Mount Vernon Board of Education Regular Meeting March 18 2025

001I thought we would have a lot good evening good evening hi good evening good evening everyone welcome to the March 18th Malon city school district school board meeting please stand for the pledge fles to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all trusty mcdonal present trusty marabel present trusty Mitchell present trusty Middleton trusty njenga trusty white present trusty Kerwin VP Kelly here and president Saunders okay we have a Corum student truste de grandprix here so good evening good evening everyone can you hear me okay uh tonight we're going to start with a presentation from our Mount Vernon City um controller um Dr Morton good evening everyone evening to the U Malon um School District board to all of the um administrators uh to the Mount Vernon

002um public uh I'm Darren Morton I'm the city controller is asked to come to present um related to the school taxes and school collection uh and the partnership between the city and the school district in collecting the un uh the unpaid taxes um for the school school district and so uh we have a presentation that has been prepared um for you as I have had Communications um with um uh Jose who is your assistant uh superintendent for business um we've been working together for several months now um as it pertains to the collection of the taxes and so we want to report kind of what the process is and kind of where we are um what we're looking at as we as we we as we move forward and so um you can also hand

003those out to the public if you want but the presentation uh we have um before us so um one of the first things is is that um the collection of the uh school taxes uh for the City of Mount Vernon is regulated um by the real property tax law of New York State and the relevant uh sections to that are uh relate are the Articles one um section 2 one 102 as well as um article 11 um 1102 and 13 Article 13 1332 as well as 1334 um and that's what we operate on um in order for us to collect the taxes that have not been colle collection of taxes in general but also the collection of taxes that are not paid um as per the warrant so there are some key uh definitions that

004probably need to be understood which one is who the collection officer is the collecting officer uh is actually for the purposes of Mount Vernon is the school district tax collection office that is Led of course by the assistant superintendent of business and then the school authorities um which is the board of of Education the trustees and then the enforcing officer for the taxes which is the city com controller the uh roles and responsibilities are laid out uh in the state um statute uh and it is for us for the collecting officer to make um and deliver statements uh for unpaid taxes to the uh uh School Authority at the close of the warrant close of the warrant typically is uh the end of January of each year and then to and then the school Authority

005which is the school board is to compare and to certify the accuracy of that statement that they are receiving of unpaid taxes and then to transmit the statement along with the certification to the enforcement officer which is the city's com controller within 30 days after having received it um from The Collection officer and then the enforcement officer um has the responsibility of collecting um the taxes and forcing the payment of them for a period of two years which is called the enforcement collection period uh at the end of that enforcement period um the enforcement officer again the com controller is then to turn over to the treasurer of the school district um the principle and the interest um that is unpaid um as of as of that date what I wanted to do is kind

006of lay out for you kind of the process so because there's been a lot of questions around um what what is the collection process and so again each year the school district levies the taxes and they Levy the taxes in July of each year which is the beginning of the school year um they they collect the taxes that are due to the collect to the collecting officer um and it's due in two installments which one is in July and then the second installment is due in January the collecting officer um then at the close of that warrant stated before then um prepares a statement uh and delivers it to the school board um that says this is the amount that we've collect this amount that was warranted that was levied this is the amount that

007has been collected and this is the amount that is now unpaid and then the school board looks at that based upon the warrant that they have levied earlier uh earlier in that school year and make sure that it is accurate and that at that point they certify it um and usually the school board does that by a resolution that is then signed off by the um School a board clerk that is then delivered to um the office of the com controller and the com controller and that usually is done that is to be done within 20 days of the certification um we have in talking with uh Jose we have agreed that that will occur sometime in the March time frame to give time to kind of do reconciliation uh then it is turned over

008to the com controller and then the controller then begins to collect there is an additional 5% collection fee that is added onto uh those ta onto those taxes and interests um that then is um certified as unpaid and for two years um both the interest that is the 1% on the actual School tax and the 5% continues to in to to acre um as the uh taxpayer may not have paid it at the close of that two years is then when by law the um state says that the com controller or the city is to now make the what we have been termed as make the school district whole um by making sure that whatever has not been collected in that 2-year period now be now comes due to the school to School District what

009happens in the 2-year period is that the com controller's office then remits whatever they collect on a monthly basis to the school district and so we've been doing that for the last for twoyear cycle in which we've been collecting the 2020 um 2020 21 21 22 and the 22 23 school year school year taxes we're remitting it to the school district on a monthly basis based upon what it is that we collect after that if the school taxes have not been paid by the property owner then the enforcement officer which is the com controller then can uh begin the process of either a tax lean sale or a foreclosure for those taxes that have not that have not been paid um that's the process right and so as you see what the process is is

010that for the first year of the of of again the collection of the school or at least the first 6 months the school district is collecting it in two installments one in July and then the two the second in a in January and then turning over whatever it has not collected to then the com controller's office for the com controller's office to begin collection for a 2-year period um and what we have done in Mount Veron and also to for convenience of taxpayers is we have also allowed for the school district to continue to collect during that 2-year period alongside of the com Controllers Office and what we do is a cross reconciliation of what is collected so whatever the school district collects in that 2-year period And whatever the controller's office collects in that

0112-year period we then have reports that go back and forth between the two departments for us to reconcile what has been collected and for us to upload into our system what the school district has collected and for the school district to be notified and to receive any of the monies that we have collected um during that 2year period and that is done on a monthly on a monthly basis what has been some of the major concerns around um what is owed and there's been a lot of conversation about what the school what the city owes the school district um and having paid and we all know we're not going to get into a long story of what happened prior to my arrival as the com controller um but um during the years of 17 through

01219 um the school district did not receive uh the uh uh the amounts of the unpaid taxes at the close of that 2-year warrant which then mounted to $1.7 million in which there was a basically a there was a lawsuit that uh that ensued between the school district and the city um in which the School the the city was then uh directed to pay 11.7 million based upon what we had calculated had been Ed and it should be noted that it was again in 2022 when I came to come trol the school district finally received the information for them to be able to actually reconcile what was owed and as opposed to um not knowing we estab we entered into a set agreement for $1.7 million we established a uh payment plan of a monthly

013payment plan of $350,000 every month for the city to pay to the school district um in addition to that um because of the lawsuit and the delays and the payment there also is by law a statutory interest that is applied um to it and the school district um uh actually the school district wanted the interest itself and so we negotiated between the school district and the city for it to be a 6% rather than a 9% um uh statutory interest that mounted to 2.1 million on top of the $1.7 million um and so we then added an additional $100,000 to the monthly payment making that monthly payment now $450,000 every month that the city would be paying to the school district to pay down on 11.7 to dat um again we have paid over 10

014um uh million do on the 13 what is a little bit over the $13 million between the principal amount that was owed 11.7 and the 2.1 that was also due for the interest leaving right now the balance uh as a date a little bit over about $3 million on that what now is almost $13 million again the original was 11 um. 7 um we've paid down uh 10.8 and now um the debt uh will be paid off in September of 2025 if we as we continue to pay the $450,000 every every month so you'll see um basically the breakdown here in a chart I'm not going to repeat it because I really kind of covered that in the in the previous screen but it kind of lays out how much was actually owed for both

015the principal and what also was owed for the interest and now what is the remaining balance on that 11.7 plus $2.1 um million um from the uh 2017 through 19 uh years that is the amount those represent what is what actually the city owes the school district right because again the 2-year period is a period of collection and the city doesn't owe the school district during the two-year period it is a period of collection that happens every month and we make sure we reconcile what is what actually is owed so when we look at the U what are the effects of this first of all the effects one of uh taxpayers not paying the taxes is that the school district does not yield the cash that the school district needs in order to operate the

016school district during the year in addition to that what happens after that now the warrant is closed and we are still in the collection period is that the school district now is collecting is receiving money based upon the actual process in which the taxpayers pay the taxes and then if they don't pay it as quickly the school district doesn't receive as much money until they receive it based upon what is paid um of the $10.8 million paid um only $2.4 million have been collected by the city from the taxpayers the city has however um used about $8.3 million of its own operating funds in order to pay in order to meet the obligation of the $450,000 that is paid to the school district every year which as you can imagine anybody who's able to do

017the math and also understands how accounting and budgeting work means that the city is um at risk of a cash flow issue because it is using its own operating money in order to be able to pay a debt that he has not been able to collect from the school from the from the um taxpayer um for for that period now we're in this situation because of what has happened kind of between the 7 through 19 years under normal circumstances the 2-year period would have closed the city the city would have then begun kind of foreclosure tax Lane process which would have expedited a little bit more so you will see in the red um uh you know on the graph is what actually the shortfall is and the Gap in which the uh city is

018now um has become on the city based upon the fact that we're not collecting the money from the taxpayer at the same rate in which we also paying it to the school district um so after that then um the the the periods uh for for those years are broken out here which we are we now will see what was the certifications as we begin to move move forward since 2019 2020 the school district started to collect its own taxes right so what I've talked about already is the taxes that were based upon the 2017 to 19 years the amounts that were owed to the school district now we're moving into the periods in which the school district started to collect its own taxes the school district started collecting its own taxes in 2020 so there's

019the 2020 2021 2021 20 um uh 22 um years and the 2223 as well as then the 23 24 years you will notice that there's been um two 22.6 million that has been collected uh that has not that was not collected by the school district for those years in which the School District certified as uncollected taxes or unpaid taxes the breakdown is is that they certified in May of 2023 $10.9 million which re which was a representation of the 2020 21 to 2122 T School tax years in which the city would then be by law obligated to make the school district whole for anything it has not collected in the 2-year period in May of 2025 so the first amount that becomes due to the school district from the city for this period in which

020uh the school district has been collecting its taxes is May of 2025 which is 2 months from now the subsequent years 2022 2023 was uh $5.5 million which was certified in February of 2024 um we are would be obligated to make the city make the school district whole in February of 2026 a 2-year period and then there is the 2023 2024 right which is uh $6.1 million which actually was certified by the board in October of 2024 but actually did not get re was not received by the city until May of 2024 and actually will become due uh and I had sent a a a subsequent one to update this it actually uh would not become due to the school district until December of 2026 because we did not rece receive it until December of

0212024 that's the only change on that slide but when you look at it at this point we have now um collected of of that 2022 um million a little bit over $5 million which leaves $17 million that is now in its collection period and being collected by the city in order to be turned over the challenge with this again and I need for the public to understand the more that the public does not pay the tax is the more that it also one creates a financial strain on the school district but it also creates a financial strain on the city um because the city now has to make up that which the city is not receiving okay and so moving on so I think that say right yeah okay so summary of the breakdown $17.5

022million is outstanding um right now and in the collection period between 2020 and 202 um4 years um $12.7 million of that is taxes and $4.8 million of that is interest um 7.7 million actually will become due in two year in in two months uh 4. uh2 will become due in February um of 2026 and again as I corrected on the last slide 5.6 will become due uh to the school district in December of 2026 so let me conclude by recapping this for us um the city uh has paid the school district $10.8 million of the 13.8 million that was due for the 17 through 19 years that is inclusive of the taxes amount as as well as the in the statutory interest that was added um for those years leaving $3 million to be paid

023by the uh the agreed upon date of September 2025 um the sco the Mount Vernon continues to make its $450,000 monthly payment to the school district whether it collects $450,000 of the taxes or not to the school district as per the agreement um the school district um began to collect its taxes in 2020 uh and has certified $22.6 million um and of that um you have the breakdown that was given to you previously about 5 million has been paid has been actually collected from the taxpayers between the school district and the city working together during this collection period to collect it the city and the school district have been collecting these taxes together and we've been working to try to make sure that the taxpayer is informed about what is owed the city uh does

024not have the cash flow to actually continue to float the unpaid taxes um and it will cause a financial strain upon the city when the come May when the city has to figure out how it will pay the $7.7 million and it'll probably be a little less than that because we're still collecting now and we're still reconciling some of the things that we're collecting in this period as well um but also the school district um also is going to be challenged with um the fact that the taxes have not been paid as they were before and so we're going to we will then have to have conversation about how do we proceed forward one of the actions in which the city um has to take and we've made it clear both because of not only

025School District taxes but because of city taxes and County taxes that have not been paid by the taxpayers is that we will be proceeding with a tax lean sale um this year we will we are now working out the process and somebody said well why do you need to work out the process we need to work out the process cuz the city has never done a taxine sale in modern time has never done a taxine sale they've only done foreclosures and as I have done my research with neighboring municipalities majority of them are doing foreclosures um but again the tax lean sale option never took into account that there would be over 600 almost 700 Parcels that are in re and so that process is very labor intensive and that's why we are right now

026working out the process because according to the city Charter it's not flexible only me or my deputies can auction off the tax leane and so that will mean that we will have one tax leane that will come a date for the tax lean and then we'll have to also add subsequent dates and the charter says it must be on the last Tuesday of every month and so it's going to become a very labor intensive process um but unfortunately and I need to emphasize it to the taxpayers unfortunately we are going to have to move into that direction because the city cannot float the unpaid taxes and the school district cannot afford for us not to pay the school district that is required by law and so we're going to have to work together to try

027to resolve this matter I think I've covered it all questions or I'm leaving it to the board to tell me what's next I have a question any questions yeah I have questions uh Dr Mort first thank you very much for coming to speak to us today to make this clear to us and the public we've glad to see you again uh you have been here before um to present the information so this is a good uh Benchmark uh bit of data you shared thank you um we've talked in the past about the timely filing of certified uh unpaid taxes by the school district so in your charts we saw there was several years where uh years one certification date was covering several years and it was basically delayed how did that that how does that

028impact the city's ability to collect if we have so if we had in other words if the district hasn't filed UNC not have not filed certified unpaid taxes timely to the city and what is the timeline that this the school district is supposed to file the school district is supposed to file at the close of the warrant which um uh it the close of the warrant happens on July on January 30th so the school district levies the tax in J in July the first payment for that year is July the second payment is is January right of that year immed at the close of that it then says that the collecting officer is to then present to the board the actual statement of uncollected taxes the board then reviews that compares it to what they

029have levied in July to make sure it's accurate and then they certify it and then send it over to the enforcement officer or in our case the com controller now the school can decide based upon the law and that's why I also gave out the other sheet too that lays out what the actual wording is in the LA in the law school district could decide to retain it and keep it but as long as you keep it the enforcement period doesn't start right so the school district can decide to do that often times is it may be difficult to do the reconciliation within the 20-day period right so it may happen in February it may happen in March um what Jose and I talked about is the making sure that it doesn't go past the

030date in which you now Levy your next year's taxes don't let it go past June because if it goes past June then it creates even more of a problem that you're now trying to figure it out figure out what was happening in the year before and what's happening now in the new year right in this particular case and this is not Jose this was his predecessor it did not occur until May of 2023 so what should have been certified in what we will say is February of 2021 and February of 2022 did not get certified until May of okay so that in essence tacked on an extra four years waiting am I am my math right sounds like an extra four years in Waiting before collection process could begin yes it yes it yes in

031the issue yes okay Dr Mort Dr Morton can you hear me yes yes Miss Kelly I can hear you how did the school district and the City come to the table to resolve this issue because wasn't there a lawsuit that you had to go through before we even got to this point it was a lawsuit that started before me right right but that's that was really part of the delay it wasn't that the school district was negligent in trying to certify there was a process before this incorrect no not for not right not for the amounts that you're talking about for the for the $1.7 million that's the part that was in the lawsuit right and so that part is what you're being paid what the city is paying you in the monthly payments right

032so yes there was a delay with that and the payments of that right based upon the fact that there was there was no reconciliation for those years but the question that came was about what happened after that when the school district started collecting its own taxes and when the school district started collecting its own taxes there was still a delay that occurred like two or three years of a delay for that certification okay my other question is why not foreclose since the the school district can't collect their own can't enforce anything why not foreclosure I'm just trying to understand the tax leans that are being yes so the reason why I have I actually opted to look into the taxine sale is because foreclosure is a very litigious process and it it require it's very

033detailed very nuanced also Mount Vernon's foreclosure process is unique it doesn't follow the state's foreclosure process Mal Veron has its own forclosure process that has slight differences in than what the state nevertheless the time frame for foreclosure is minimally 2 years so even if we did foreclosure BAS B upon the close of the actual enforcement period so at that point of the closure of the enforcement period the city would then pay the school district let's say that they owed them $5 million the city would pay the school district $5 million and the city would then go into this process of foreclosure that would take up to two years before the school before the school before the city would re could potentially receive well first of all would foreclose then we would have to do an

034auction on the properties so you see how it would delay it as opposed to the tax lean sale which that if you owed you $5 million at the close of the um enforcement period right and then we put it up for tax lean sale the city would receive its money back that it had paid the school de district from the auction at the tax lean sale and the TA the person who purchased the tax lean would then have a period of time which is about 18 months to two to two years for them to collect on it but we would have a but then we would have the cash for us to be able to operate and the school district would have its cash to be able to operate it was a much faster process

035even though we have less control over who purchases purchases the tax leans if we go tax lean as opposed to um foreclosure and may I also may also add that with a tax lean um it also gives the homeowner an opportunity or an additional time period to pretty much satisfy that tax lean because they can actually buy it back at some point from whoever purchased it can't they yeah they could but they also would have the same so to Miss Kelly's question they also would have pretty much almost the same time frame for them to solve the problem before we foreclosed too right the difference is that the city would not have received any of its money that it would have paid the school district and if the city what was happening in the past

036is that the city had a fund balance that they were able to then float the amounts that they paid to the school district while they went out and foreclosed City doesn't have that because the city itself is in fiscal distress we're cleaning up stuff from previous as well so that's a problem because we don't have the cash flow to do it so so I have um can you hear me I have a question so when you say foreclosed on properties are those the properties that there was a list on your website of pass through um taxes that were owed to the city pass through property taxes you're going to foreclose on those or are you going to foreclose on the abandoned properties that are all around the city no I don't understand there okay so

037which list are you referring to well there was a list on the website of of back taxes and then list of delinquent taxes delinquent taxes correct right that's the list that we that's what you're talking about foreclosing on yes that would be the list that we would ultimately have to either foreclose on or do a tax lean auction sale on okay so was there ever a sale on some of the abandoned properties that are around town because I see some people or I see some um construction on properties that were abandoned and I don't know if there was ever a list on that was there a list on that the city would have no control over abandoned properties the only the only the only control the city has is on properties that the city would

038have would own no but there are properties that were left you know they probably owned taxes they just left the properties and now I see there's some construction on a few properties that were just left um abandoned yeah but again if the properties I left aband was there a list on those properties no not in my office cuz that wouldn't that would not fall underneath of my opes I wouldn't be responsible for abandoned properties right that are in the city I'm only responsible for city owned properties and those properties would be the properties that we would have previously foreclosed on and we now own right and the properties that are used for minicipal use but if for example if a property owner just decided that they were going to abandon their property and leave it

039but they owe taxes on it and that we have not now foreclosed or did a tax lean on the city doesn't own it the city doesn't have any doesn't have any responsibility for it until it does so okay can I actually have a quick quile just really quick to that so if that's the case and the city doesn't own it but the property is abandoned that means the property owner still does owe it it own it even though they owe the taxes and the taxes are still acre AC right right a good there may be to to miss s's point there may be some of those properties that she's talking about that are on that list that I issued out right right but would the owners of those properties be able to come and do

040construction on those properties be even though they're they've once abandoned them and they are acre owed taxes would they be able to do this construction that she just just questioned if they owe if they owe taxes the planning department the planning board should be checking to see if they owe taxes before approval okay right but again that's outside of my offices right that would be in the that would be based upon a planning board planning department approval if that's the case but yes you know having been the former planning commissioner I would say well you're supposed to check to see if they owe any taxes and if they owe any taxes then there should be no approval for them so what's the duties of the real estate board aren't you on the real estate board

041estate board Rel right it deals with properties that we have already foreclosed on and that we own and the real estate board has not sold any properties nor have nor have we allowed any nor are there any construction or nor is there any construction or anything happening on properties that the city owns thank you so much I don't think your mic is on could you hear me now MH okay on one of your slides um it has that as of February 2525 the city owes the school district 7.7 million and it also have that as of Fe the same February 2025 it owes the school district 4.2 still outstanding school taxes which slide are you on it says 262 is um 26 February 26 26 as of there's as no uh I tell you it

042says Monna City School District began collecting its own taxes in 2020 that slide no it says those 56 as as of as of February 25u it owes 4.2 still outstanding get right and then also so you have 7.7 still outstanding you have 4.2 still outstanding as a February correct and as um of February 2025 5.6 still outstanding which make it 17 by 17.5 I noticed that you okay so the 17.5 outstanding for school year 2020 through 2024 correct but the only taxes that's still due as of May 2025 is a 7.7 that's correct so did the city paid the 4.2 that was still outstanding as of February and the 5.6 that was outstanding as of look at the line right above it it says it does we are not obligated to make the city whole

043I mean the school district whole until 2026 same thing with the 2023 2024 we are not obligated to make the school district hold until December of 2026 and that's because based upon the time frame in which you certified it it has a 2-year period of collection so it's not due until then so so for instance the certified um 6.1 is not due until 2026 but as of February 2025 5.6 was still outstanding that's correct that means that we collected between that time period we collected the difference if you look at the table below it tells you how much actually had been collected since you certified it between the city and the school district oh okay okay so it's a 7.7 that's still that's the part that's the amount that will come do in May in

044May okay right right now as we stand today the amounts that the city owes the school district is $3 million and that's on the what was the 11.7 and the 2.1 under the agreement under the agreement yes ma'am okay I know um the last meeting that we had um the budget committee meeting we um there was a proposal that was made where um the um the city and the school board will be well probably potentially um get together to do a tax amnesty yes ma'am I know we spoke about that yes we talked about the possibility of doing a tax Amy on the interest we would have to work out what the details of that would be and the reason why we engaged in that conversation is because as we're seeing there's a slow pay

045by the taxpayers and a lot of it is because the amount of the taxes that are due with the interest is stopping taxpayers from even coming in and trying trying to pay it the idea is is that if we are able to give them some reprieve on the interest of it that they will come in and pay it right we did a tax amnesty in the City previously that marginally was successful and a lot of it wasn't as successful because we were still paying down on 11.7 and there was no way that we could allow them to be uh to to be waved for the interest that we now was paying it would have been a double hit to the taxpayers who had been paying their taxes if we had done that so now that

046we've paid it kind of all pretty much down we now want to work with the school district to see what kind of reprieve we can allow for our taxpayers to get them in that hopefully will be an incentive for them to come pay now one of the things we also talked about in that meeting is that we also don't want the folks who are business owners who are now out here making money but yet not actually just saying that they just not going to pay right we we got to figure out how to deal with them we have to deal F figure out how to deal with folks that may very well be looking to sell their property um and turn it over to a developer who may take advantage of it so one of

047the things we did before when we did the amnesty is we required them to we first of all we only did residential and second of all we required them to stay in their home for at least 2 years so there's requirements that we can put in place to make sure that we are having the best advantage to this potential amnesty thank you any other questions questions um Dr te your voice did you get it's on um you know my concern right now is a lot of people in Mount Vernon that owe taxes are senior citizens yes and I I would like to see some way we can work with them to help them because they're on most of them are on the fixed income they can't afford the taxes that are Leed against them and

048the new taxes that we get every year from the city um but I I I would like to see something done with the to help the seniors more so than just putting them out of their house foreclosing on them and um just leaving them stranded because right now a lot of them don't have the money and they're um they can't afford to pay it so we have actually we have something that's in place um for um the seniors we probably have to start to do some um sessions to get to for them to learn more about how they take advantage of it so when I did the analysis of what was owed and who owed it and I have I don't know how many spreadsheets that show the codes the exemption codes um the type

049of housing all of those things right we identifi that yes there are some seniors and some seniors that are not only just on Star but they're on enhanced star then there are some that are not only on hand star but they're on the low senior exemption which are probably the people that you're talking about so I went to the city council and asked them if we could change our um actual foreclosure law that allows for the payment plans so that we could one kind of extend out the payment plan period because originally the payment plan period was restricted to two years you had to pay 25% down two years and if you missed the payment you automatically game in default and you can't and once the law says once you go in default you can't

050come back for another payment plan so we looked at it and with the city council and our outside attorneys we then restructured that payment plan so now the payment plan has tears and there is a senior tier based upon income that allows them to be able to enter into a payment plan everybody now can pay 10% down as a deposit the seniors then have up to 10 years and what we're doing is working out based upon how much they owe to determine what are what would be the number of years that they would be able to pay it back as long as it doesn't exceed 10 years now anybody who enters into a payment plan has to stay current with their taxes while they pay the back taxes on the payment plan right so that's

051one the seniors we also extended the residential so that we will also allow them now to have up to 5 years right five years five five years for the residential to pay right 10% down five years to pay it if you're commercial we only extended it one year three years right 10% down three years a much more palatable kind of process for them to be able to do it now if you find that there are some seniors that have done nothing and they may be in that 400 and some odd parcel group on the list because remember now on the on the website there's three lists there's the list of delinquent taxes right which is everybody no matter what if you're in my system you're on you're on that list then there's a list of

052of exceptions for installment plan those are the people who contacted us and said I want to fill out a form I want a payment plan and then there's the list that has those exceptions based upon if they are in court about something with the property they are bankrupt they in bankruptcy about the property or one of those that after 3 years of going through all of the data I don't know if they owe it if they they owe it or not right there's discrepancy going on so we have to try to figure that out right but there is a plan for seniors who are in um that category thank you okay any other question there's nothing else thank you thank thank you so much Dr [Applause] Mar so um next our our presenter is uh

053trusty McDon and our Council Tom scapy regarding the Ida all right can we hear me yes all right great sure this is all right which one do I push that one all right great uh good evening thank you everybody for inviting me here tonight uh Mr MCD and I are going to talk a little bit about uh pilot agreements and uh the Mount buron Ida and some of the projects that have been uh authorized and how it's affecting the school district uh just briefly I'm going to kind of run through what we're going to talk about here I'm going to give you a a background of the law and its purpose I really don't want to bore everybody with a legal discussion at at 7:30 :30 at night I'm sure you got more important things

054to do but I do want to just touch on it uh we're going to talk a little bit about how the pilot agreements impact the school budget uh we're going to talk a little bit about some of those uh lawsuits that the C uh the school district filed against uh many years ago filed against the previous administration concerning the the pilot agreements and then all right is it closer sorry about that all right uh and then we'll talk a little bit uh Chris is going to talk to you about uh his participation in some of these uh in the the Ida meetings and and how those pilot agreements and the tax uh exemptions are impacting the school district all right so very briefly uh Industrial Development agency um what is an industrial development agency it

055is an agency that is uh created by a local government and the purpose sure uh I'll just instead of turning the face everybody I'll just try and face uh face the board maybe that that'll help better um the it's an agency created by a local government and the purpose of the agency is to promote uh Industrial Development and economic Prosperity within the community uh there are numerous Industrial Development agencies across the state uh according to recent data from New York State there are 106 active Industrial Development agencies in the state um the Mount Vernon Ida uh is one of them uh most of your major uh cities and counties and towns have Industrial Development agencies uh and they require a specific Act of the legislature so the Mount Vernon's uh uh authorization is General Municipal

056law 902c uh and it is uh uh it is operating legally uh okay again the purpose of uh an industrial development agency uh to PR promote economic welfare and prosperity for the inhabitants and to promote and attract uh industry and economic economically sound projects so how do we promote economically sound projects well the way we do that is uh is money basically we offer tax exemptions uh you recall I just said that uh an Ida is is an agency of a government and as an agency of a government it is exempt from taxation so when a developer constructs a project through an industrial development agency it is exempt from taxation uh specifically it is exempt from real property taxes sales taxes and mortgage recording taxes okay uh let's get a little bit more specific about

057that so what exactly are we trying to promote when we look at the statute uh we're trying to promote the construction or reconstruction of I'm going to go through the list for you so you can you can you can all hear it uh industrial manufacturing warehousing commercial research renewable energy recreational facilities including Pollution Control uh educational or cultural facilities railroad facilities horse racing facilities automobile racing facilities renewable energy projects and continuing care retirement communities you'll notice that there is no real reference in there to residential projects the only real reference there is is continuing care retirement communities uh the statute doesn't specifically authorize affordable housing or um or market rate housing uh not to say that those aren't uh acceptable many many many idas uh enter into pilot agreements for the construction of affordable housing

058projects it's uh it's just not one that is is intended if you see you look at the statute it is clearly um intended to address um more manufacturing Industrial and Commercial type of of projects all right uh so how do we get to uh how do we get to those residential projects um I I I think when we look at the the statute the definition of a project uh a lot of Industrial Development agencies say well uh these residential projects are economically sound and they are you know kind of Quasi commercial in nature so if you build uh a residential project uh in our community and you do it through the Ida you'll be exempt from taxation so you'll be able to collect your rents uh and you'll not have to pay the property taxes

059that you would normally pay uh so that's quite a significant enticement for a a developer to build within your community all right uh do idas have to give out such an enormous benefit right that is a a really significant benefit to be exempt from from all property taxes and the answer to that is is absolutely not they don't have to do that uh the the statute authorizes Industrial Development agencies to enter into what we call Pilot agreements right and pilot is an acronym for a payment in Lee of taxes and I've got the definition right there you could see uh it is a payment made to an agency or an affected tax jurisdiction equal to the amount or a portion of the property taxes that would have been levied had the property not not been

060rendered exempt by going through the Industrial Development agency so uh in 200 uh 24 just last year the state controller published its report of uh the performance of Industrial Development agencies across the state and the data is based upon fiscal year 2022 uh and it has all of the idas in it and when you look at the state's report it indicates that the Mount Vernon Ida gave out $6.6 million in tax exemptions for the year 2022 that fiscal year it negotiated a little over $2 million in Pilot payments so the net uh exemption the net tax exemption for the developers was about 4.5 million all right so why is that a problem obviously you just heard why that's a problem right yeah you're having a significant issue paying your uh getting uh taxes paid by

061by the taxpayers um generally idas are not a problem right when we have uh when when idas are functioning the way they're supposed to and idas are granting projects for warehouses uh commercial establishments uh Transportation facilities communication facilities uh those types of commercial projects those are fine they don't really impact school districts because they're not adding any students to the classrooms the problem that we have in in Mount Vernon and and I think Chris is going to talk about that in a little bit a large number of the Ida projects in Mount Vernon are residential projects and and they're adding a lot of students to the classrooms and and even the uh senior housing which are supposed to be age restricted and not add students to your build to your classrooms are sending a lot

062of students to your classrooms so I think you know when we we want to encourage development we want to encourage idas to uh to add those projects so shopping centers and and just to be clear um regeneron in ter town has is a huge pilot agreement uh Empire City and Yonkers yoner Honda uh the Cross County Shopping Center Lowe's all of those are are examples of projects that are um that are benefiting from Pilot agreements uh but those are commercial in nature and they don't add students to your classroom so um so that really hasn't been an issue uh and and again in in my experience here in Mount Vernon uh the the board has never really been concerned with commercial projects the the board has never opposed those projects and has never suggested that

063the Ida shouldn't approve those projects I I think what we've always talked about uh with respect to the the Mount Vernon Ida projects is if you're going to uh have a project that involves a residential uh a residential building whether it's affordable housing market rate housing or any other type of housing make sure that that taxpayer uh or that that that project developer is making enough pilot payments so that they're covering the cost of the students that they're actually sending to the district all right so why doesn't the school district just say no we're not going to give any tax exemptions well unfortunately because they don't have the authority to do so all right the idas have the the legal authority to Grant uh exemptions from school taxes without the school district's consent uh the

064school district has on many occasions asked the uh the the Mount Vernon Ida to not Grant exemptions on on uh on pilot agreements for Residential Properties without the uh the district's consent unfortunately uh we haven't been able to get uh the the Ida on board with that um and and again let's just talk a little bit about about how this impacts the budget um pilot agreements themselves don't really impact your budget right so there there is a a minimal impact when we look at uh the tax cap the pilot agreements will um limit your ability to increase your tax levy cap which does provide some difficulty in uh in in raising the funds you need to operate your schools and to the extent that we're inducing taxpayers to add more apartment buildings that's going to

065add students to your buildings and certainly increase the budget uh in an indirect way but the big concern with the pilot agreements is that the exemp the exemptions that are being offered to these developers are shifting the tax burden to the remaining taxpayers in the district to the homeowners the commercial the other commercial properties uh and and that's significant right and and these pilot agreements uh many of them last 20 and 30 years there's even some that are are as long as 40 years uh and and they're really having a significant impact on your budget keep in mind that uh the burden is being shifted to the people that actually vote on the school budget uh many of these developers are big corporations that you know they're not local and they don't really vote on

066your budget anyway so we're giving tax exemption to people that are not voting on your budget all right so again I mentioned it earlier uh and and again not the current Administration uh previous administrations I think 2016 17 and 18 the district filed several lawsuits against uh the Ida and the city trying to get a little bit more control over the uh pilot agreements and uh the the projects that were being approved and trying to get some say in the exemptions that were being granted to the developers uh the the litigation really languished for for quite some time but uh recently last year uh with the current Administration we were able to engage in some really uh I I think productive settlement discussions and while the Ida was not willing to give the district any

067legal say in the exemptions that were being offered uh to u to the developers it did agree to have one of the District board members and that will be Chris uh sit as a non-voting member on the Ida board and what that has allowed so a little I guess little little less than a year um ago uh the district has been sitting on the board you're able to um to receive all of the documents and participate in all of the discussions that the Ida board has and you get to see the conversations and participate in those discussions the only thing that Chris doesn't have is uh a right to vote and with that I am going to turn it over to Chris and he can discuss his experience on the past year which is uh

068okay y thanks you got it y I got it is this is this good you can hear me I I'm I'm a little bit of a loud talker okay this slide is uh it's a little busy um but I think if we can get through this we'll learn a lot i' I've been thinking a lot about how to explain this because it's not very easy to get your head around to understand what's happening here so I've worked on this slide um for for a while to get this together so we'll walk we'll walk through it together um for my part I'll be done in 10 15 minutes um I think I can see that okay so this is what we're going to do is talk about the tax Gap that's left and I pulled five

069sample projects um there are more and we'll see that in a second but but I just pulled just as an exercise to see the impact this has on the school taxes so on the left you see these five mount mount Veron Ida housing projects um and then the total at the bottom I've got it lettered a through F so we're going to walk through from left to right a this is the number of Mount Veron City School District students who are living in each one of these buildings and you can see Note One the these are actual enrollment numbers that I was able to get from the district so you can see the first project on the list there's 31 and then down at the bottom of the column I have the total across those

070five so it's 158 students B this is the cost per student that's funded by local property taxes in other words we stripped out State uh and federal funding to just take thank you take a look at the at the local uh taxpayer uh burden for for each for each student and that note two um I pulled that number from the uh the economic impact analysis that was done by the Mount Vernon Ida so I'm trying to be conservative and use as much information from the Ida as I possibly can okay so that's the cost per student you see it's 9,381 and that stays the same because it's going to be the same for all the students so that's a and b so now C the actual uh the annual cost to local taxpayers to educate

071these students is simply a Time B right the number of students times the local cost per student gives you the annual cost so for example that first one the cost to educate those 31 students is 29,7 196 the total of C if you look down at the bottom 1.48 million okay that's c d d is the pilot this is the pilot this is the amount that the developer paid to the school district instead of paying property taxes and again we're looking at 202 four numbers all right this is 2024 so you can see the first one of D $2,592 okay you can go down to the bottom and you can see the total pilot payments from these five projects is $31,000 now right there you should be able to see the big problem okay so

072D they paid $31,000 to educate $158 students that it costs us $1.48 million to educate so that leads us to D I'm I'm sorry to e which is the tax Gap and I put it in red just so you can see it so you take the annual cost C you subtract the pilot money that we re received in D and that leaves you with The Gap that has to be made up by the rest of the local TA taxpayers in the community okay if you can just slide it over a little bit so we can see F can you see that I can't there we go so f um what that shows you is what the real property taxes they would have paid if the Ida had not allowed them to make this payment instead

073so you can see if they were paying their full tax load if you go down to the bottom they would have paid $1.35 million to the school district pretty much covering the cost small Gap $130,000 something like that but that that'll fluctuate that's within a tolerance level that we all can accept so this slide I think I think it lays out pretty clearly the problem with how these these Pilots are being used and again as Tom noted these these will last for 30 years now they'll get the the Gap will close towards the end of it it's these tend to be front loaded so the first 10 15 years the Gap is greater but that's a painful uh burden let's go to the next slide okay that was the big one so if you get

074that idea down the rest is easy here so in two 2024 we looked at those five projects right and we saw that they left a a a gap of about $1.2 million that we had to pick up okay so that first bullet shows these were the there were 20 projects like this in the Ida in the in the 2024 financial statement that's where the data comes from I took it right from the Ida's audited financial statements that means 70% of the projects were housing right as Tom just pointed out it happens sometimes but usually idas are are meant to build your economy not to build housing certainly not to build most of these are affordable housing there are a couple senior projects I think one market rate but most of them are affordable housing so

075the idea that that is economic development um really doesn't doesn't stand scrutiny uh this so this table shows you the impact of all of these projects on our school budget okay so the school district prop portion of the property taxes that were abated in the left that's 4.35 million the pilots that they were able to pay instead of that 1.27 million right so that's a that's a discount of over 70% right leaving a gap right this is TA you I call it a tax Gap you could just call it forgone Revenue that's what they call it this is this is T property tax revenue that did not come into the school district over $3 million this is just 2024 okay the next bullet uh just points out that two new housing projects were given 30-year

076tax abatements from the mount and Ida in 2024 I've presented on these and these really are not going to be any different than the ones I showed you on that list 30 years projects these will come online probably in 2728 that means until somewhere around 2058 they will be getting these tax breaks they will not be carrying their fair share of the tax burden a whole generation of kids will go to school in Mount Vern and they'll grow up and they'll have kids and these corporate developers will still not be paying their property taxes the way the rest of us are that to me strikes me as very very wrong um and right now there are at least four other housing developments that are seeking tax breaks um from the Ida right now or in

077the future okay so what does the research say um I'm just going to do a couple of quotes I could go on I I've I've made myself a student of these things I've got a pretty good knowledge of it at this point this was a good quote I'll read the quotes public education is both the most expensive local public service and the most powerless to protect itself from the corporate tax abatements as Tom pointed out we have no control over this the the idea is giving away most of the taxes they're giving away are school taxes right they're giving away property taxes are both the most expensive tax most companies pay and they are the largest single source of funding for K through2 education that's why tax abatements are so injurious to schools and so

078desired by corporations I mean look if if I didn't have to pay my taxes I it would be great I'd make a lot more money I could invest it it could do a lot of things that's the first quote this one really I think hits home and it's timely given that Dr is here and he just talked about the the problems we're having collecting ta taxes the harms to school funding are regionally and racially uneven some districts with higher proportions of students of color are among those losing the most Revenue per student we also find that the higher foregone abated tax revenue is associated with lower actional Revenue collected from property taxes and you know that's what we're having the problem with right now in fact we're about to certify tonight that the the taxes

079that are in rear for the current year I think the collection rate is under 94% all right under 94% so you know we'd have to dig into more of the reason why but you could see if corporations are are given enormous tax breaks for decades that exerts a lot of pressure on the rest of us if we want to have a sound educational system for for our students and if you do that for for too long and you cut too deeply you get get into the situation I think that we're in I think a lot of our problems can be draw can derive from what's going on here um my recommendation I recommended this you know to the trustees a while ago I would say that we pass a resol a resolution of principle obviously

080we cannot force the ID Ida to stop doing this but we can pass a resolution of principle and here's some language I thought might work the malver and City School District believes that no state or local agency Ida board municipal or County government or any other political subdivision besides a school board should be allowed to Abate School re tax revenues the mount foron City School District should be given full sole control over its own tax base with strict caps on how much and for how long they can Abate taxes if at all without equivocation the school share of local property taxes should be shielded from abatement by the mount Veron Ida it is it is destructive um we we need we need and what the Community can do contact the mayor and the Ida and

081ask them to stop granting School tax exemptions to wealthy developers that ends up Shifting the tax burden onto other taxpayers including senior citizens who who are drowning under this um attend Mount Vernon Ida meetings and make your voice heard whenever a new project is about to come up for a vote they have to have a public hearing go to the public hearing and say don't don't give away school taxes why would you do that what's what's wrong WR with you that you give away school taxes to corporate developers don't do it contact state legislators and ask them to pass legislation giving school districts the ability to determine whether School tax exemption should be granted or not there is a bill from a a state legislator up near Buffalo Ryan is his last name I don't

082remember his first name that would do just that it it would prevent idas from abating school taxes any questions I have a question thank you uh Chris sure appreciate it um so I think you or Tom said that the mic is not on hello um so you said that the um the pilots limit us on um increasing taxes how so did somebody say that I think I heard that oh okay yeah yeah so your tax levy cap uh did all right sorry your your tax levy cap deducts uh from the amount of your increase the amount of anticipated pilot revenues that you're going to receive in the next year so when a pilot agreement comes on it is reducing the amount of your tax levy cap uh or your tax levy increase uh so you

083wouldn't you can't increase taxes in the amount that you normally would if there wasn't a pilot agreement okay um so um are the pilots um are the P pilot agreements current and how many do we have Al together I I know you showed five how many do how do we how together in the 2024 uh Mount ver 8 audit financial statement there are 20 projects listed um we don't have uh insight into the details around all these projects we have very few details I've I've asked for that information for example I've asked for the original application the developer file with the Ida for assistance that will give us information about how many jobs did they promise if it's residential how many kids did they predict would live in the building um also the pilot agreements

084which would have some Provisions about if they violate the terms of the application what recourse we would have to get money back from them uh you know strangely all those documents are missing um that's problematic I've asked the Ida for those for those documents and I was told we can't find them I'm going to continue to press that because I think it's wrong that that large amounts of taxers are being given away and we don't even know the details of the agreements that were signed um can I ask just one yeah I just want to know how many people sit on this uh board and who they are and um so even if we hokel proposed to have somebody from the school board have a seat at this a voting how many people would be

085so there's five currently is that right five there's five currently so it's it's Dr Morton the mayor um the assessor um Stephanie Vanderpool um Brian Johnson you're on the board and then Robin Mack is the fifth member she's oh I'm well but you must have five voting members no no it's just three wow it's just three so it's four voting members and then me I'm the fifth member but I'm a non- voting member so so so did you say that they're past due I didn't I I didn't hear you answer that are are the pilot payments to the school district pass due I don't I don't know Jose I think they're I think you guys are current yeah all the P all the payments to the school district for the pilots are current um at

086at this point right okay so I I have a question too so we talked about this before the the deciding or driving the factor that determines the amount the developers pay per student we talked about the differences between there's a formula discrepancy where what their what the developer is saying they should be paying per student for lowrise and highrise we had discussed that there's a formula error have we explored that and have you seen it be get to a place of resolution where we getting closer to this it's a great discrep Rey between what they're determining how many students they're going to put in a building with a 350 unit building with 180 of them being affordable housing right you got a two-bedroom apartment you're telling them you're going to put one kid no I

087had I have four kids I had a two-bedroom apartment I had all four kids inside the school district here so have we gotten to a place where we're getting them to explain what that formulaic error is and how they fix it good question um we are getting closer in fact um Dr Morton and was it Stephanie you went to went to Port ch and they're they hired a consultant uh urbanomics I think is the name of the company who is worked with them I read the report I think it's a good report what we're talking about is the multiplier um which is a fraction that you use to predict the number of kids will be who will be in in the building so they worked with Portchester to come up with a multiplier and I

088think Dr morn is looking into hiring them to help us come up with a fair model for predicting because a lot of the problem you saw with that slide I showed you is uh just poor prediction right it was they they were they I'm guessing I don't know what they put in the application we had put forward to the Ida through the letter from Tom uh a multiplier of about 0.24 you know so basically one student every four units something like that the 115 mcquesten project ended up using a multiplier of 01515 and the first pass from from Toria stores had a 0.100 so that worries me that Gap worries me and because remember compounded over 30 years if you're off by five six seven students it can add up to a huge amount of

089money uh in terms of loss Revenue to the school district the the Q West project got closer I argued that it should have been 0. 22 we came in at 0.18 um so we'll see the thing is we need to be tenacious 5 years 10 years from now that's when we need to really be watching carefully to see how many how many students are living in these buildings is it is it true that a developer who basic who who gets a pilot that's the owner and they change ownership the new owner can come in and request that the pilot be extended beyond the 30 years and get it I don't know I I mean I think it potentially if it's like remember they did that with the the Heritage right goes with the property I

090I don't know it I guess it depends on the terms of the agreement so yeah I I I would say I don't I don't believe that's true I'm not aware of that happening I know that uh I think it was the ebony Gardens project uh when they refinance the mortgage uh then they can extend the pilot agreement so a lot of those pilot Agreements are based upon the mortgage uh and and in that particular uh project uh there was a pilot agreement for some 20 years as the mortgage came due they refinanced it and then extended the mortgage uh extended the pilot agreement for another uh another 30 years I think so that's the extension so in truth we can attest some of our current fiscal stress as a school district to the impact of

091these Pilots that have been given out in this time frame we're in is that not a logical conclusion I think that is a very good inference can we see some sort I would love to see some sort of metric to give us an idea of how much that impact has impacted the school district's fiscal stress over at least let's just say the last 10 years yeah you know it's interesting because when Dr Morton was presenting I was thinking just what a mess we have here it's a real it's a real bind we're in um as a community and where our Fates are tied together right they are there's no question about it um I think correct correcting how we use the Ida so that we're using it to stimulate our local economy I understand that

092there is there is a a a a need for housing in the community but it should not be uh local Mount Vernon taxpayers who are burdened with a national and a state problem if you know let let the let the monies come from other places to do that don't don't force the school district in the city um to to pick up the tab on that um I think it would be hard though trusty Mitchell to figure out I'll keep working on it but I I don't know it's definitely a big factor yes interesting thank you I have a quick question how do we get a voting um right on the Ida changes the leg change the law that that's it you got to change the law so he coming from the state is it state

093law local it it's it's a state law the state does not require idas to consult with school districts some idas do voluntarily some idas adopt uniform tax exempt policies that require uh the developers to meet with the school district and the county and you know and and negotiate a settlement but they're not required to by law uh and and and I think there is a concern that in giving school districts uh the right to um to deny those School tax exemptions will uh impede developers and discourage developers from coming to build projects in in Mount Vernon so curi I'm curious how many other districts in in Westchester um have the same agreement that we have in Mount Vernon with our idea do you do you have an idea you mean having a trust sitting on

094the Ida or well they can come to an agreement that the school board would have some input so I'm just wondering how many opt out of this um I don't think I don't think any of them do okay that's what I wanted to know came with the lawsuit the taxes thank you that was thank [Applause] you thank you everyone communication public 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 board policy please state your name and the organization if any you represent a speaker must register in advance

095by 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 914 665 5235 or by email the board welcomes all respectful comments whether praise or criticism however identifying and criticizing a specific student parent teach 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 immediately respond to a speaker's remarks our first Speaker this evening is Melvin Campbell board trustees

096superintendent uh my co-workers when I say devastating I believe that this four square miles of Mount Vernon closing three schools I believe that is devastating I believe that the hundreds of kids that had to get uprooted and forced out into whatever their new school might be is also devastating as I've had kids in these schools as they were growing up and I'm sure you guys had either went to those schools or had siblings or friends in those schools as well it's just devastating also the fact that at least 150 of my co-workers are going to be laid off and are fired where they lose their pay and no benefits that's also devastating um I don't think I'm in the crosshairs of that but I'm speaking for those who can't speak for themselves um because life

097is already hard it's it's hard when you're working so if you're not working it's just as devastating or even more devastating um but what I would like to appeal to the board as we move on because we can't undo what's already been done is as we move forward and I know we supposed to get new superintendent or whatever other leadership is coming through um is that we really come together or coales as a community um nobody's going to love each other and everybody doesn't have an agree but we can disagree respectfully um and turn this thing around because I know we are better than where we are right now um and I just hope that we could turn this somewhat of a disaster um that comes sometimes from decision- making or lack thereof that we

098can turn it around because all of us are here in this building for the kids so if we could put our differences aside and really concentrate on every decision that we have to make that it doesn't devastate the community devastate the children and or devastate our staff I know we can do better and we should do better thank you thank you thank [Applause] Youk Cynthia quaw uh Cynthia Cynthia um crer before I get started I just want to thank um Dr Morton for coming up here and clearing the fact that we that he only owes the schools I think um 4.2 million or something like that three because at our NAACP two of the trustees came in and said that they owe them 25 um million so I'm very happy that you cleared that up

099um Dr Morton um as far as the pet um program thank you for bringing that up Chris but we talked about that years ago and that was before the the future May and Morton came on board I was at the city council meeting and we talked about the pet program that we was trying to stop it in but I'm glad you brought it up again so maybe with you and the committee and the um public that we can get this going okay but we did try to stop that okay I'm read a statement from Dr Larry Sproul which is the Mount V historian at one time and his statement is shame on africanamerican historical preservations our voices were never clearly heard on the most important africanamerican historical education site in the city our Silence has

100endorsed The Continuous of the abandonment of the original Village of Mount Veron 1853 to 1892 and the traditional africanamerican Southwest sector nonetheless by in a historical and ignorant African American School Board we no longer have the CIA to blame give giving my anger tone my heart bleeds because of the struggle to to honor Miss Parker and even Clinton Young Senior first black mning president my heart bleeds for our current and future generation coming from Dr Larry's um sproll my next question is did the trustee receive official notifications of the school's closing the rumor has it that you are anticipating land off 150 people however it appears that the people you are releasing is because of retaliation due to complaining by someone on the board family or friends they are considered nonrenewable employees are you going

101by employees observation or appraisals do senior arity plays a role in your decision making to do favoritism and friendship and have a more high priority than the people that's really doing the work getting a good observation and and appraisal and I just want to read about the data shows that black male teachers are under present at schools across the country just 1.3% of public school teachers were black men in 2021 according to the national teacher and principal survey and is still low that school year white women made up 61% of Public Schools teachers black children meanwhile accounted for only 15% of public school students in the fall of 2020 black men oh black men are s sorely needed in the teaching field and they should advocate for the better of the school system some black

102male teachers say their pres in the classroom helps overcome stereotypes for black male um students we are now down to 13 schools in Mount Vernon due to this toxic school board that will go down in Mount Vernon New York as the worst board in the history of Mount Vernon there there's only three black principles and one Spanish principle eliminating one would bring the percentage down to 23% rumor has it that one that you are anticipating releasing is a well-rounded loved by many the young men respect him and he goes above and beyond the Call of Duty he deals with many black male student issues who they feel sincerely openly in talking with them he has senority over other principes but that has been ignored um star release and some of these Administration um staff the

103lawyers Etc and save our most valuable employees if the students at please wrap it up uh really I'm I'm I'm noticing time I'm wrapping it up okay your time is up okay but your time should be up too but um anyway okay I know public speaking anyway did the trustees receive an official letter that the schools are closing and by elimin black men in our school especially one of them they need to stay here because it's very important that we have black males in our school turn off her mik she has she's turn you off thank you Miss quch okay next please Bishop Edwards let me say to the outset we don't don't come as Advertiser uh in our roles we come to try to find a solution I'm here representing the United black clergy

104of Westchester as the educational uh chairman um we want to say a couple things we have kind of Step Aside but now it's time for us to show up and uh lck our concerns closure Cuts increase have become the new theme of our school district historically from a historical perspective it was uh 2016 where 2020 Vision was given and we was told that the reconfiguration would at that time would give us um a wonderful school district and it will be sustainable N9 years later now we are told that the vision of 2020 is not sustainable and now we must reconfiguration our district that is a problem the question we now ask as the school board 2025 26 is Being Framed out the budget cuts closure and increase of proposed what assurance that this proposed budget

105is the right direction secondly will Community stakeholders have any involvement in framing of this budget third if we if we Embark upon this path will it yield a better product of Education f our children fourth who will determine the priorities of this upcoming budget United black clergy is ready to work with the school trustees to pass an equable budget and we are committed to push back any budget that is irresponsible we recognize that the increase of taxes is our own option at this point but proposed increase must be reasonable and responsible and this board must ensure greater oversight of the fiscal management the blame game isn't profitable at this point we're not blaming anybody we must collectively work together to P to plow ourselves out of this mess as our children our responsibility to participate

106in providing the highest quality of Education we can we want to be your partners we need to be your partners if this is going to work we have to be partners we have to collaborate the clergy want to sit with anybody the board as you frame out this budget to make sure that we can pass this budget if we are excluded from the budget and from the priorities we will make a commitment it will not pass so please United black clergy is not coming here as an adversary we're not beating up on nobody we're not blaming nobody we in mess and as a community when you have a mess and you have crisis you don't try to hurt each of us or probably come after us but we must collectively come together and figure this

107out and whatever we have to do please include the clergy our president is Dr Ste Steven po our our imediate past and president maritus is here Dr Franklin Richardson we are serious about the state of our school district and we want our school district to be the best for our children thank you thank you Linda Castro Linda Castro Latoya Anderson Brenda El Crump good evening everyone I have a two questions one is um did our board president or our Acting Superintendent do a letter of opposition for the expansion of Amman Charter School to the state I would like to read on record a letter from our president of the Mount Vernon NAACP Branch February 28th 2025 New York State education department 89 Washington Avenue Orban New York 12234 subject charter school expansion dear members of

108the New York State education department I am writing to express my strong opposition to the proposed expansion of Amman Charter School in Mount Vernon New York as a resident and advocate for Equitable public education I am deeply concerned that this expansion contradicts the core principles championed by organizations such as the New York State Conference of the NAACP and undermines the Integrity of our Public School System Charter Schools were initially conceived as experimental spaces to innovate and share best practices with traditional Public School schs however many Charter Schools including aanii Charter School have failed to deliver on these promises instead they divert vital resources from public schools perpetuating in inequities and lack of transparency and accountability impact on public school funding and shared resources the expansion of the Amman Charter School will siphon further funding away

109from already underfunded public schools in Mount Vernon public Public Schools rely on per pupil funding and every student enrolled in charter schools reduces the resources available to public school students in a district like Mount Vernon where the majority of students are from economically disadvantaged backgrounds these Financial losses can have devastating consequences on class sizes teacher retention and access to educational materials moreover Charter Schools drain not only funding but also critical shared services such as nurses psychologists and occupational therapists whose time and expertise are stretch thin Acom stretch thin to accommodate both systems this further destabilizes the public school's ability to meet student needs lack of accountability oversight and inequitable um in inequitable practices unlike public schools which are governed by elected boards and held to rigorous standards Charter Schools like ammani operate with no meaningful

110oversight from local education authorities they are managed by unelected Boards and paid directors effectively prioritizing decision-making while relying on public funds compounding this lack of accountability the New York State Department of Education NYSC waves essential requirements for Charter Schools including teacher licensing curriculum standards and exemptions from standardized testing despite evidence that many Charter Schools perform no better and often worse than public school our great concerns are reports that Amman Charter School suspends students with learning and or dis uh Behavior disabilities at disproportionate rates violating their civil rights under the dignity act for all students act daa and denying due process these students are frequently pushed back into public schools yet the charter retains the student State funding this practice not only harms vulnerable children but also Al distorts academic performance data unfairly labeling Public Schools

111as failing while Charter Schools while Charter evades accountability contradiction to NYS aacp standards and legislative Solutions I just have a couple more paragraphs may I finish that out thank you is that okay the New York State NAACP conference has consistently opposed the unchecked uh peripher of charter schools citing their role in undermining public education and exacerbating segregation the expansion of ammani charter school stands in direct opposition to the values of equity access and Community centered education we urge you to align with the naacp's 2024 legislative agenda attached which calls for transferring Charter Schools approval Authority from Sunni to the NYSC a critical step towards ensuring transparency and accountability Mount Vernon Public Schools a model of Excellence Mount Vernon's public schools are already demonstrating success without Reliance on Charter experiments our district boasts highly qualified teachers

112and administrators who meet stringent certification requirements along robust programs in stem career preparation Athletics and arts these initiatives have led to Rising graduation rates college acceptance and opportunities for students of all backgrounds including cluding English language Learners and students with disabilities public schools are the Bedrock of our community providing wraparound services and stability that Charter Schools cannot replicate in closing confu excuse me conclusion I um I urge the New York State education department to reject the proposed expansion of the ammani charter school and instead prioritize investment in Mount Vernon's Public Schools strengthening public education is not only a legal and moral obligation but also the most effective way to ensure every child has access to a qualifying education by heeding the naacp's call for oversight reform and redirecting resources to our proven public institutions you

113can uphold Equity accountability and justice for all students thank you for your attention to this critical matter sincerely Kathy J bruington president mount NAACP Branch 914 29772 28 and the um email address is NAACP mountvernon gmail.com this letter is cced New York state conference Christine Waters Wilbert Aldridge and Dr Kim Smith thank you thank [Applause] you Mark Stucky [Music] before you start your clock I would just like to give honor and thanks thank you Dr Martin for coming out tonight giving your presentation I didn't go to school to learn account but it only took 30 seconds for me to understand Mr Stucky are you going to address the board Mr Stucky are you gonna address the board excuse me your time is up your time is on go ahead start the clock um the second

114thing I would like to do is Bishop thank you when you came to Mount Vernon way back in the day you had had a different Vision you had a clean eyesight that saw what M Veron needed to be at that time you implemented a change that wind up moving Mal Veron forward when you came to Mal Veron you had Bobby and you don't remember this knock on my door on a Sunday morning cuz the church got robbed and I and ask me for assistance I provide you with a PA system to help you out we going to past you got to know the past in order to get to the present if you don't know the past you're going to lose don't stop fighting for us now is the time to go back into time

115if we selling our schools or we're getting rid of our schools we must strip our schools from locks cameras all the essentials because we can res Salvage it those locks can be Salvage and we can save money I stand here as a whistleblower and I always every time I come to this mic I will stand as a whistleblower we have a problem with our payroll department giving out snatch back money an individual who works in that department as soon as you open the door on the right hand side is ripping us off thinking they know everything I am standing here as that whistle blow because she did it to me on my last pay check went back into time when I was totally ill and decided to bring it to a president to take back

116money without having a conversation that's wrong that's wrong and she haven't done it just to me she have done it to a lot of employees and think that she's the best thing since sliced bread you need to look into this giving away money is how we losing how we paying and we saying we're in a deficit that's how we lose it look into it because it's not helping is hurting now I'm out of a pay and they looking to dig more to find out if I owe anymore you gave me the money so now you want to snatch it back if you sit down and had a conversation with me we could have came to some kind of arrangement now you say don't say no names I'm not but I am blowing the whistle thank

117you very much have a good evening thank you Mr Stucky and Janine fil good evening oh the microphone on good evening my name is Janine ferti I'm a parent of three children in the Mount Vernon City School District I'm a way to really Tire someone out is to think that they're coming to a board meeting to speak at 6:30 and two hours later I'm here at the stand um I'm a parent of a sixth grader who attends the performing arts school my child auditioned for the visual arts program on a Saturday in April recently I read communication from the district stating there will be no changes to the program for DSW and steam entrance requirement will be maintained for 9th to 12th grade this race several questions for me what happens to students who audition

118for sixth seventh and 8th grade what will happen to the students that will not be entering the nth grade will these students continue their Art majors Should students that audition transfer back to their neighborhood schools I'm exhausted from trying to decipher information that's being communicated and was actually plan an actual plan can it be clarified whether or not students that audition and will not be entering nth grade continue their Art majors every day as PTA president as PTA president parents have expressed concerns about the need for crossing guards and pedestrian signals so I'm happy that the mayor Mr Morton and everyone else from the city is here so it saves me from having to go to the city council meeting um so um after school crossing when as a driver and parents driving you know

119kids are running across the street when the lights Chang green um there was even like a person that stopped in the street the other day I stopped to say hey what happened she said I almost hit that child and I'm shocked we shouldn't have to wait till one of our kids are actually hit by a car to make these changes as I drove through East Chester this afternoon at the middle school I saw that they had crossing guards I saw that they had pedestrian signals like why can't our kids have this all these changes are being made and we can't find any benefits for our kids you know when do we put our kids first and also thank you thank you for addressing the matter thank you for listening to me and um yeah thank

120you thank you thank you and that ends public comments for this evening superintendent report you good evening everyone thank you Mr Melvin Campbell for mentioning the state of the district address in that address I address thank you Melvin Campbell can you hear me um for mentioning the state of of the district address which took place on March 12th it was a address that I gave to our District staff and I promis to give um three more addresses so it'll be in April May and June I also asked um staff members to send in questions and that I would respond to them today we received the questions we responded to those questions individually and it was also put on the website for others to see um Miss f refer reference that in terms of what she

121read online I I just want to give a brief synapsis of what was discussed at the state of the district address basically I indicated that in terms of grade levels for school the board has approved this 13 School configuration for kada 8 schools that's Lincoln Graham Benjamin Turner and Pennington six k six schools that's Williams Mandela trapean Rebecca Turner Hamilton and Grimes two 7 to 12 schools that's Denzel Washington and steam 1 n to 12 school that's Mount Veron high school and then Graham Pennington Williams Mandela trap Pagan and Rebecca Turner will have prek classrooms I told the staff also that based on the preliminary numbers we have reduced our total expenditure in the budget by $12 million the current expenditures with school closures is 2728 million compared to the 284 million without closures we

122still are facing a projected budget gap of 8.8 million with the reduce numbers thus far we have projected the following reduction in force it which includes only those individuals who be placed on the preferred eligibility list at the end of the school year and does not account for retirements resignations or non-renewals our preliminary reduction projection is approximately 100 to 150 staff members across the district from each collective bargaining unit with a total cost Savings of over $7 million so far again these are just preliminary numbers and we are continuing to work through this process we will continue to up update staff on a monthly basis um so that's just some of what was presented on March 12th the like I said we respond responded to the questions we'll have our next um state of the

123district address o on what is it called a staffing day so that uh that day will be on a Wednesday and we will publish the date for those individuals that's interested in hearing the state of the district address and that ends the superintendent report uh committee reports um truste Elizabeth stepped out so I'm going to start with the audit committee uh we have not met we have no report recent report okay uh Budget Finance committee we will be meeting on Thursday so I would give an update on the next meeting in um April um claims committee has not yet met on the seven we will meet on the 7th of April education committees uh we'll be meeting on the 25th of March okay uh facilities committee facilities have anything okay yes we do come on

124you can start it [Music] um facilities has not met uh actually when did we um I think we just met actually uh a week ago last week we met yes 318 oh it's right there isn't that something 318 uh thanks Mark for providing this uh Mr rund I should say is uh today's why y'all trying to trying to set make me look bad thanks for for the for the report and the meeting we met as a facilities Committee just a week ago to discuss several things related to facilities um I'll call out some of the things that we're doing we got done we got uh 25,000g oil tanks abandoned over at the high school uh some post and rail fencing updated some light fixtures over there to LED which is cost-saving um trap Hagen had

125repaired main gate installed some hinges steam had uh broken metal Struts from the small gym ceiling Denzel Washington had we painted some offices over there um I will say real quick a real thank you related to Benjamin Turner that the curtain there's a separating curtain in the gym that comes from the ceiling you guys fixed that jumped on the right away thank you because students do need that separation so that they can have their separate classes and they can operate with with the separation that they need so thank you for that the last thing I'm going to speak to is um actually two one two more things the Lincoln School sign on the corner that you see was vandalized I believe in the last 3 weeks um Mike ruza was on it like I don't

126know like Po like like uh like mashed potatoes on velcro they got the new signs up the new sign is beautiful I'm looking forward to see Rebecca Turner's new sign when we get the naming done they've been waiting for a real sign that they've got what looks like chewing gum and Scotch tape signed for the past year since we switched it to Academy um I am going to ask a question about the Grimes heat issue it's been brought to my attention that we have heating issues in that building classrooms in 90° 89 then the 67 then in act 92 it's not conducive for a teacher to be in that type of heat conducting or learning We Can't expected kids to learn and it's seems like it's just screaming litigation for us to have a kid

127have a seizure or fall out in class can we please look into this and I and I I understand I'm not certain I'm certain the head custodian is on it but can we please go in there and take a look let's take some temperature gauges in there I've got I'll send you some picks of what I have of what the readings have been showing for the past few uh weeks first time it worked all right so the Grimes heating issue what happened was the boilers were on it was incredibly warm this last weekend so when the boilers are firing that maintains the temperature because the buildings are the way they are so sometimes the heat is stronger in some areas on the and not in others that morning the he custodian came in shut the

128boilers off and it just took time to cool it down we did uh equipped all the head custodians in every building with temperature guns so if a teach is complaining a room is too hot or too cold we can go in immediately get an immediate reading so that way if we do have to move students for any extreme hot or cold environment we can take action and then put a corrective measure in place so I only say this that the temperature issues and the Heat have been happening well before this past weekend we're talking about at least a few months now that the the classroom temperatures are just like when you walk in I actually stepped in the building it was through the it was crazy almost I want to lose weight but not like

129that so can we just jump on that and settle that out as soon get figure out what the problem is Asap absolutely appreciate it one reason there no thermostats in that building that's scary as hell in each room there are thermostats in each room where they can regulate heat okay yeah because I adjust it I was hearing that that was what was told somebody was told that were told that there's no way to control the heat which is just crazy sounded to me there's thermostats to get a reading but the problem with large buildings and normal complexes they'll turn the heat on in October they'll turn it off in April this it's you can't keep shutting the heat on and off on and off there has to be a range otherwise you could break the

130system sometimes dampers will get stuck open or closed so there are multiple different remedies we can put into place and again it's just communication they let the head custodian know they try to diagnose it if not they contact maintenance maintenance come out they try to diagnose it and correct it if not then we can call a vendor so we do have a chain it's just making sure that information flows as quickly as possible and then we mobilize because we want to make sure students can learn uh and teachers can teach safely cuz we have other buildings that are just as big and they don't have that issue so if you can let give me a can you um give me some sort of like a feedback back on what we found was the issue and

131what the resolve was sure that particular issue the boiler was left on on the weekend and the temperatures Rose over the weekend so the boiler was doing its job it's just we had to just close off the dampers and regulate it because it was too warm but then today in the morning you'd want the heat on because it was pretty cold this morning so this time of year it's very difficult to pinpoint weather because it shifts very quickly okay so is that for facilities okay no I've heard that every at the same problem community engag so if that's the case then there's at Williams as well we should look into the same factor again if we have most if we got buildings in the district that work properly that shouldn't be an issue because the

132same weather on one side of town is the same as another side right if it was warm over the weekend on South 7th Avenue it's going to probably have been warm on over here so you know thank you thank you um before I do family and Community engagement I'm going to ask uh trustee Elizabeth that she has a committee report okay uh no for not not for this evening thank you though okay thank you all right family and Community engagement Chris do we have anything Thursday Thursday we have our meeting on Thursday HR trusty white we're not doing the food service and it's in alphabetical order I thought no trusty um HR trusty white I'm sorry hold on a second I'm sorry hold on I just asked a question are we not going to do

133the committee report for the new food service and wellness committee if we're going in alphabetical order I don't have food service and wellness on my list I didn't know that was a committee so we're using the last word of the last of the name I don't know that's it may be service for but it's Wellness here still under Wellness okay okay so can we fix that I'll get to you Rita I'm sorry can we fix the name of the committee it had to be changed because Mr rundi pointed out that we were out of compliance with uh State the new name the new name is food service and wellness committee so next time no it's not you didn't say that we didn't say that we have email I'll wait until it this time but next

134time thank you thank youting that out will make okay that's so um we were um no we did not have we did not meet we will be meeting in April and I don't have the date right now okay Ida I think we had um we had our Ida Chris do you have anything else to add uh yeah just a little bit we had a a brief meet an Ida meeting that was fairly non-eventful but a couple of updates a clean audit which is good um no findings their balance sheet is strong which of course doesn't translate into the city or the school district having strong balance sheet but they're doing pretty well um they collect fees so they get a lot of money um there's a job fair on Thursday the 9th at the Mount

135Vernon adult center on Third Street and there's also going to be Avenue Third Avenue thank you and then there's also going to be a a building your future get certified get hired get ahead on the 8th at El Patio Restaurant 159 gron Avenue the city will be there um a good Dominican magic got back to us they said that it was a mistake they said that the video was wrong that they're not in Yonkers um so they went ahead and get work with that guy to give him uh an agreement to get caught up on his on his pilots and we talked about the um maybe Contracting with this company from uh that worked with pelum Ida to get a better multiplier in so I'll work with them on that that'll take some time that's

136it um Insurance committees so insurance we will will be having um our next meeting April 7th is combined with the claims um committee meeting okay uh policy committee um policy committee um the attorney is near completion of the policy uh and he's merging them with some of the existing policies so uh we will meet with them sometime in the next a couple of weeks uh Safety and Security trusting Jenga we met a couple weeks ago it won't until April okay um anything to report on that meeting nothing that you met last yeah we made a report okay all right thank you uh special education committee ye yes uh we had a meeting last week on the 13th uh few updates um compliance monitoring is still going well they're going to be meeting on the 28th

137of March working on overhauling Transportation there's a training tomorrow night uh on cpsc to csse or I guess it's a workshop tomorrow night a zoom workshop for parents with the wihd which is the the Westchester Institute of human development um still working on esy um reorg getting special ed classes distributed equitably across the buildings um I think that's pretty much anything else W I think we talked about the bus the transportation yeah the transportation working on overhauling that to make it more efficient um still doing a lot of preschool evaluation um Staffing trying to reduce Reliance uh as we I think we've discussed that trying to trying to rework some of the configuration with Tas and and 101 AIDS um staff turnover is still in isue I think that's pretty much isn't she having a

138meeting yeah so tomor it's it's a zoom meeting tomorrow night uh March 19th 600 to 7: pm. this is through WID it's a they do this every year um it's a trans it's for parents on transitioning your preschoolers the cpse to csse transition process um and it's Zoom link I think it's up on the website you can access it there all right thank you Chris technology trusty marble technology committee will meet on March 24th and wellness and food the new so yes the new the new food the new food service and wellness committee uh has not has well we didn't uh we didn't meet yet but I think we're going to meet in the next week or so um I did want to discuss that we're still we're actively still pursuing the Improvement of quality

139for the food for the that the children are are eating we need to and I'm going to reiterate that whoever we're using and whoever servicing the food we need to listen to what the kids are saying too the kid walks the child walks up and says that's horrible and we don't listen then we're not listening if the mice aren't eating the food that says something if the mice in the building are eating in the box but they won't eat the food in the Box we shouldn't probably be serving the kid that's just I'm just saying so but we we I think it's yeah we ain't going to talk about that but I'm not saying that there's mice in the building please not let me just make that clear but we need to start listening to

140the babies more about what they're saying they would like to eat because they're the customer right aren't they the customer truthfully so let's do something better we have this is what the the we talked about this uh last night as well so we are moving forward with the same agenda to get better food served to the children as soon as possible oh and I'm sorry yes please I want to hear you um so for this does it mean that like the food Portion sizes are going to get bigger too or just like that is totally part of the conversation so the one teaspoon of nuggets mm is that that is completes the committee reports um I just like to say that I'm not particularly a chairperson on any committee and that I am on one

141committee however I do want to uh uh U make mention of the fact that on Friday this Friday pass uh not particularly remembering the date but this Friday pass um Rebecca Turner uh had a wonderful and I say kudos to them uh dinner at Vibes on gramon Avenue for the January graduates and I have to make mention of that tonight or else sometimes these things do not get mentioned and it's just a shame that I was the only trustee there and Not only was the only trustee there and I'm assigned to that school and that is my school I was a school counselor for the alternative program it was it was phenomenal parents came out the students came out and I have to say that Mr newbie he took money out his own pocket and

142snug even helped to really provide to make sure and we didn't have no low down greasy food we had salmon and ox tailes and you know it was just a wonderful night out that I needed to say kudos to Snug that had come into the school to talk to those young people and provided and made that way for that to happen and let me just say this cuz I have have to cuz I'm going always be truthful and right I'm always on the side right and I just want to say that as you heard and hear tonight that Troy newbie and I'm mentioning his name yes I am because it's only right to do it he is senior over two people loyalty friendships and all that stuff and I'm saying yeah I'm saying it as

143you whisper yes I am because he needs to remain here because he has great evaluations look at him he's a father to those children he's like a brother to those children and all that those children and young people need him to be and so for you to put him in a place that he shouldn't be for personal reasons no he needs to remain here yes he does 20 years in this district and ain't no way in the world we should put him out to put in people that just got here just got to where they are for your own personal reasons and it has to stop and I'm going to say tonight that he needs to stay here fervice too Le ferous need to stay here done a great job and the staff PTA and

144everybody can attest to it and even this community and I'm going stand up for what's right whether y'all like it or not and yes I'm calling it out cuz it's only right to do it and I'm not going to look at what's wrong and sit here cuz I didn't run for that and that man needs to stay here just because you want the last who came in to stay here when they should be the first out no it's not right and Mr Troy newbie needs to stay here in this District yes he does whether you think I'm his friend or not yes we did work together and he's like a a brother to me and not because of that but because I watched him work take money out of his pocket when the said we

145don't have it and youall should be ashamed of yourselves the ones who are in that pool for you to get who you want that's loyal to you protect you you protect them you're loyal to them we got to stop doing that and do what's right cuz guess what I don't know how you lay down that night you better pray to God you get up in the morning okay so we're going to go to I me old business we have no old business to report I I don't have I don't have any old business no questions from prior okay no questions from prior um wow all right so um first um I last parent involvement day just passed and it was incredible turnout I was at more than one building I think um but I did

146notice that it's not on the it wasn't on the calendar that this year so can we please have parent involvement day return to the calendar for 2026 it's not on it you can look on the district site right now and look up if you no it's not there so can we ensure that that happens for next for 2026 you did you send us a reminder how did how did I don't know how that was that's oversight yeah it's not there was on before yeah it's not I mean it's it's been on there in the past but it wasn't on there this year it's always been on there but this year see right see it should have been right there so can we just make sure that we get it on for next year um for

147the 2026 future any more parent involvement days for the rest of the year right okay Well's so the only other thing the only other thing I want to speak to is um I think it's important that board trustees are aware about Communications that come out to the public and to the employees of the district beforehand and sometimes when you get when we have communications happen and they're so meaty and so uh sensitive as like to say for instance the state district address that happened last week board trustees should be able to know what's going to be discussed and said during that presentation more than 24 hours because it doesn't give us the ability to know what's going on so I'm making a request that we please have give us at least 48 72 hours to

148digest what's going to be you know communicated to to the public so that we're not also broad broadsided like the public may be at least we can know in advance to we're okay we've asked questions and we know what's going to happen so I'm making a formal request that the board members receive at least 48 to 72 hours before we go public giving out broadcast information to the community and the District employees uh that's all I have for followup right now any other business that the trustees like to address right now before we go into the resolutions I would like to um concur with uh trustee Mitchell in terms of when we pres when information is presented to the public that the trustees know or aware of what is going to be presented and that

149the information that still has not been voted on by the Board of Trustees should not be presented to the public without us knowing what it is that you're you're discussing because a lot of that information that was presented and as general as it was it was still specific enough that I listened to it as a board trustee and I was in awe of some of the information that was disseminated thank you anything else okay we're going to go to the resolutions okay can I have a motion for 6.1 please Human Resources 122a certified motion second questions concerns discussions all in favor I oppose abstain motion carries C have a motion for 6.2 approval of Human Resources resolution 121b classified motion C second questions concerns discussions question I think it's this this resolution but um some

150of the names on here we are we already voted on is there a reason why they're being represented oh it was the last one it's not this one so just it was just a question on some of them had already been voted on in a previous resolution just wanted to know why we're repeating it I would have to look I don't know which names we could talk about it on in favor I oppose abstain motion carries I have a motion for 6.3 request for a leave of absence motion second question questions concerns so we start we're seeing these requests for leave of absence show up on the board docs for Resolutions where the trustees have to approve and this is for leave of absence I believe it covers FMLA also correct okay so I just

151want to say personally that I hadn't seen these at a certain point but we had proofed that they used to be res resolutions that board trustees had to resolve and approve at board meetings so in case you were wondering where this came from it is in our bylaws it is a policy of ours in the bylaws it says that trustees approve leaves of absence including FMLA in case anyone was wondering why are we now approving request for leave of absence at board meetings all in favor I me oppose abstain I motion carries can have a motion for 7.1 amend resolution 8.8 August 20th 2024 authorization to continue services with Mercy College to implement the smart scholar during the 2024 2025 school year motion second questions concerns discussions all in favor I any oppose abstain motion

152carries we have a motion for 7.2 adoption of the 2025 2026 school calendar motion can I have a second second in question question hold on a second I'm looking to see if it if parent involvement day is on here it's not so I'm gonna go with no can we this is just the first draft right no this is the final onri the district calendar this is the day this is for off St Contra so so here's here's the issue is is there any reason why we can't have it on the calendar on the district site as well can it be added in I think it's a different okay got it okay all right got it okay so the the physical one goes out says that yes okay so I have to still keep paper okay

153all in favor hi okay um did we have indigenous day was that is that part of the Thanksgiving recess so did we discuss that does it is it specific on here or it doesn't if that goes on the program calendar as well it's a part of the thanksgiv get those two days off but do we have that listed no it doesn't say not on this one even considered disrespectful to make that day after Thanksgiving indigenous people I'm sorry I was just it was a sidewall conversation where I stated can you turn the mics up because I can hear myself it's actually considered disrespectful to most indigenous peoples to give that Friday after Thanksgiving as indigenous people's day it's actually considered disrespectful to them so and this conversation has been had over the past year or

154so uh related to Columbus Day the reason why indigenous people's day has been moved to the day after Thanksgiving is because there was enough voices or the same two voices kept demanding that col that Columbus Day be restored to the calendar not splitting anything else so those folks got what they wanted and Indigenous people's day doesn't even show on this calendar nor is it a respected day to observe that holiday all in favor I I any oppos oppos abstain motion carries you have a motion for 8.1 approval of pupil Personnel Services memorandum number 16 dated March 18 second questions concerns discussions all in favor I oppose abstain motion carries can I have a motion for 9 one authorization to enter into an agreement with Putnam Northern Westchester bosis for the 2526 2526 de bid jointly

155for supplies Commodities materials and Equipment motion second question questions concerns discuss this is this is going to be a I'm just not realizing it I understand that we jointly using both seeds to bid for the equipment and supplies isn't aren't most of these supplies and materials not covered by the contractors who are doing the work and doing the actual building in our district short answer yes this allows us to also purchase them on our own so we can repair in-house so any time we spend public funds it has to be with an approved vendor or supplier so this gives us that opportunity as well so when I see a PO for work done in a building that included materials I'm not going to see those materials show up underneath the contractor's invoice because we've already

156bought it through this contract to Joint bid with bosis no not necessarily okay yeah just Clarity so if if we as a district need to purchase materials supplies or something like that we could purchase from any one of these vendors or supply houses if we sub a job out we can either purchase the item and have the vendor put it in or the vendor can purchase the item and we go through their contracts and bid Awards so this just opens up up we can shop at a larger uh selection of of areas so it's beneficial for the district options more options exactly thank you all in favor I oppose abstain motion carries we have a motion for 10.1 certification of uncollected taxes for the 2425 tax R motion second question wait who was second okay

157questions concerns discussions I'm sorry if I'm not mistaken this is I'm looking for the I can't see the the attachment here am I missing it so this is 8.17 six million unpaid taxes for the school year as 2425 school year as of March 13 2025 so this is on top of the 17 million that Dr Morton said we were all in owed by the city so now you get to that place where you understand why you hear us say the city owes us$ 25 million the the understanding is the timeline on what is truly payable and due that's where you get those those smaller amounts that are broken out so what this is saying is that we the city doesn't just owe us $3 million that's false the city truly all in owes us 25

158million what now that we're certifying this 8.1 million through 2425 school year as of March 13 2025 I just wanted to just say I need to clarify this not due until two years after correct okay so doe from where we certify so basically what they owe us when it's due is another conversation when you get a bill it's 30 days net it's not due until it's due the the other thing with with any luck this number will be reduced over the next two years so this is the marker now unfortunately the collections haven't been that strong you know that's why the city's been in a bind um but hopefully it'll get better you know hopefully all in favor I oppose abstain motion carries have a motion for 10.2 authorization to approve internal claims UD auditor

159report for January motion I have a second questions concerns discussions or in favor I I oppose abstain motion carries have a motion for 10.3 established mileage reimbursement rate second questions concerns discussions all in favor I oppose abstain motion carries have a motion for 10.4 authorization to accept a donation from the Tish Foundation incorpor ated to the Rebecca Turner Academy motion questions concerns discussions all in FA all in favor I oppose abstain motion carries C have a motion for 10.5 authorization to declare computer network equipment unusable and obsolete for the purpose of discard motion can I have a second second questions concerns discussions all in favor I oppose abstain motion carries to have a motion for 10.6 approval for merge athletic activities for 25 26 school year motion second second question questions conc conerns discussions um

160where are we with liability on these um mergers there there are kids these are all our kids reported so these are M high school students and so we talking about 10.7 Donna you're talking about 10.7 with Bronxville um trusty Marvel are you talking about this one or the next one 10.6 it may be 10.6 okay so this is just m Veron high school students can I ask that the mics be increased where the volume is really really really low thank you okay um we're past questions okay are we going on with 10.6 okay all in favor I oppose abstain okay motion carries we have a motion for 10.7 approval for merge Athletics activities with Bronxville high school for 2025 motion can I have a second second there is my question in terms of liability for

161the students that are coming in from another school district I defer to our in-house attorney coming with their own liability it's loud so in reference to any liability um when we have students or we have other schools come in to participate we always ask that those by way of either a memoranda of understanding or a contract that they have insurance and that they have a COI in in that regard now in reference to um such example of that would be the uses of the pool that would be the example of that um and so that's how we move when it comes down to mergers so all those so all those documents they are in place are we're assuming that those documents are in place because they're not here any um we don't see the documents

162I would hope that they're in place um I can tell you now that I don't have those documents but that has been a normal course of business question I would like to know how many of our students are able to participate in other District's uh teams do we have I wouldn't I wouldn't know that as the attorney some um answer that gymnastics I mean what other school districts do we partner with I'll have to you know somebody will get back to you in reference to that I don't know the numbers of that and trusty Kelly that's actually a question that we asked several months ago that still hasn't been answered so thank you can can I jump in if I remember correct I think the explanation the skinny explanation was the fact that our district

163doesn't have that many students so it's beneficial to to to work have other students from other districts get involved so we can actually create real teams otherwise it's such a a low turnout from our district and those districts plus the facilities that they I I remember that being an exp because I do remember the question being asked no that was the that was the overall rationale for us accepting other students but I think the question on the floor is is that reciprocal and if it is then we need to have that list I remember the answer being no well let's let's verify it all right thank you superintendent said she would get back to us all in favor I any oppose abstain abstain motion carries c a motion for 11.1 authorization to wave the third

164reading of policy 73006 student searches and interrogations and immediately adopt you have a motion motion second question questions concerns discussions so this is the policy related to the pat downs we all remember recently in the recent months we had one of the principles decided to do Pat Downs in their building every single day on every single student and which was in a violation of our bylaws which we made clear we knew the the waving of this reading Mr Russell is because of how lengthy it is because we've already done two uh the waving is because we done two and then we brought it to the board to take a vote after trustee McDonna asked for certain research I presented that to the board I presented that to the policy committee we then came back and

165we decided the board decided that we will wave that reading and vote on it not because of length thank you all in favor I any opposed opposed opposed okay one moment oppose um key oppose abstain motion carries c a motion for 12.1 to enter ENT the executive session for the purpose of discussing pending litigation the financial history of a particular personal Corporation or matters leading to the appointment employment demotion discipline suspension dismissal or removal of particular personal Corporation and to receive legal advice on a pendent matter can I have a motion please motion second all in favor any oppos abstain motion carries oh yeah thank you guys thanks for coming out tonight we will not be returning we will not be returning thank you