opposed visions. The A on one side with its insatiable drive to maintain white privilege along with its trappings of jobs and contracts for friends and relatives and SEPHA on the other side with its quest for diversity, equality, and inclusion. I still remember the burst of electricity that ran through the room when
004the outcome became clear. Sephus victory was earthshattering. It was finally mourning in Mount Vernon. This kind of division is not evident to me now. Just within the last few days, I've had a chance to hear from people on both sides of this aisle. What I'm hearing at that this point is that despite differences in tenor and tone, meaning emphasis, each side is committed to making this district work um for the betterment of our children. To my mind, that's what matters above all else. To that end, whoever wins the election needs to guarantee that our children are provided with a well-rounded environment. An environment that speaks to their social and emotional development as well as their cognitive development. We cannot allow untrained individuals to tear down our children's sense of self-worth. Words matter. Words have the
005power to shape a life. They can foster achievement or create paralysis. MRI scans show that yelling and constant punishment alter the structure of the human brain, negatively impacting impulse control and decisionmaking. For those dismissive of science, and I've met a few at lunchtime skeptics, I offer Proverb 18 verse 21, death and life are in the power of the tongue. Those who love will eat of its fruit. And Proverb 15:4, a soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a cruel tongue crushes the spirit. Let me remind you of an incident I told you about the first time I spoke before you several weeks ago. A food service supervisor h who happened to be at school one afternoon was so upset by what he heard that he went straight to the office to complain. crushing of
006the spirit was in play that day as it was the day a little kindergartener was found hiding under the sink in the girl's bathroom because she was so frightened. I could give you many more examples as you know. Forgive me for being so blunt, but no one would get away with treating children like this in Bronxville or Scarsdale. Those children are not better or smarter or more talented than our children. Whatever the makeup of the new board, I'm looking forward to coming to board meetings regularly and hearing about the progress that will be made in putting together an enlightened support staff so that our children can reach the heights they are only too capable of reaching together. Let's make sure they're treated with respect, compassion, and a firm belief in their ability to succeed. Thank
007you. Thank you. Thank you. Melville Campbell, Trustees of the Board, Dr. Smith, my colleagues in the community. Good evening. Uh my name is Melvin Campbell. Uh I just want to share uh a short experience I had earlier today once I placed my vote. Um I realized that this is probably uh a quite intense time voting on a a budget and voting on you know new board members. Um and I think I came away with more questions than than answers. Um I came away with exactly in what what is it that we're voting for? Are we voting to bring back respectability, accountability, and a sense of pride that Mount Mount Vernon has always had? Are we voting to end some of the pettiness between adults that should be taken care of in the back room versus
008the front room? Are we voting with the kids' best interests in mind? All kids, including our unique learners. And lastly, after not receiving a contract for the teachers, teaching assistance or security for the past three years, are we voting on a budget that has a guaranteed set aside for a good raise? And even a couple weeks ago when I heard Mr. foroso kind of give a a line by line breakdown of the budget. He wouldn't go as far as guaranteeing anything. So I just wonder, you know, are they exactly what exactly are we voting for? We are voting to make things better. Um and also in closing, I know there's a new superintendent coming in and I would like to wish him well. salutations and all that. And also, Dr. Smith, as long as you've
009been in the district, you've always been cordial and respectful and and open in all your positions. And I respect you, and I wish you um wherever your trials take you. We appreciate you. But those are all the questions that I had, and I hope uh the vote matters. Thank you. Mark Stucky. Good evening everyone. Good evening. We are among we are at a time where each year we come to the same thing have an election and I pray that you the taxpayers wind up voting yes for the budget for 10 years you got away with it outpaying anything and you should have saved some of that money. We, the city of Mount Vernon, the school district need that money. Unfortunately, it's not a 2% or a 1 and a.5%. But for 10 years, everyone skated
010perfectly. So now, please, please don't let us go back and have another vote because if we go back to vote again, it's going to cost this district approximately what? $70,000. $70,000 because you said no, just to come back and do the thing all over again. You, the taxpayers, I know it hurts. I realize it. But we have to look at the future of our children. My name is Mark Stucky. I am an employee of the Mount Vernon City School District and I am the whistleblower. I bring that up because I sent each and every one of you a letter months ago on the floor at Pennington School how it was damaged. I was asked, "Can I do the job?" And I said, "Yes, I can do the job." And in the letter I the email
011I sent each and every one of you, it was with stipulations. I have a great gift and I already showed it several times by doing several projects. This is a demolition project that's take want to take place. That's not in my job description. It isn't. But now I am seems like I am being bullied under the GNC program that we have to take every year. Well, is mandated for people to take. It talks about bullying, harassment. I'm not going to go with that. I am not from no one. If you ask me and I can do it and we can work out an agreement on it, fine. But don't bully me because the next thing is going to seem like legals are going to get involved because now you're telling me something. You're forcing something
012on me and you're mandating it. not directly through the department, but it's being filtered down to my supervisor. Please don't play me like that. I'm not going to wind up being nice. Right now, I'm talking very nice, I feel. So, if you want the project to move forward, there's three individuals that I who will wind up I asked to work with me with a stipulation. Can we save? Can I save this district a lot of money? Sure I can. I come with a great background in construction. I had my own business. When the pandemic hit, it wiped out not only me but a lot of other people. And I am grateful to be working for Mount Vernon City School District because I see that I have saved in a short period of time myself and
013one other and colleague a whole lot of money. So we can help if the new superintendent come on board. listen to the employees because we have a formula to help put this school district back together. But you got to listen. The last thing is if you're going to shut down these buildings, and I hear I'm hearing that you're going to go out and hire, it could be true or not, uh, moving companies. Don't do that because when you shut down the building, you just can't turn the key and walk away. It's a process. Please listen. Listen, have a conversation and we can help you. Have a good day. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Actually, I have a question. It's in relation to um Mr. Stuckyy's statement. Um I have a question for actually Mr.
014Raundi related to the floor at Pennington. Um Mr. Raundi, where are we with that? Cuz that was at least more than a month ago when Mr. Stucky's email came. But I had went to Pennington before Mr. Stucky's email. I sent pictures. The floor has been buckled in that room. The students in that room have been displaced for more than two months now. Where are we? Where do we get prices? Where are we? What are we doing? We're waiting on tile. What are we doing? So, all the materials have been delivered. The committee report. Is that a committee report? Yeah, we can discuss. That's a question based on this committee report. No, that's a a question based on the comment. Ask that in the committee. No, because the question just came up. The statement just came
015out just now during public comment. So I took the opportunity just now to question it and ask now. You have aren't you in the Yeah, we can we we can get there. We can get there. Mark, can you just answer that for me, please? So we should go in a further discussion in a committee. All the materials are there and we can I can explain to the committee. Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Kin uh Kinandra Asca Canandra Asca. Okay. And that ends public comments. Thank you. Superintendent report. Good evening, Mount Vernon. Evening. I concur with everyone else. There's still time to vote this evening. You could find your Poland site by entering your address on our website and you will find out where you can go to vote. Um, we
016had a wonderful meeting this evening. My cabinet and I did go to Mount Vernon Leadership Academy. We met with the parents and they really did come out. We answered some of their questions. Um, and it was very pleasant. So, I want to personally thank Miss V for her invitation. Um, and I invited them if they had further questions, feel free to send me an email, give me a phone call, and we will follow up with that. One of the things that we discussed, they were concerned about where their children will be transferred. Um, so we gave a general outline of where the students would be transferred, but I wanted to discuss which will which will be on the website just briefly. All of the um students going into the seventh and eighth grade. Um Cecil
017Parker and Grimes will be going to Benjamin Turner along with the Benjamin Turner students. Gra um in terms of Edward Williams, their seventh and eighth grade students will go to Graham School. Um in terms of the Mount Vernon Honor Academy, their seventh and eighth grade students along with Lincoln students will be at Lincoln. The seventh and eighth graders at Trap Hagen will also join the Pennington students at Pennington for the seventh and eighth grade. The Hamilton students, the seventh and eighth graders will be sent to the Denel Washington School for the Arts. the Mount Vernon Leadership Academy and Nelson Mandela seventh and great seventh and eighth grade students will go to Steam Academy. For the K to6 students, the Parker students will go to either Benjamin Turner Academy and Rebecca Turner Academy. The Mount Vernon
018Honor Academy students will go to Trap Hagen and the Mount Vernon Leadership Academy will go to Mandela and Hamilton. You will find this information on our website. Um it was requested um last week. I think Trustee Mitchell made that request. I want to welcome Dr. Deario Strickland to the Mount Vernon City School District. He was here last week and met with various groups in the district. He will be here this Thursday and Friday as well meeting again with many of the staff members. But I want to talk about the fact that he's going to meet with parents and family stakeholders and community and what he's titling let's talk conversation with Dr. Strickland and this will be for relationships, trust, alignment, and results. So, you can meet the incoming superintendent on June 2nd, 5:30 to 7:30
019at the Mount Vernon Arna Academy or June 18th, which is a Wednesday, from 5:30 to 7:30 at Graham School. And lastly, he has a Saturday date in July on July 12th from 11:00 a.m. to 100 p.m. at the Denzel Washington School for the Arts. He's very eager to have these conversation. Please feel free to join him. If you have questions, he could talk about himself, his experience, but he wants to meet with stakeholders. He he also plan on scheduling meeting with each board members so you could be in touch with him as well. He do he does have a email address here in the district so you can definitely get in touch with um Dr. Strickland of course it's dstrickland mternoncsd.org. I want to also mention that on June 28th, we will be hosting the
02025 the 2025 Mount Vernon High School Hall of Fame induction. We're asking the community to come and join us in honoring George Vladimir who is the United States Congressman, Ruth Hassel Thompson, who's the former New York State Senator, and remembering Elise Finch, who's a Emmy who was a Emmy award-winning meteorologist. This event again will take place on June 28th from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Mount Vernon High School and um the cost for individuals will be $40. Please join us in that event. Um these people are very worthy and has done so much for our community and we'll be delighted to have you join us in their celebration. Lastly, the New York State School Boards Association, that's NISBA, Board Excellence Recognition Program, is designed to acknowledge those school board members who strive to
021continually expand their governance, knowledge, and skills. Two of our U members have earned board excellent recognition awards ranging from level one to level four. These achievements levels are reached when members accumulate points for participating in NISBA training, workshops, events, and activities as well as for on board related roles such as board president and NISPA advocacy layers. The awards goes to trustee Donna Marble and trustee Chris Mcdana. [Applause] I would like both of them to join me here at the podium. I did receive a letter and it basically says, "Dr. Smith. The New York State Board Association Board of Excellence Recognition Program is designed, like I said, to acknowledge those school board members who strive to continually expand their governments. And it continues, "Our records indicate that one or two one or more members of your
022district or Bose's board of education have earned one of our board excellence recognition awards ranging from level one and four. These achievement levels are reached when members accumulate points for participating in NISPA training workshop events and activities. Please note the annual cutoff date for point accumulation is March 31st. To learn more about the recognition program and award achievement, please review the enclosed brochure. They had sent a brochure and and basically they sent these wonderful awards. So for trustee Mcdana, I have this board achievement award to Christopher Mcdana, Mount Vernon City School District through NISBA board of excellent recognition program conferring more than 75 points for your ongoing association professional development and or accepting additional leadership role. This is for 2025. [Applause] Did you have No, I know. I was going to stand with you. Oh,
023okay. So, um, Trusty Marble didn't get just one award, she got two. [Applause] One is board excellent award and the other one is board achievement award. The first one the excellence to Donna Marble Mount Vernon City School District through the NISBA board of excellence recognition program conferring more than 150 points for your ongoing association professional development and or accepting additional leadership role. So that's one. [Applause] Did you want you wait for the next one? Okay. The second one, board achievement award to Donna Marble, Mount Vernon City School District through NISBA board of excellent recognition program conference. boy, she goes to school all the time. For your ongoing association, professional development and or accepting additional leadership roles. This is for 20 [Applause] 2025. Wait, wait. Thank you. Thank you so much. So, we have a lot
024of great things going on. Again, Dr. Strickland, I'm sure you're watching this. We welcome you. We look forward to seeing you on Thursday 8:00 shop. You meet with you start off with meeting with PTA, all the presidents and the PTA council. That's from 8 to 9. and we have a whole lot of other folks that's looking forward to meeting you you as well. Thank you [Applause] again. Thank Thank you, Dr. Smith. So, we'll go right on to committee reports. Um I have a question. Um when Dr. Smith finished taking her seat, I'm not going. Okay. First, thank you so much for sharing the the information about the where the students who are impacted by the closings of the schools where they're going. Thank you for sharing that verbally. How what's the ETA when it'll be
025online? Something simple that parents can see. That's the first question. If it's not on already, it'll be on by tomorrow. Okay. Um, are we also going to have that information communicated? We we had said we were going to go to different schools and things like that early on. And I know we did Zoom calls up to the closing. Are we going to have some sort of communication like that where we go out at least to the three schools that are closing and let them know what's going on for parents? Certainly, we could do that. I did go to the leadership today. I can go to the honor and Parker as well. Okay. But Parker's having their um June, what is it called? Honor day. June. What is it? Parker day. Parker day. That's coming up.
026So, I would love to celebrate with them and ask answer questions that day as well. Absolutely. And the last thing is the dates that uh Dr. Strickland is going to is going to be uh meeting with the community. Can we also have that posted on the website right now? It should um it's going to be posted. It was going to be posted today, but he kind of changed his title, so I had it all ready to be uploaded as you can see. But it was when I sent it to you guys, it was communication conversation and community conversation. Amen. Yes. Beautiful. It's gonna It's not going to be that. It's gonna be let's talk conversations with Dr. Strickland. I hope I got it right. Dr. Strickland. So, we made a modification. I love that. Okay.
027Great to know. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Any other questions, trustees? Okay. So, we're going to go on to uh committee reports. Um, Trusty Cohen's not here, so we don't have an audit. Um, the budget com the budget finance committee um may have to meet depending on what's going to happen with the budget, I'm assuming. Um, education committee, oh no, I'm sorry, claims committee. Um, no report on that. Um, education committee. Um, I think Dr. Dorett reported on the last meeting we have and we will be meeting before the next uh board meeting and I also wanted to give a shout out to the um call Caprio again for the uh greenhouse and uh Dr. I mean um Miss Carpass for the science club. The students are busy working on growing vegetables and
028hopefully that's going to pan out for curriculum throughout the district. Uh it's a beautiful setup. Unfortunately, we did not get the grant. So, we are still presently looking for additional grants, but with cutbacks in federal spending, uh we are hardpressed to do it. So, I'm hoping that all this work doesn't go for not. Um it's an important part of the district actually having hands-on practical experiences for our student. So, next time we meet, we'll have an update. Thank you, Trusty Kelly. Facilities report. Here we go. Facilities did not have meeting as of yet because of commitment, but I know Mark um Trustee Mitchell knows. Yeah, I think you answered the question about Cis Parker flaws when I asked it during public comment, but um I did have a couple of questions. So, um to Dr.
029Smith. Uh no, it's actually to Mr. Raundi. So Mr. Raundi and actually all of us here, anyone who were not here, there's a rodent issue going on in several of the buildings. We know that Graham while we were in the forum, there was a mouse running around in auditorium. I got reports over the past few days that there are mice running around broad daylight in classes at Graham and Parker and Williams. We're talking rats, mice. Where are we? I know we had Where are we with the exterminator again? We do have a district exterminator. What's their schedule again live? So, we do have a district exterminator. They come by on a bi-weekly basis to address all issues. If there's an in particular issue or a reoccurrence, the head custodians can reach directly out to the
030company and they'll come out again and treat for that specific issue. So, do we have a record for those buildings that we know are the hardest hit that shows when the last visits we've had? Because if they're not, we got to see some sort of progress, right? Yep. Absolutely. They they have a log every time they visit a building and they send it to us when the invoices. Okay. Thank you. Um, the other question I had was, um, you can, uh, the cafeteria benches at Pennington, the seats, there's a a plenty of them that are broken and the students can't sit on them. I was just there for the they had a science expo last week and there were a lot of tables that were the the seats were broken like you can't sit on
031them. What What do we How do we how are we handling that aside from just putting a marker? Are you have you been made aware of it? number one cuz that's to me I it speaks to the head custodian in our buildings. Uh I haven't been made aware of that. What I tell the head custodians is do a survey of something like that for cafeteria seats. Let us know we can order replacements but also we're going to reallocate a lot of our resources from the reorganization and address those issues. I have principles reaching out to me had custodians reaching out to me saying listen I'd like x amount of y. Can you set that up? I put that on a list so that we can use the resources we have. But the biggest thing is
032if there's a building issue, it needs to be communicated up to my office so we can address it for them. And I imagine some for some from the buildings that are closing, we're going to be having inventory that's going to be able to go to those schools to avoid having to spend, right? Absolutely. Okay. Uh that's all I have for now. But there was uh you did you postpone the meeting? You said you did. Did you reschedule it yet? Yeah, we were supposed to meet yesterday and something time sensitive came up. So we'll be putting another meeting out next week and we can cover all those things for next week. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. So to expedite our meetings, can we uh have discussions about certain topics in committee? It would be helpful to
033come back with reports to the whole board and not to have them in public. Not that it's just to be able to have be mindful of the time that we have for this particular meeting. So that is to all trustees. I when we we do committee it is a report and I'm requesting that discussions about certain items be discussed in committee so that we can flush out what needs to be discovered discussed and when we come back we announce it to the all of the trustees. It's not one trustee in particular. It could be me. I'm just saying just to make it so we really have great use of the time, this limited time we have here in this meeting. That's all. Thank you. Thank you, Trusty Kelly. That completes the facilities report. Does that
034complete the facility report? Moving on to family and community engagement. We did not meet food service and wellness. Food service and wellness. Human resources. Anybody? Human resources. Yes. I mean, pay attention here. For Christ's sakes. So, we will be scheduling one soon. Thank you. IDA, the IDA will meet later this week. Insurance is me. We had no meeting. Policy um the full board was giving um policies to review. I think we can talk about at the next meeting. The policy committee gave all the board members policies and exec at the last board meeting. Can we discuss that next board meeting in exec safety and security? She's not here. Special education. The meeting got bumped, right? Hold on. The meeting got the safety. I'm going I'm going to secure I can stand in the meeting got
035moved. Are we going to get an update on when that is for possibly next week also? Thank you. All right. Thank you. Um that would be uh special education. We did not meet. Okay. And the last is technology. We do not have an update. Thank you. Except for we do have um a IPA agreement that is with our legal department who is trying to engage with the Boseis legal department so that we can um finalize the purchase of the computers. So um when we get a finalization, we will let you know. Thank you. Thank you. And that completes the that completes the committee reports. I'm sorry. I didn't I didn't I didn't hear you say food and wellness. Um Mr. Raundi, do we I'm sorry. Did we I don't know. Did I send an email
036asking about the status of the RFP for the food service? Did you respond to that by chance? So there is an update on the RFP. Mr. Run, you can share the dates. takes a second. Uh the 16th we had a a pre-bid conference. There were five vendors that showed up. They asked their questions. They tooured a lot of the facilities. Um we're sending out an addendum to their questions that should go out either tonight or tomorrow morning. And uh the plan is to open up the the bid or the RFP on May 28th for the food service management company. Question simple question. You said it was five. Was Aaron Mark one of them? Yes. Since we're in um wellness, I just wanted to say what a great job our uh parent leaison uh Darden did
037at the steam. Um I had the opportunity to go there and Mr. Simmons led a wellness um event and they painted pots and there was of course it was a beautiful event. I wish more parents had had the opportunity to attend. It's very helpful. Um he was great. It was amazing. Uh I was only I only ran in there. I missed all the strawberries, all the cakes. I mean, she had a a full spread. I want to share that because that's good news for me and that was at Steams. I really appreciate what they do in our district. Thank you. Thank you, Trusty Kelly. And that completes the committee reports. Moving on to um old business. This is uh from public comment from Tuesday, May 6 board meeting. One question is I heard that teacher
038assistants are being replaced by teachers aids. Why would that happen? The answer is there has been no alteration in the title or role of teacher assistants. Should there be any changes in their title andor job description, these matters will be thoroughly discussed with the re relevant stakeholders before any modification are implemented. students at Rebecca Turner do not have a science teacher for the year. Are they going to be exempt from taking the test? And the answer was that they do have a science teacher. Mount Vernon High School does not have a math teacher. How can students take exam? Will they be exam? Mount Vernon High School does not need a math teacher. When are we going to be introduced to the new superintendent? Of course, we were introduced to him on May 14th, 2025. Is
039there an official letter from Albany stating that our schools are closed and why are we not entitled to that? The answer is Albony does not have to have the authority to close our schools. The official decision was made by the board of education on the January 14th meeting. If we are started, if we started with a modest 0.5% tax increase, where would we be right now? The answer to that is if a 0.5 tax increase was proposed and approved by the community starting from the 16th to 17th school year and the 25 through the 24 25 school year. The current tax levy would be 140.2 million. The actual tax levy is 135.9 million. This would result in a community paying the additional 19.5 million over that period of time. What was your board rationale for
040voting on a 3.3% tax increase? Did I get that answer? The reason the board voted on the 3.3 tax tax increase was to maintain universal prek, athletics, summer programs, credit recovery, and extended school year program upholding academically rigorous programs and um the international baloria smart scholars Lehman College courses and continuing investments in students well-being and mental health with a multi-tered system of support school psychologist. What about the children not graduating from Rebecca Turner Academy? All students who will not be graduating but are still enrolled in Rebecca Turner Academy will continue to be enrolled in alternative program at Malver High School. And that ends old business. I have a question. First, please. All right. Um my question is um in regards to um the letter to the state. We did talk about it, but I think
041in the last meeting I did ask Dr. Smith if you would submit to us what was sent to the state as a board because the board talked about it, but the board did not see actually what was submitted, especially since it was up to the board to make these decisions. So, um I I mean I didn't see it. Did you send it or did I miss it? Remember, it's not something that I can send. It's up on the portal. And Mr. Raundi was supposed to see if he can download, right? Download that information because once it's sent, it it goes. He's supposed to see if he could have access to what was sent to the state, right? He you you're correct cuz that's exactly what was said. And Mr. Raundi, were you able to retrieve
042what was sent to cuz you said it was through the portal and you didn't know if you could. So, were you able to do that or what was the status of that? I don't I don't have what was sent. I do have uh a sample of what the form is, what all components of the form that we fill out and every district fills out. I can share that with you this evening if you'd like. And it it's identical to what's sent over. It it's a yes, it's a sample of all the questions that the state would ask. uh because each form is tailored to the specific reconfiguration or closure of a building. So this lists everything that we or any school district would have to fill out to the state. I can get that to
043you immediately. It's essenti it's the same thing just without this the specific information that we put in. You want that's the point. I mean I'm sorry I don't want to see anybody stunned. You specifically said at the last meeting you were going to go to go into the portal. That was your only way to get to it and you were going to pull everything and you would get it for us. Now you're telling us you're not. You're just going to give us blank questions. No, no. I I could never go on to the portal cuz once it's submitted, it removes the access for us. So how So I have to The state has to find some way if they allow to unsubmit a sample of what's been submitted. It's so how I'm sorry. No, I'm
044sorry. I'm sorry. There's Okay. The portal is the portal, but there's no way other than the portal that you could get it to so we could kind of see what was the answer to what were the questions. Yeah, I have to contact the state tomorrow and see if there's a way they can send us something back as we didn't make any contact or connection at all since we inquired about it the last not at that point in time. No. Okay. So, our question, how do we capture the data then that was submitted to the state? So, which which data cuz they asked for data that you submitted. So, if you submit a form, if there's a form that's provided for you from the state and they ask you questions like, is there some place where
045you like, you know, oldfashioned pen and paper, you write it down? Is there some type of template that you may use in the office? Is there some person that houses some of that data so that we know exactly what was submitted? Because they could come back and say, "You said boo and you said no." I mean, I don't I'm confused. So, the data is pulled from a variety of sources. Each form takes an hour to two hours to fill out. It's pretty lengthy from beds reports to grade configurations to different uh curriculum paths. So, what I can do is I have a my own files that are put to the side that answered all the questions. I can submit that because that was in there. But, let me speak to the state and see if
046they can release I guess the completed forms for board distribution. So let me let me just um for clarification. So the state asked for information. We provided them with information with data that you pulled from various sources. But you don't know what that information was that you sent. Oh no. I know exactly what the information is. So can we have that information? I think that's the question. Sure. Thank you. But is that is that per your notes that you gathered together and then specified it to a question to get an answer that became very specific from your notes but could be a little different. So is was it like that? Because if so I don't understand how we cannot get a copy of whatever you sent to the state although you can't utilize the portal.
047Okay. Wait I I want to respond. I will call the state myself and see if we can if they can download what was submitted. I don't know if you've ever submitted something online. Once you submit it, it's basically gone. But what we can do is see if they can share that information that we sent. what we have what he has in his folder is the like the information to to enter into the portal but we could see if we can have a copy of what was submitted. Yeah. I I just wanted to add it just seems it seems odd. I I mean yeah we do I I submit things to the state very and right usually after I do uh either I can I Exactly. I can either print it out immediately as a PDF
048PDF or I'm I'm sent a link where I can access that. So, it seems odd that there would be no record um at the state. So, I I do appreciate you calling them because it sounds like there's a lot of work that went into this. You had to provide a lot of information and for that information not to be part of a permanent record for this significant event is is kind of problematic. I would guess that you probably also had to submit a lot of attachments. Okay. So you have those attachments and I'm guessing that those are organized in some fashion. So we can at least have that. We know the attachments that were subment sent to the state per their request. So we can start with that. You have the actual blank document that
049outlines whatever the hundred questions that every organization has to answer. We can have that draft and then uh Dr. Smith is going to request to see if they actually have that data. I'm sure they do. I mean they they they they they must. Um and then with that we'll have a complete set of information. So I I want to clarify I actually don't have the authority to submit. Only the superintendent does. So I fill it out and then I let Dr. Smith know their forms are ready for submission. So if there's any confirmation emails if they if the state even sends them they wouldn't be sent to me. But I do have the attachments. I have a lot of information. I just want to make sure that everybody knows what it is because it's tailored
050to the different forms that I you know I want it to be clear. Clarification. Any other questions? Yeah, I have a question for number one. The question was, is it true that we're we're terminating teachers assistance and replacing it with teachers aids? And you responded with we would let them know about title changes. Could we have what was the answer to the actual question which was are we terminating teachers aids and replacing I'm sorry teachers assistants and replacing them with teachers aids? I heard that teacher assistants are being replaced by teachers aids. Why would that happen? The answer is there has no there has no there has been no alteration in the title or role of teacher assistance should there be any changes to their title andor description. These matters will be thoroughly discussed with
051the relevant stakeholders before any modifications are. Right. So if we could have the actual answer, the answer is it's pretty much a yes or no. Do you have it? Can you So no TAs were terminated for teacher aids. There were not. No. And they're not going to be. Is so not the plan. Not the plan to let teachers assistance go to replace them with teachers aids. No. Okay. Thank you. That's it. Thank you. So I have one more thing. We have we received a letter from Boseies of Southern Westchester. Um on behalf of Southern Westchester Boseies, I would like to extend our sincere thanks to each of you for unanimous support in the Southern Westchester's administrative budget for the 2526 school year. Your continued commitment and collaboration are essential to the success of our shared
052mission. With your support, Southern Westchester Boseies will be able to sustain and expand its efforts into providing high quality, relevant programs that empower students and help them build skills they need to thrive. Thank you once again for your leadership and dedication to the students and communities we serve. Together, we are making meaningful difference in the lives of children throughout throughout our region. And this is from John Filberty, board president, Southern Westchester. Okay. So, let's go on to our resolutions. Okay. Can I have a motion, please, for 5.1 human resources 126A certified? So moved. Second. Questions, concerns, discussions? All in favor? I I. Any oppose? Abstain. Motion carries. Okay. I have a motion for 5.2 human resources 126B classified. Motion. Second. Questions, concerns, discussions? All in favor? I. Any oppose? Abstain. Motion carries. Okay. I have
053a motion for 5.3 request for a leave of absence. Motion. Second. Questions, concerns, discussions? All in favor? I oppose. Abstain. Motion carries. Okay. I have a motion for 5.4. Oh, approval. Approval to pay stipens for extracurricular activities. Motion. Second. Question. Questions. I don't remember if I saw exactly what the $4,000 advisory is for the yearbook like that. That what that's a what is that? What does that title consist of? It's 4,000 and change just for the advisor. It's contractual. Contractual. So this is a contracted position. Correct. And that's the rate. Correct. Is there any reason? Did you see the documentation for that? There's no documentation. Is there any reason? Can you add the attachments to the resolution that have the documents or is it not signed yet? There is no what the so the documentation
054is supports the the contract. So there's a contract that had to be signed for this person federation. Okay. It's in the teachers contract. So you have you guys should all have the on the back it has the stipens for all the extracurricular activities. But I have do have a question. The so the yearbook advisor's stipen is being presented to us now. Has the yearbook advisor been working? Have these people been working all year? And why are we just receiving the information now? Yes. So, they have been working all year. Um, this is when it was given to our office and so we're putting it on so they could be paid. Take pictures. Just Yeah. Yeah. Just for a a note that um there is there we is there a system in place so that we
055are ensuring that this information is provided to us in advance as opposed to at the 9th hour where if the person's been doing the work all year long and now I mean they've done the work already so now we're voting on their stipen I mean it it makes absolutely no sense to me. We need this information in July, August, September, whenever the person's appointed. And if they're appointed in a particular month and they haven't been working the whole whole year, is it prrated? Yes, it would be prrated, but they have been working the entire year. Um, so we try our best to ensure that all principles give it to us in a timely fashion. Usually by that September, October, the latest board meeting. Um but this is where we are. So we had to since
056that person those two people have been doing the work the entire year. Thank you. All in favor? I oppose abstain. Motion carries. I have a motion for 6.1 authorization for Mount Vernon Steam Academy senior class to travel to Kalahari indoor water park Pocono Manor and Sylvania. Motion second. A really quick question just just for clarity. The cost for 100 students would be 65K and it's not being paid by the school district. 65. It's Yeah, because it's 65. Is that not the case? 65. Yeah, but there's supposed to be 100 100 students. Does that not say that up there? 6500. How many? 6,500. 6500. Thank you. Got it. Okay. My fault. I mis misread that. And but even still, the district doesn't have to pay for that. That's the students are paying for that. Correct. Raise
057money for their own trip. Got it. Okay. I just wanted to make sure because a question will come up if somebody doesn't realize that I'm asking it on the mic so that anybody that's listening can say, "Oh, no. The board is not paying for that students paid for because not everybody reads the board docs." That's it. Thank you. All in favor? I oppose. Abstain. Motion carries. You have a motion for 6.2 two, authorization to hire a substitute for academic power hour at Grime School. Motion second, questions, concerns, discussions. How many students are involved in I'm sorry in power hour at Grimes? Is it well attended? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Was there a motion on the floor? Uh, yes, there's a motion. All in favor? I Anyone abstain? Opposed? Did you say you abstain? No. Oh,
058okay. Okay. Mot motion carries. Can I have a motion for 6.3 authorization to add a site coordinator at Mount Vernon High School to the Purchase College Great Potential Program for the second half of the 2425 school year? Motion. Can I have a second, please? Second. Questions, concerns, discussions? I have a question. When was um the start date of this individual? I believe January to June. It's from S September to January. It's it's two half. So this person worked the second half. So we um approved this. This resolution was approved for everyone um back in October. Um this person worked after um the second payroll. Again, I would like to say if the person's been working since January that we have the information in January or February and not in May, June. Thank you. All in
059favor? I oppose abstain. Motion carries. I have a motion for 7.1 approval of pupil personnel services memorandum number 20 dated May 20th, 2025. Motion. Second. Questions, concerns, discussions? All in favor? I oppose. Abstain. Motion carries. Have a motion for 7.2 authorization to hire the 2025 summer committee on special education cse staff members. Motion. Second. questions, concerns, discussions, discussion. I just wanted to quickly thank um Mr. Formosa for for accommodating that request for additional language. And I take it that you're you're okay with that language since you put it on there. Right. Okay. All in favor? I oppose. Abstain. Motion carries. Have a motion for 7.3 authorization to hire the 2025 summer committee on preschool education staff members. Motion second, questions, concerns, discussions? All in favor? Oppose. Abstain. Motion carries. Can I have a motion for
0608.1 to accept donations of props and costumes from Achievement First Hartford Academy? Can I have a second, please? Questions, concerns, discussions? All in favor? Oppose? Abstain. Okay, motion carries. Okay. Okay. I have a motion for 9.1 approval of general funds transfers dated May 20th, 2025. I'm sorry, questions. Questions, concerns? Yeah. So, Mr. Foroso, this is a $105,000 transfer from school improvement to legal services. Correct. Yeah. Mark knows he's a professional. There you go. Stop laughing. I'm good. I'm good. That That's correct. But it's moving from a code. Those those funds were not allocated and they will not be spent this year. That's why that's why we're moving that out. So those So the so the those funds for school improvements would not be spent this year. Is that what you're saying? Not out of that
061specific code. No. Okay. So it means we're so All right. So my question I think we've had these this question before. I've said is it just that it was just miscoded in the budgeting from last year? on the one that we're moving from or the one that we're moving to. Right. The one that we're moving from on the budget there there was an anticipated item, but it didn't come to fruition. So, those funds were not used, which means and that means that that's $105,000 more dollars that we need for legal that we didn't have already in the budget. Th That's correct. There are certain And if you'd like, I I could have Royce Russell talk about it, but there's some unforeseen expenses that are going on with litigation. So, that is unforeseen and we hate
062those. All right. Very good. Would you like a further explanation or No, thank you. I think you did just fine. You got it. You know, I got my colleague right to the right. Motion carries. Okay. I have a motion for 10.1 approval of the annual budget for Westchester Putnham School Board Association for the 2526 school year. Motion sec. Okay. Questions, concerns, discussions? All in favor? Oppose. Abstain. Motion carries. Can I have a motion for 10.2 approval of the 2526 Westchester Putham School Board Associate Board of Director Slate? So moved. Second. Questions, concerns, discussions? All in favor? Any oppose? Abstain. Okay. Motion carries. I have a motion to enter into recess. questions, concerns. All in favor? Question. Um, relating to the election results, what is the timeline? Because last year we were here, we ended up
063having to wait until the next day to accept and vote in those election results. Is that what do we have a timeline of what our time cut off will be for tonight? Polls are showing higher amounts than normal. So, um, right now we won't know until 9:00 when the polls close. It depends on if we're able to call it without having to open up the absentee ballot. So, it's kind of hard to tell right now, but Got it. We will be in recess. Our attorney will be here soon with us. Okay. We'll go from there. Sounds good. Thank you. So, all in favor for Oh, go ahead. Uh, another question on the on the recess. Um I I take it we'll be in recess for for some time since the results don't come back until
0649ine and then sometime so sometime after that. Is that correct? Right. Okay. Thank you. I I do have a question. Um are we having executive session tonight? If okay thank you. So all in favor for recess. Okay. Any oppose? Okay. Motion carries. And so we will be in recess until their results come back for their election. All right. Thank you. Okay. Glorious. Are you ready? You should take the um results of the vote for the budget in the first of all. Can I speak? Madame President. Okay. Wait, wait, wait. We have to come back. Yes. Mike, are you ready? Um, who's missing? Everybody's here. Everybody's here. Just give me one moment. I am just going to just do roll call one more time because I think we're missing a few people. Trust Trusty McDonald present.
065Trusty Marabel present. Trusty Mitchell present. Trusty Middleton present. Oh, there you are. Trustee White present. Trustee Kerwin. VP Kelly here. And President Saunders here. Okay, we have a quorum. I just Can I have Wait, wait, wait. Can I have a motion, please, to reconvene to public session? Motion second. Second. First, I want to congrat in favor. I I Okay, I want to congratulate Jose for the budget passing. [Applause] Thank you. So, we have a lot on that budget. Teacher contracts, not only teacher contracts, CSEA contracts, excuse me. Thank you everybody for voting for the budget. I want to congratulate all the people that ran Sakai Randolph and Erica and the Cynthia. Congratulation. [Applause] Okay. And I think Trusty White had Yes. I wanted to say the same thing. I just want to congratulate congratulate the
066new trustees that will be starting in July 1st. Mhm. Um, and to the library, Cynthia and Oh, Cynthia and Cynthia, congratulations. And I am pleased to be working with you. I will be here for the next two years. So, I welcome you and we can work in unity. Thank you. So, [Applause] [Music] good evening all. I am so excited about the budget passing. Yes, we many people said it was not going to happen and it did. I think that, you know, we worked real hard and it's very necessary and I'm glad that the community stood behind us and and we were able to get a a budget passed. So, I thank you for that. I want to congratulate all the winners tonight. Um, I I do hope that the wins mean unity. Congratulations goes to
067Erica, to Sakai, and to Randolph. I don't really know you, but congratulations. And to both of the Cynths, all the best to you. So, I'd like to certify the budget and the election vote of the three board trustee candidates and two library candidates. The three highest vote getters will serve a full term of three years starting July 1st, 2025 and in June 30th, 2028. I'd like to certify that the budget has passed with 1,400 yes votes and 1138 no votes. Yes. Yes. Sakai Brown is a top vote getter with 1,698 votes. Erica Peterson with 1,633 votes and Randolph Scott with 1541 votes for the library. The top vote getter will serve a term of five years starting July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2030. The second highest with will serve a three-year term starting July
0681st, 2025 through June 30th, 2028. The top vote getter is Cynthia Crrenshaw with 1,275 votes and Cynthia Dickerson with 1,162 votes. So, can I have a motion to accept the results of the 2025 2026 annual budget vote and trustee election? So moved. Second. Okay. And questions, concerns, discussions? All in favor? I. Any oppose? Abstain. Okay. Motion carries. Congratulations. Congratulations to everyone. Congratulations everyone. Congratulations my sisters and my brother. So we're going to go a motion. Can I have a motion to adjurnn, please? Oh, second. Okay. All in favor? I. Okay. Any oppose? Okay. Motion carries. We are adjourned. Thank you everyone. Good night. Oh my god.