001All right. Good evening. I'd like to call this evening's uh Wednesday, November 5th, 2025 board of education regular meeting to order. Um please stand for the pledge. Uh Vice President Bacharia is going to lead us in it. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Uh item 1.3 on our agenda is our superintendent's update. So, at this time, I'm going to turn things over to Mary Fox Alter. >> Okay. So, I'm excited um this year to share my update with our um student board members. So, Owen, why don't you take it away and I'll follow up. >> So, good evening everyone. I want to start off today by congratulating
002all of our 30 science research seniors for submitting to the Regeneron Science Talent Search Competition both yesterday and earlier today. Uh speaking from personal experience, this was application was long and uh an excruciating process. um with some of our accolations even being over 100 pages. So um it was great to see all of our work come together since sophomore year and we hope to continue the tradition of science talent search scholars. Uh we're looking to add to our current total of 101. Uh I also want to recognize our seniors who submitted to the major early action and early decision deadlines um to colleges and universities um this past Saturday, November 1st. A lot of our seniors definitely could take a breath of fresh air now. Um, shout out to the human rights club for celebrating
003the day at the the day of the dead with our school community and educating students about um the holiday. Thank you to Mr. Whitehead, Mr. Vez, and Mr. Nino for bringing their classes outside to help maintain the Craig W memorial. Congratulations to Jonathan Poso, Christian Rosendo Rodriguez, Derek Campos, Janet Quisby, and Anelise Moretta for being accepted to the 202526 Hudson Valley Puerto Rican Hispanic Youth Leadership Institute. >> On October 31st, Mr. Whitehead's filmmaking class hosted the second annual horror film festival. All the short horror horror films were student made and directed. Congratulations to our October Pride Award winners in athletics, Gunnar Shrank, Bella Gil, Justin Aello, and Kira Senna. And shout out to our boys volleyball team for winning their first round of sectionals yesterday. They play Friday against Arlington in the second round. And
004as a reminder, um all winter sports regist winter sports registration is open through form leaf and JV and varsity sports begin on November 17th and modified begin on November 24th. So I now want to touch on something I briefly mentioned uh last meeting. Uh the widespread use and uncertainty around artificial intelligence for our students in um in the high school and middle school and in the district. Uh science research senior Eric Zingry uh researched artificial intelligence and found that students had more anxiety around artificial intelligence than teachers in the school. And through his interview process, he realized that this was because teachers have clarity when it comes to AI and the use of AI. And this clarity comes in the form of AI guidelines, something that is popular um in our high in our higher
005education but less popular in high schools. So um Miss Benji shared with me the um policy implemented last year um through the board with the use of AI, which I think is a great start. Uh and I think a more robust handbook for our students uh will help mitigate kind of uncertainty around the use of AI um for our students. So I met with Mr. Ducos and Miss Allison Bacon last week to discuss steps to improve our the district's approach and some common themes were identified. Uh the first one was identifying to our educators and students where AI can be used as a tool and where it disrupts disrupts critical thinking. So drawing this line in the sand I think is necessary for AI to work effectively. And I think for educators uh one way
006we can do this is through professional development sessions which I know Miss Bacon is already running a lot of. Um, and for students, I think that is something we need to kind of instill in them maybe at the elementary or middle school level. And um, so utilizing orientations is a great way to convey this information and definitely implementing um, this distinction into some class syllabi at the high school or the the middle school will help that. The second thing we found was allowing educators to do what is comfortable with them. uh guidelines or handbooks should be general and address the line in the sand that I previously mentioned. But beyond that, the use of AI should be dictated by the educator on an assignment to assignment basis. So I shared with the board the AI
007assessment scale um which is largely used in education and clearly defines the AI usage on a on a fivepoint scale. Models like this can be implemented uh which will help our students understand what they can do and what they can't do on each assignment. Um, third thing we found was involving families into this process is also crucial. Um, Miss Bacon and I spoke, Miss Bacon and I spoke about using maybe a Saturday explore and learn session uh to once we get a better understanding of these guidelines to inform families about the use of AI for our students and the district stance on it. And lastly, making sure that AI technology in the district is equitable and safe for students. Uh, both Miss Bacon and Mr. Hannah do a great job of this already, but if
008we plan on taking a clearer stance on student use, then I think it is crucial we continue the equitable work. Um, in terms of AI, I think it is also worth noting that uh, educators have already started to use effectively in the classroom. Miss Bacon shared with me a website created by created by Mr. Oswald Willis for his class that focused on the EMTT Till trial. Uh I I've also shared this in my email and the this website uses AI to allow students to chat with people involved in the trial. Obviously, you can't do that in person because they're not alive, but students are able to have conversations with anyone involved in the trial to learn more about it. And um it's just one example of how AI can be used to help students and
009to grow um learning in the classroom. But overall, I think AI is a is complicated and creating policy around it is is tricky because it is constantly evolving. Um the work the board did last year was great and I think adding a policy that to include specifics for the students could be also helpful. Uh so this report and the initial meetings were simply to get the ball rolling and I hope to update the board in the future with a more concrete plan. Thank you. >> Thank you. I certainly love when um we were able to use our science research students to inform our work. That's great. Okay. >> Do you have >> Yeah. Okay. So, um and again, I want to um again shout out um I think Owen, you were one of those science
010research students, one of the top three in terms of submission there. So, again, congratulations for that. Congrats. And it is a very trying time for seniors. um submitting college applications, getting every a lot of all-nighters, a lot of double-checking. So, um when um at one point in when I when I was in another district, all I ever asked the seniors was, "How's your year going?" That was that that was as deep as I wanted to go because some people were some people were I just how's your year going? Anything I can do to help? But again, we want to take care and support our seniors. So, um, we are absolutely thrilled tonight to share that the American Reading Company has selected an AMD student, Emory Shek's video black hole, as an exemplary student work. Emory
011will receive a second certificate of achievement and a $150 award towards the purchase of books. Um, she was in fifth grade when she did this project. So, a special s shout out to Miss Petronis who was her fifth grade teacher. So, I think that's absolutely fabulous. Um, I want to remind everybody that um, November 15th through the 14th, Austining High School is putting on the performance of Clue. Um, free admission, donations are welcome, and if you want a night out to for an entertaining production, please um, drop by and see. and I'm looking forward to seeing a performance of Clue. I really do like that play, so I'm looking forward to it. Um, it's National School Psychology Meet Week and we join the National Association of School Psychologists and schools across the country in celebrating
012the incredible work of our psychologists. In honor of Italian Heritage Month, AMD 7th grader and seventh graders in Mr. Lick's class um explored Oening's past and they looked into the old census records to learn about the Italian immigrants who helped shaped our community. I think many people aren't aware that the Kensico dam when it was built here it was a massive massive project and many Italian immigrants came across and settled in our regions here to help build that. We needed the Italian stonemasons, their ability to build, and the legacy of that is found in communities here in Westchester County. So, every time I drive past that dam, I think about it. It's a massive piece of work. But, um, we our Italian immigrant community helped build that. Um, we have, uh, an Austining High School
01312th grader, Eliri. Am I saying that correctly? Elri Fitzpatrick who was honored by the Westchester Coalition of Italian-American Organizations for her excellence in Italian and received a scholarship from the Austinine community member Mr. Vincent Sautiel in memory of his late wife which I think is beautiful absolutely beautiful. I want to give a shout out to all the families and staff who attended our Saturday explore and learn session. Now, when I pulled up the driveway that Saturday, beautiful Saturday, I forgot it was Battle of the Books or I I could there wasn't a parking lot parking spot to be had anywhere anywhere. Cars were all over the place and I was like, "Oh, we're going to run out of pumpkins if that was one parking area." Uh, but as soon as I walked inside, humming over
014books, lots of people humming over books. Then we had close to 300 people show up for the explore and learn every pumpkin, every single um piece of fruit, the the food donations, and then we had the Westchester Children's Museum do a really special little complex hands-on science experiment with our families. Oh, it was a beautiful, beautiful afternoon. Well attended. And this was the place to be. I think you were there that day. Yeah. >> And yeah, it was packed. It was absolutely packed. So, it was wonderful. Our Halloween parades, thank goodness the the weather held out and celebrations were held throughout our schools. I saw lots of lions in my visits to different schools. Um, and I thought that was all great. AMD held spirit week last week with theme days and activities. So, a
015lot happening. um very exciting period of time and I know everyone is a little bit of adjusting to the uh turn back your clocks but to be expected every year. Thank you. That's my update for the evening. >> Thank you Mary. Um on then to our work session item which is also our equity item this evening, our external audit report. So, at this time, I'll invite our guest external auditor to come on up and uh present to us. >> So, I'd like to welcome Mark Kalinan. He is um stepping in for um um Allan Cassay and um this is his first time so be easy on him. And um he >> first time at Osmy. I've done this before. >> So, um thank you for coming. tonight. >> Thank you. Good evening and thank you
016for having me again. My name is Mark Countan. I'm a director of PKF Oconor Davies. I was in the field on site for the actual external audit this year. So I oversee the whole thing. So I'm just not, you know, airplaneing in to present for you guys. But Alan Cassay is the partner on the job. He just couldn't be here tonight. So first just this is just a timeline of how the external audit goes and what we do as the external auditors. So we came out for a preliminary audit um June 24th and 25th. What we do there is we test internal controls. We test payroll. We test cash receipts. We test cash dispersements. We look at journal entries. We make sure the policies and the procedures that are put forth by the board and
017the finance office are working correctly. Basically, um there was an audit planning meeting um on June 17th where we met with the audit committee to go over the plan for the audit and what what we would be looking at, if there was anything the audit committee wanted us to look into. Um things like that. The external audit, we were out here the week of September 1st. We come for a week, finish the audit. Um the post audit meeting that's the so I'm going over a macro level of the audit tonight. Um Allan came and met with the audit committee for with the audit report and goes through it in more detail. Um so that meeting has already happened. Um and then the audit report was finalized and actually dated October 8th which meets your deadline
018of October 15th for all school districts. Moving on. This is just an agenda. I'll skip over this slide. This just tells you what's coming up in the next slides. Just some summary of communications um of what we as the external auditors do for the school district. First off, um I'm happy to say that we issued an unmodified opinion on the financial statements. That is also known as a clean opinion. It's the highest level of assurance we can give as external auditors. that everything in the audit report is materially correct. Um we conduct the audits in accordance with US gas. Um we obtain reasonable rather than absolute assurance that financial statements are free of material in misstatement. What that just means is as I said earlier we issued an unmodified opinion. That's the highest level of
019assurance we can give. Absolute assurance is not something we can give as external auditors. Um, happy to say there's no material errors, fraudulent financial reporting or misappropriation of assets that were noted. No instances suspicions of allegations of fraud noted during during the audit going on. No material weaknesses not noted. All the district follows all appropriate accounting policies. Um, all the estimates that the the finance office needs to use were deemed reasonable. No unresolved issues, no disagreements with management. Um, no difficulties. Us as the auditors didn't need to consult with um other experts outside. Um, we remain independent of the district to continue doing the external audit and no irregularities or illegal acts noted. This is just um we issue a management letter um where we we can if there were a material weakness or significant
020deficiency, we would put it in there and we would have to tell you happy to note that there's no material weakness, no significant deficiencies. These two comments are in the letter. These fall to a control deficiency. Really what that means is it it's just really a suggestion uh from the external auditor on how how you can improve in some areas. These two comments are very minor and you would see them across all school districts in Westchester. That being special purpose fund is just some inactive accounts and the extra classroom activities. They were missing some receipts. um very minor, very common. Um no real issues there. So moving on, these are the actual numbers um from your general fund. So the school district has a few different funds. The general fund is the main operating fund.
021This is the one the voters approve. The board passes, the voters approve. Um so just going through this you can see this is split out original budget which was approved final budget which is the original budget plus any amendments that the board approved what actually happened during the year and then that last column just shows a variance between what actually happened and where the final budget ended. So, your revenues, your original budget, you anticipated receiving 163.5 million in revenues. Um, adjusted slightly, what actually came in was 168.6 million. So, you had a budget surplus there of a little less than 5 million. Um, the reason you got a little bit more revenue than you anticipated, it's really two reasons. Your state aid came in a bit higher than anticipated. that's just based on lottery aid,
022general output aid. That's all formula based um and given given out by the state. So you can't you don't know exactly what you're going to get and you got more than you anticipated. The other reason would be your interests earnings. Um conservative budget. Don't really know where that's going to land every year. Stay conservative. Interest rates were high. You received about 2 million more than you anticipated. your expenditures. Your original budget was 160 million stayed about the same with final budget. Actual came in about 151. So a budget savings there of almost 8.5 million. The the main expenditure for any school district obviously is your salaries and your employee benefits. So a conservative budget you saved in those lines. You saved in operations and maintenance of the buildings. um other areas like that. So if
023you look at that next line all the way to the right, the 13.4 million is your budget surplus. Um and then you'll see the next line you originally budgeted other financing uses. What that line is is your transfers out your transfers to the other funds. So you originally budgeted 20.9 upped it to 33.2. 2 and actual is about 33. What the majority of that number is is the transfer from the general fund to the capital fund to fund your capital projects. And a lot of that was reserved in the past in what would would be called a restricted capital reserve. You went out last year um and the voters approved for you to use some of that. So that money comes out of the general fund, transfers into the the capital fund. It's used for
024the 2425 district-wide capital projects. So the bottom line there, your fund balance you started at at the end of June 2024, you had 62.9 million. You used in 2025 16.3. So your ending fund balance is 46.6. A lot of that decreases because you used the capital money. Um, so on the next slide, I'll go through the buckets of fund balance and you'll see your your unassigned, your clear and free to use money actually stayed kind of flat. So that's good. So this slide here show this is mainly to show your your fund balance. If you look on the left side, the fund balance is split into four buckets. non-spendable, restricted, assigned, and unassigned. The non-spendable, you can see, stayed about the same. What that money is is money you spent in the 2025 year that's
025actually for the 2026 year. So, you have to earmark that money, set it aside because you already used it. So, what that is, that $2.2 million is just prepaid expenditures. That next bucket there is the restricted one. That's the largest bucket you have. And off to the right there is a comparison between 25 and 24 of what is in that restricted fund balance. Now the restricted fund balance is made up of restrictions made from general municipal law, school law approved by the board. So you can see starting from the top your tax reserve increase slightly. That's that's just interest earnings. Um so no real change there. Same with your employee benefit acrewed liability just interest earnings added from 24 to 25. Your next two ERS and TRS you actually used some of this this year
026to offset some of the ERS and TRS costs. Sorry. The next one um you could see liabilities claims. You were actually able to to add about a million dollars into that line. So you were at 175 and you had enough money to to fund that a little bit more by about a million. And then that last piece there is what I had mentioned earlier kind of the driving force be why the fund balance dropped. So you you ended last year with 28.9 in your future capital projects reserve. you used some of that and transferred it to the capital fund. So you ended with about 10 million. You still have 10 million left in there. So you could see it dropped in your restricted fund balance 47.7 to 26.2. So that's your restricted. Moving back to
027the left, um that assigned number you can see went from 5.8 to 10.9. What's in that 10.9 numbers you used? You could see at the bottom it includes 6.7 million of appropriated fund balance from the 2526 budgets. >> That's true. >> The remaining amount of that is you assigned certain amount of monies for future grants. So that money set aside. And then that last piece is your unassigned fund balance. That's free and clear to use for the operations of the district. Um the school district is limited to 4% of next year's budget. All school districts are in New York State and you guys are at 4%. So you that's the maximum amount you can have in your unassigned fund balance. So that makes up your $46.6 6 million in fund balance. And then just the
028last slide here again, you got um the school district unmodified clean opinion on the financial statements. No material weaknesses noted. You did appropriate $6.7 million in your assigned appropriated fund balance. And your 2526 annual debt service is about 2.6% 6% of your adopted budget which is which is good. So other than that I believe that's all I had prepared. So if you have any questions I'd be happy to try and answer them. >> Sure. Does any anybody at the board table have any questions? Want to start? >> Start on one end. We'll come to the other. >> Start Frank. >> I don't have any. Hi. >> I was in the committee meeting, so I'm also good. >> Well, you have anything? >> No. >> Let's go down there and I'll come back. I'll do the
029last. >> Okay. Owen, uh Rob, Kevin, >> thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Appreciate your time and you being here and thank you to everybody who worked so hard and the audit committee >> and to to our business official. >> Yes. Thank you, Alita and her entire finance office. the the audit went very well this year. >> Go ahead. >> Right. Just a quick one on the the um the debt um where we have 2.6%. We have not yet tapped our our bond yet like for monies yet, right? For anything and that's not going to come for a while, right? That's not going to come until we start to break ground with I I don't even because I think we funded the driveway with the capital that we had, right? >> Yeah. I want to
030say um that the the debt is going to come on the actual debt service is going to come on in um 2030. We anticipate doing bond anticipation notes um instead of regular debt service um prior to that. uh we used I believe 14 million to pay for these expenses associated with the bond. >> Okay. >> So that's where that big transfer to capital number came from. >> Okay. >> So that right now everything from a bond perspective or debt service perspective is based upon existing and old debt. >> Correct. >> That's which is why our debt service percentage is pretty low. But that debt ser service percentage we we'll we'll start to see that tick up like in about four years right essentially right >> yes yes >> okay >> but the transfer to capital
031line will go down >> yeah okay and then and do we have and and on that is it and maybe this a question for you is there a percentage that we should be from in a debt service percentage that when that time comes or is or that there isn't anything specific to that just because the amount of borrowing that we're doing on this relative to what we're our payment schedules and what we're producing. >> Yeah, I I would say there's no specific number you should really be at. I mean, obviously you don't want to be at like a higher number, but there's not really a specific if you're if you're staying >> if it's like a health metric type of a thing and you're looking at the debt service. >> Yeah. I mean, if you're
032below 5%, you're you're usually >> that's pretty good. But if we're starting to creep up to double digits, >> there's there can be reasons to explain why you're at a higher percentage. >> Yeah. >> As long as those reasons make sense, then you're okay. >> Okay. >> So, it's hard for me to just like throw a percent out there, but >> No, that's fine. I just wanted to get a general gauge. There's no exact percentage cuz I just that number would be much higher. And I I don't I didn't think that we tapped anything just yet. Yeah, I mean if that starts creeping up as the auditor, >> why the question would be why? Okay. >> And there there could be a very good reason and then >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >>
033Just a question a follow up to sort of what Roger was talking the library bonds coming out like when the debt service over the next depending on when they do their work we may see some increases in the debt service line. Yes. >> So so it may not be 2.6 even though it's recurring debt. You got to remember the library's bonds in our budget as well. So that line probably will go up a little bit even before 2030, right? >> I'm not sure. We're working with their their their uh fiscal advisors. We actually spoke about it today. >> Today? >> Yeah, >> today. >> Sorry. Just for clarity on my side. That debt it doesn't sit on our books. >> Yes, it does. >> It or does it sit? Okay. So then then when we
034have library bond plus plus our bond we we when we report on that we report that separately just >> No, it's all on our >> it's lumped together as one debt service number. >> It may be different issuances. >> Okay. >> But it's all in the debt service payment budget line. >> Yeah. Because we're paying it back through the tax dollars we generate from the district. Okay. Okay. I I think just as a point of reference, we probably when that time comes and we're we're talking about the debt service just to kind of clarify that there components in there. >> Yeah. Our fiscal advisors reached out to MUNAT or their the library's fiscal advisors. >> Yeah. >> To get exactly that information. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. I feel
035like these go easy and quick when the news is good, right? And um I know for anybody who's maybe watching at home when you hear like the audit committee what what that is so that people at home understand is we have obviously an independent auditor here who comes looks through our things with um a leader or business official with board members and with community members who usually come to the table with some finance experience themselves. And so it really is a community effort >> to keep everything as transparent as possible. And and like I said it's easy when it when it's good news. And I Alita um I know it's a point of pride for you. So thank you. I want to appreciate the work that goes into getting the clean bill of health, >>
036right? >> Yeah. >> I I would be remiss though if I uh let this opportunity go without thanking the board of education for basically addressing a a goal that the board had about trying to give us a life jacket, if you will, for the next few years. um the loss of those two significant grants, the six million alto together, the mental health and the PEK grant by creating, you know, an an assigned reserve within our fund balance for grants that that allows us to continue to support these programs through the end. That is a phenomenal step and I want to thank this board for doing that. I want to thank Alita for thinking it through to come up with a solution to address something that the board had asked us to do. And the other
037piece I want to thank the board for too is just the ability to look at areas like that liability reserve. Like are there ways that we can make that more efficient? Um, as was mentioned tonight, we did get more state aid than we anticipated, but it but it's not reliable recurring money and being able to position ourselves with that takes pressure off the general fund and allows us to continue doing the work we're doing here for all our students in the Austining School. So, um, credit goes to all seven board members tonight for that guidance, that vision, and, um, for the next two and a half years, we'll be able to, um, keep steady, um, Pier's hoping there'll be a change, uh, in terms of tone and tenor and what we support for our kids.
038But I, I would be remiss if I didn't allow the official record, which is this board meeting, to go without thanking the board for their leadership. >> Thanks, Mary. All right. I think we're done. Um, thank you so much. >> Thank you for having me. >> Um, >> maybe we'll see you next time, Mark. Maybe not. Hopefully. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. This brings us to um item three on our agenda, which is audience recognition. There are no public members uh community members present to speak. Um is there anybody online who wishes to speak? All right. And we will move ahead. Um the next item on our agenda is our consent agenda for business of the board. I will say just before we um vote on these uh these are
039if you didn't get a chance to take a peek are highly anticipated for us on the board. I don't think it's exciting to anybody else. Um we had been working on a board policy handbook for new board members. Um and this was years of work for the board. um personal goals uh you know for us. So we were able to tweak what we needed to as we were writing um our manual which is really just a collection of our policies we did some word smithing on our on our policies. And so in order to get our policies to match our hopefully the newly adopted handbook we're about to vote on. Um that's why there's just to explain to anybody who is out there may be curious why why are we editing a big batch of
040policies that's why so um does anybody have anything they wish to break out from 4.1 through 4.3. All right in that case I'll take a motion for 4.1 through 4.3. >> So moved. >> Second. 4.1 Resolution to approve a memorandum of agreement partnership agreement with Growth Wellness Services LCSSWPLLC. 4.2 Resolution to adopt revised policies board manual. Uh 4.3 Resolution to adopt the board manual. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I opposed. Abstensions. All right. Um we'll mark that goal off for just great job everybody. >> Yes. Um next is on our consent agenda is business office matters. Does anybody have anything from 5.1 through 5.3 that they wish to break out? All right. Seeing none, I'll take a motion for 5.1 through 5.3. >> So moved. >> Second. >> 5.1. Resolution regarding interfund transfers. Oh,
041I'm sorry. I need 5 point we have for information only in the middle here. 5.1 resolution regarding interfund transfers. 5.3 resolution to accept donation of tickets to neighbors link program is Melanie uh Ku. Any discussion? All in favor? I >> opposed abstensions. >> Does anybody have anything from our personnel matter section that they wish to break out? >> Uh 6.12. >> Okay. All right. I'll take a motion for 6.1 through 6.11 and 6.13. So moved. >> Second. >> 6.1 Resolution regarding professional staff tenure appointments. 6.2 Resolution regarding support staff resignations. 6.3 Resolution regarding administrative staff appointments. 6.4 Resolution regarding professional staff appointments. 6.5 Resolution regarding civil service staff appointments. 6.6 Resolution regarding support staff appointments. 6.7 Resolution regarding bus attendant appointments. 6.8 Resolution regarding professional staff appointments before after school programs. 6.9 Resolution regarding support
042staff appointments before after school programs. 6.10 Resolution regarding PDM substitute removals. 6.11 Resolution regarding PDM substitute appointments. 6.13 Resolution regarding support staff requests for a leave of absence. Is there any discussion? All in favor? I >> opposed abstensions. I'll take a motion for 6.12. >> So moved. >> Second. >> 6.12. Resolution regarding approval of school volunteers. Any discussion? >> All in favor? I >> I >> opposed. Abstensions. >> I'm going to abstain because I think I'm on this list. >> Thank you to all of our volunteers. >> Thank you. Of course, always to all of our volunteers. Um, moving ahead to 7.1 board policies. So, we're not going to take this one as a consent. We're going to discuss it. And I think um Alita, you may be prepared to talk about it with us.
043So, this was this came up as an issue um last year with a lot of questions around staff um going on um professional development um conferences and they were concerned about whether or not they would be reimbured for sales tax. So I worked with our internal auditors and they said um yes they will be um the school district itself should not be paying sales tax and if it does it has to be a justifiable reason like a letter from the vendor saying stating it won't pay. So he suggested our internal auditor suggested internal claims auditor suggested that we just make this part of our policy going forward. But I was able to respond to the concerns and um sent out a memo memo to the staff members that were concerned last year. Um but he
044suggested that we put it in our um our policy. Any questions from board members? It's not an issue with this policy. Um, but I am curious if do we have a policy for reimbursing? I know we have volunteers all over the district that are asked to, you know, hey, could you go get this for the club or go get that for the club? And I I do we have a policy? I think the policy is they can't be reimbursed like a district personnel has to purchase, but is there a way to write a policy so that they could be reimbursed? Hypothetical question doesn't have to be answered tonight. This just got my thought process going. >> I'll provide an update in the weekend update. So just for clarity sake to give maybe a real life
045example let's say we have board members who went to NISBA two weeks ago and bought a train ticket. All right and they're going to submit their expenses and I and they paid tax because they just paid in the app. Let's say >> hypothetically they would be reimbursed for the price of the ticket inclusive of the sales tax. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> All right. So I guess my question is is there a way to write a policy on this that hypothetically could include approved board approved volunteers? Like is that a would our what would our auditors say about that I guess is the question >> I'll ask them. >> Are you saying board approved like the list of board what you approved tonight? >> Yeah like board you know the school volunteers that are
046vetted that that the board approves per you know we had some school volunteers that were approved on tonight's agenda the last agenda the one before that. Is there a way to facilitate because I know I know like people throughout the district find it very frustrating and this just I just had a brain splinter of maybe there's a way if it's permissible to facilitate it. >> I'll check with our auditors. Any further discussion on this? >> All right. I'll take a motion for 7.1. >> So moved. >> Second. 7.1 resolution to adopt policy 6830 expense reimbursement as a first reading. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Abstensions. >> All right, we find ourselves upon our next audience recognition. I'm seeing still no members of our community here to comment in person. Is there anybody
047online? Thank you. And now we are at board reports and dialogue. Would anybody from any committees like to give an update? First, I'll say the policy committee met um and I think it was in Alita's update. I'm I'm trying to remember where I read about it. Where was it just or maybe it was Mary's update? I don't remember. We were updated that the policy committee had met and was deciding which pol like how to approach um our policy committee meetings as far as balancing policies as they come up goals from the board and um NISBA recommended policies that as they arise and even older, you know, at some point several years ago, our policy manual was we we paid for an audit of it basically through NISBA and they had some recommended changes. uh we
048kind of chip away at those over the years. Um so that was basically what the meeting was is a discussion on how to balance those priorities. So that's what was happening in that committee. Um any other did any other committees meet? >> There was an equity committee meeting. Mary did give an update in hers but um it was really good. They broke out into groups. We broke out into groups and each group did a took a study and figured out like the problems during that time period of the study and what the recommendations were and compared it to current day and it's just interesting. Um, the curriculum committee was set to have its inaugural launching of the committee, but it had to be rescheduled, and I don't think we have the date yet, but just
049in case anybody was tracking that, it actually hasn't met yet. >> Maria, >> thank you. Um, based on the responses, we will be holding it December 3rd. emails will be going out tomorrow morning. >> Um, I did want to bring up a potential policy to discuss, but before I brought it up in um the policy committee meeting, I wanted to kind of take the temperature of the board. So, um, we do have a student exeicio uh board policy. It is something we've had for years and so it's a little bit thin. It's only a couple paragraphs long and uh so when this new law came out that we have to have a student exeicio member, we were in compliance because we did have a policy matching that number >> and the practice of of having
050a student at the board table. Uh NISBA has since released a more robust policy. Um, and yet I still find myself and Owen. Um, it feels a little bit um, very new. I would say Owen's very active in this role and it has highlighted some stress points for me as far as what's appropriate and what's not. How much how often should we be meeting? We don't have a formal mentor system for example. What kind of work should he really be putting forth to us? And so I think there's an opportunity to um or even you know what happens if Owen gets suspended from school. Okay, I'm not actually worried about it, but it is something that would be good to have a plan for. If Owen moves, what if Owen's family moves? You know, then
051what do we do? So, um there's been a a few kind of questions that have been are surfacing, I would say, during this process. Um, for me where I would feel as though it might be beneficial to have a little bit more structure than what we have in our policy currently. So I would ask that the policy committee consider looking at that NISBA policy, maybe making some tweaks and going from there, but I didn't want to go straight to the policy committee. I wanted to bring it to the table. So I'm opening up the floor for some thoughts if we want to have a discussion about that. And just to add to it, uh within um Owen, I apologized to Owen. Owen, we should have a policy on this and we don't like because Owen
052had some it would became painfully obvious within minutes of doing so because there was a little bit of a disconnect between what Nisba said, what Westp said, and then we had nothing in writing like Owen's report, how long they said 8 to 10 minute there. There was nothing in writing about this. So it's not fair to the student exeicio member of it and policy dictates so much of what we all do. So um I think the NISSBA policy is a good place to start but um we'd love to create a policy and um we're lucky to have Owen in the seat this year to help us through this but moving forward it's a good thing to have. >> Yeah. I think um the one thing that I mean as you you both just said like
053going to the the Westbutt training and then going to the NISSBA training like there are different messages and there's not like a a specific thing to say or to do or how it was really kind of what we make of it kind of and there wasn't guidelines around it. You know, obviously conversations that we've had have kind of cleared it up a little bit, but having that at the beginning, I think would be helpful for whoever fills in for me or succeeds me. >> I remember having to say to Owen, I said, "Oh, and um these meetings are not mine. I happen to attend them, you know, like I'm just I I attend the meetings of the board of education." So, it's a it's a subtle but important difference because it speaks to a governance
054structure. So, yeah. So, I went to there was a workshop at the moment. Am I on? >> I don't think you're on. >> Oh, wait. Now you are. Am I on now? >> Yeah. >> Can you hear me? I can't hear you. >> I can't hear you. >> You sound soft. >> It's It's It's the mic. >> Okay. >> All right. So, I'll just project um Thanks. I went to there was a uh workshop at the conference. It was called uh student board representatives more than just a mandate and it was the Kenmore Tana Wanda uh Union Free School District is in way upstate New York that did the presentation. So they have been doing this way before it was a mandate. So they have a really good um procedure in place and they actually
055there was a student board representative representative that happened to also attend the workshop and she was sharing some of her perspectives. Um, one thing that was um, interesting is that we are one of the only like areas that are actually even now giving some type of toutelage with that workshop. As we know, Owen is our second student board representative and I've been thinking since last year with Aaliyah of how we can be a bit more supportive um, and and whoever is is taking on that role. Um, one thing I find is a common thread is that most boards have two student members, right? One is usually a junior and another a senior so that there can be either if they want to share responsibility they can either both come or if one can't make it
056they kind of like you know tag team but most importantly there is a mentorship opportunity um in place as well. One thing that really stood out to me about their process, just going to the point Omen made around consistency of messaging with the with the trainings that are offered, they do they have their own councils and their own kind of support system pipeline that they have, if you will, um to kind of mentor students who may want to see seek leadership positions. And then they have a whole process for uh of course for um people applying who are interested in the role. But the the key takeaway was that they have their own um program, if you will, to mentor leadership um within the student population that starts as young as the uh the middle
057school there. Um they actually have three different high schools there as well, too. So, they have a lot going on. Um but I those are just some tips. I can forward the slide to the board as we start to entertain this conversation around the developing the policy. But I agree and I've been thinking about this since last year of how we can um make sure we're we're we're helping whoever is um interested in this role um succeed as much as possible and and really thrive in that role. Yeah, I can actually say that. Um, I've been talking with Miss Langley the past couple weeks and we're we're trying to figure out a process for who is going to fill in for me next year and how we're going to kind of look at that and
058how it's going to look like. Um, because, you know, we're not really sure yet. But the one thing that we we do want to happen is to have this process be as fast as possible so we can have someone for the end of this year so they can kind of shadow me in this role and see how it is. Um that's that's the big thing that we want to do and then maybe in the future have two people maybe one one person looks at the elementary schools and the other person is um focused more on the middle and the high school. And then the other thing we're doing is um sometime in mid November uh there's a a club summit for all of our OS clubs and we're Miss Langley and I are going to
059use that as kind of an advisory committee. Um so we're going to we've got already put together some questions for um for the students to get their opinions on different things. So hopefully that can kind of give us some guidance on um where to go and what what it's going to look like. >> Um to echo what Melissa was saying, when I um went to the NISSBA leadership and education event, I think they call it in August in Albany. Um there were similar presentations because a lot of school districts are also figuring it out. Um, and it was Skenctity who is presenting and they have like a whole squad of student reps that kind of like rotate through and some of them like they'll maybe a few will attend the meeting but only one will
060sit at the table and then they kind of take turns. Like there's there's a lot of possibilities for how we could make it work so that it doesn't have to be just one student for example. Um, it's just there's a lot of things the little things that have been popping up. So, um >> well, we have two sample policies that we could look at to start the work at Tana and um Skynctity. >> Yeah. >> Um does anybody oppose the policy committee taking a look at this? We get like a green light. >> It's a great idea. >> Okay. Um Mary, you wanted to talk about this. >> I just had one more thing. >> Oh, I'm sorry, Melissa. >> No worries. Um, another I was just curious as well to entertain a consideration around
061another workshop I had attended which I thought was was also some it was interesting because you know a few of the workshops I attended were things that were kind of tickling the back of my mind and to see them as workshops at the conference was um refreshing. Another one was growing a school-based mental health workforce pipeline. Right. So actually having curriculums in place um with credit programs that support the pathways uh for people who are seeking to be in the mental health field. Um and the individuals that presented this um have developed a copyrighted very comprehensive um curriculum in collaboration with the Boseies um in their area um and a lot of other uh uh collaborators. Uh one thing I thought particularly interesting about this is that it may not be well known but most
062clinicians and um people who are in just the field of mental health are not often you know trained to deal with the atypical population and this curriculum um also has room for that in there as well which makes it pretty unique. Um, so I was just, you know, I wanted to share that with the board and see what we thought about, um, you know, really creating those pathways. What's unique about this program is the credit system actually um allows whoever goes through this program to once they get, you know, to the college level eventually be able to work in the field um in sort of like a what would be considered like a a medical assistant, but in the mental health field. it'll be equivalent to that, which really isn't a role that really too
063much exists right now, but the credit system that they've um the curriculum that they've designed allows that um certification process. Um, right now you you really technically if you don't have at least a masters or something, you really are not doing much in the mental health field. But the way this curriculum you can at least be an assistant to those um those other professionals and it the way they designed it is really smart because there's um as we know there's a shortage in the mental health um field. And this actually helps um helps those other professionals who are usually bogged down with a lot of other tasks that they can't really focus on um the clinical aspect of their work. So that's a long spill just to kind of give some context to why I
064thought it was oppressive, but I'd like to share that with the board as well and figure out if we think that's something that our district would want to at least entertain the notion of. >> It sounds interesting to me. Melissa, did they talk at all about how they anticipated it kind of um piecing together with the portrait of a graduate because it sounds like a pathway. >> They act that's what was so impressive about it. They took all of that. It's right in line with that. They actually I'm glad you brought that up. I almost forgot to mention that. That's another piece that was very u impressive. They had it's a very comp comprehensive curriculum and it's designed through that model as well. So, they really put a lot of thought into this. It's really
065impressive, especially the fact that you can come through this program and actually be an assistant level um credentialed as an assistant level working in the fields until you you know if you want to have higher aspirations after that that's fine of course but it's a pathway that really doesn't exist right now. So, it really does help elevate the the resources that are needed in the field and it also promotes that which schools usually really don't do, right? There's really no pathways if you you really have to really seek those out if you want that. And it's really not until you graduate that you're really starting to be exposed to the opportunities. This curriculum and partnership with the Boseies programs has opportunities to shadow, go to different conferences, like really get that hands-on. It's a lot
066of shadowing you have to do to work in the mental health field um to even be, you know, to be on that pathway to get a degree. So, this helps you hit the ground running with that. So, >> anything that's kind of very career related to help transition somebody into a career like that, I think that's so invaluable. Um, and having something like that to help trans because it's hard to literally go from high school into and knowing how you pursue a path like that, it creates that level of an internship >> that people don't normally get and these are hard to get. >> Exactly. There's an info session on December 8th on Zoom and I can, you know, I'll share everything out whoever's interested in learning more about what they have to offer. >>
067I'm definitely interested. I wonder if the board would be interested if it would be the kind of thing we would have to advocate for at the Boseies level because it sounds like they run their program in partnership. >> Yes. So, yeah, it's all synced in. I mean, I don't I'm kind of like losing all the intricate details, but they they've >> dotted their eyes and crossed their tees. It's very impressive. >> I mean, if the board's interested, I can bring it up at Bosey's meeting next week if you want to send over some stuff. It sounds like that's one path. Maybe trying to loop in the future school health leaders program. You know, I know they're a little bit different, but it seems like >> similarity. Yeah. The name of the workshop was grow your
068own or something like so. It's it's sort of in line with the whole um >> you know, uh what is the acronym of today's student today's students tomorrow's teachers? Something like Yeah. >> Yeah. So >> I know Kim and I are >> very interested to see what you have there, Melissa. So >> what school district? >> Put her on the spot. >> I don't I got to look at the um I'll let you know. >> All right. Thank you, Melissa. Thank you. >> And I'll talk to Dr. Lopez about it as well. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Sounds like the board is in favor of that. I'm seeing no opposition. Feels like a green light. Um Mary, you wanted to bring up this Harrison meeting. Um >> yeah, it's I know I included in um
069a number of um couple of updates. Um the lower Hudson Council of School Superintendent two weeks from tonight is hosting a advocacy meeting, a press conference. They've invited lots of elected officials. um some school and and the agenda is very similar to many of the things we advocate for. Um there'll be a big presence there. Um but it is there are a number of us likeing that have a board meeting on that night and trying to reschedule that that often is more difficult than uh particularly next board meeting. We have Kim's presentation. We have students coming. We have multiple students coming. We we have a big agenda for that night. But I would be remiss though if I didn't bring it up here tonight to kind of just say to the board, you know, would
070do you want to send a representative? Do we, you know, um are you comfortable that the the other board members in the topics here in Westchester County will take care of our needs. Some of our needs are a little unique and different and not aligned with some of those. It's not to say that they don't support, it's just that it's not impacting some of them. So, I'm just bringing it up here for board discussion. That's all. >> I mean, I think those meetings are hugely productive. And so, I mean, I'd be amendable to trying to reschedule, but also if the minimum at a minimum sending somebody to that, you know, because I think you're right about kind of the tone of the region. It's going to be different and if our voices aren't represented, I've
071been in that role a lot. So, I think it's an important thing. So, I'm about available to either option, I guess, at the end of the day. I guess my question to you, Mary, is is do you feel it's essential? Do you think it would be good for you to be at that meeting? I wonder if that makes sense or not. >> Well, I would certainly be one of those who could attend. And I I know Kim will miss my presence tremendously. >> Well, we're not presenting to December 30. >> Oh, that's right, Ellie. What's on what's on for the next meeting? >> The data. Oh, the date of conversation. Kathy Connley. No, I can't miss that meeting. Sorry. Can't miss that meeting. >> Yeah. >> But >> so if we're not rescheduling and we're
072looking for a board representative to go, I'd be happy to do it. But I'll leave that to the board to talk about. >> That sounds fine with me. I don't >> You're it. >> Either option is is fine with me. Um I I don't mind rescheduling the meeting if it is you know like the other people who are presenting if that's good with them >> um I can be flexible >> well we can easily on our end we could reschedu those folks Kathy's our data consultant for the year so it's all right >> I'm okay with rescheduling if that's not a cumbersome process >> when when would like when we say reschedule is that like we move it to another time do we add a meeting. Do what does that actually look like? >> It
073could be any or all of the above. We could certainly move because it's Kim. We could schedule Kathy for the following and then move Kim's, you know, I mean, internally we could figure it out. That's that's my point >> is moving it to a t some I know in the past we've moved a Wednesday meeting to a Tuesday a couple of times. Is that just a possibility doing it the a day before? That would be my vote if I get a vote. >> Yeah, it' be fine with me, too. So, we're talking about then the >> This is the 12th, right? Or >> this is the >> the 19th >> 19. So, moving it to the 18th. >> 18. >> Yeah. And in the meantime, what we can do is though we can look um
074to see if Kathy's available for the 18th. And if not, we can flip-flop Kathy and Kim. I Sorry, Kim. Anyway, we'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. >> I'm I'm fine with trying to res if it becomes clear that it can't be rescheduled, sending Frank instead. That's fine with me. I would always vote for Mary to go to those meetings, but so so so I think there's just a huge voice there and will be re well received. So I think if we could it would be the best of all solutions. If not >> as a as a poor >> replace Nicole and and Illy know they Lou called me several times. Can can you get there Mary? >> Okay. Sounds like we'll look into rescheduling. >> Annie Melissa. >> Yeah. So I'm on board.
075All right. >> Okay. >> Um, anything else for Bordila? >> And it's Sica Falls School District. Sorry. >> Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> History there, too. >> Um, I wanted to bring up we have not had a governance committee meeting. Um, so I was just going to send an email around to the folks on that committee. um trying to throw out some dates to just get one on the books. I think we're like on track. Um but it's probably a good idea just to have a practice of meeting as a reminder that committee is Katherine, Melissa, and Roger with Annie as the alternate. So maybe somebody on that committee can send out an email and set something up. >> Yeah, I'm going to send I'll send it up right now.
076Okay, >> great. Thank you. >> Anything else for board dialogue? Sorry. Anything else for board dialogue? Just generally speaking, since we are on the topic of committees, um we still we're still following the same practice as last year where we're kind of it's going to get like put into our calendars or when these the meetings that we're not chairing ourselves, right? Like you know, governance is our committee. >> Um are we still getting going to get like the invites and stuff like that so everyone's on the page >> just so that we could see the calendar of activities? I think that that's a practice that I would think we should continue doing. So I don't know. >> Were we all getting all of Well, everybody who's on that committee plus the alternate would get so
077that way it wouldn't be a surprise if someone couldn't make it. You were already kind of prepped to >> correct. Have been Have you not been? >> When you say have been for what like communications or something? >> I've been like for example with this uh curriculum committee. It was on my calendar when it was scheduled and it was rescheduled it. >> Yeah. Well, I'm not on Yeah, that's what I mean. But I've been receiving a calendar update for that. >> Okay. >> But you're not on the committee and you're getting what you're saying. >> No, I am on the committee and then I'm on the policy committee. That stuff has been appearing on my calendar. Has it not been appearing? >> Well, the policy committee. Yeah. Because we kind of Okay. Again, that's like
078a board driven committee. I think the real question or even conversation was around the other committees that we are kind of just showing up to that we're not chairing or scheduling. Right. We're scheduling governance. We're scheduling policy, right? We're not scheduling any of the ones. We're just showing up to those. >> So, uh that's the that's where the conversation came from before is are there save the dates being made and if so, are we being included on that? That was I was just asking if we're still following that practice. >> I thought are they on the overall calendar? I thought that's how we were doing it. like they they should be populated on the overall calendar and then if you're on the committees you get the invites >> whoever's on the committee plus alternate should
079be getting the invites. >> I I admitted I don't have the I don't really check the calendar as much as I should. Full disclosure I don't know if they've been populated in the calendar or not this year. >> Well I I know the committee the committee once I'm on they they show up. I'm looking so for example the U BOE Google calendar has I I see the policy committee meeting and I see a separate thing on my own schedule that's the invite to the meeting itself >> right but again you're referencing the policy committee which is one that we're >> seeing them here >> do you see equity on there because that would be one that's not like a BOE driven Where did it meet when any >> that that one just met this past
080week? >> Yeah. >> Met last last week. >> Yeah. >> I don't >> So we don't have to like >> So that's not on there. >> The explore and learn is on there for example. Okay. >> So, there may be some inconsistency like the the Brookside um students of distinction is on there for example as a >> another you know board. >> I can put it on the governance committee agenda. >> Sure. >> And then we can follow follow through on it. >> All right. I'll take a last call for uh >> it's good >> um board dialogue. It's nice to have a short enough meeting that we have room to breathe and we can discuss those things. >> All right, seeing no more business, I'll uh take a motion to enter into executive session
081for the purpose of consulting with our legal counsel. >> Second. All right. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Abstensions. Thank you.