001um like to call to order uh the Wednesday, March 19th, 2025 board of education special meeting. Um I will lead us in the pledge this evening. All right, let's start off with our superintendent update from Selter. Um, good evening everyone. I want to thank um the board of education for a very productive Saturday and I want to thank the board also for scheding this additional meeting. We are able to um uh add the demographers report and have our dual a language report. Um Nancy is here this evening and again we can continue our budget discussions from sat Saturday. So, just a little um shout out. First of all, if you were, it's not that you need any night for Austining High School to be packed and different and busy, but tonight um they put on
002the Adams family performance for um a lot of seniors were there and many of them were dressed up to go to their prom afterwards. So, it was a busy night at the high school. Um lots of energy, lots of energy, lots of teams practicing. It just you could find a parking spot. Kids coming in and out, but happy. It was just lovely. Um I I want to give a huge shout out to the Austining High School marching band because they represented our school district in um two parades for St. Patrick's Day. um the one in New York City now having uh in another life um tried to get a slot in that parade in Manhattan when I was leading clubs in a private school. It's impossible. So the fact that Austining High School it gets
003to march in that parade I think it's one of the longest and largest parades in the world is absolutely phenomenal and their new uniforms look just great. They also then got to participate um in the Terry Town and Sleepy Hollow St. Patrick's Day parade. And some friends of mine were there showed me pictures. And again, the uniforms look great. The kids sounded amazing. I want to give a shout out to Miriam and Mike Rizzo for speaking to our Austining High School students about career opportunities in the music industry. you know, the more you listen to them and the more you take a look at the industry today, there's so much merging between music and technology and the possibilities are endless. And I can't think of two more enthusiastic individuals to speak about that than Miriam
004and Mike. So, I want to thank them. Um, again, the um Adams family production is this uh weekend, Saturday and Sunday at 7 PM in the auditorium. It's a fantastic show. Everything from the acting to the costumes to the lighting just just delicious. Um we kicked off the month of March with all about the love of reading. Our students our readathon students are at it and our kids have been have exciting mystery readers, interactive readalongs and funfilled theme day. I want to give a huge shout out to our awesomeing um OEC PTA for hosting a readathon and for encouraging all our kids to join and for involvement in all things reading. And a big thank you to Austining Matters. I know we had many board members there who had uh what I heard was an
005excellent fundraiser this past weekend. Um on March 20th from 6 to 8:00 PM at Park School, just mark your calendars if you need to. We're having a information session on navigating the transition from CPSSE to CSE. I want to thank Kim and her staff. These are always informative things and um a lot of times people really do need to know that information and understand it. We are ready to rock your socks for the World Down Syndrome uh day on March 21st and join us in spreading awareness and wear your most colorful slots. Open up those drawers and see what you can find. On March 25th at 6 PM at Park, we have kindergarten orientation. That's always super special. And Park preK registration for the 2526 school year is taking place. continue to spread the news.
006I appreciate the social media shoutouts and the information that's going out to remind our parents to sign up for prek. And that's my update. All right. Thank you, Mary. And we have no student here today to give us an update. So, we have that's not on our agenda tonight. And our uh next thing on our agenda is uh public comment. The first public comment is intended to be for agenda items only and should not 10 minutes. Do we have anybody here who wishes to speak? Seeing none, do would you like to? Is it agenda related? Okay. Um, before you start, I need to read our guidelines just so we are all on the same page. Uh, we're about to begin the first public comment period of our meeting. Although state law does not require us
007to hold a public comment period, we have chosen to do so because we believe it is crucial for us to hear from our residents, district taxpayers, students, and school personnel about their concerns and issues. Having said that, please note that the board is here to listen. Uh the public comment period is not designed to be a discussion. Accordingly, please do not expect the board to necessarily respond to your concerns and questions tonight. We take your concerns and questions seriously and want to have sufficient time to process and research issues if need be. We will however respond to your questions and concerns at a future meeting or have the proper staff member get back to you at the appropriate time. Under state and federal privacy laws, we are unable to entertain any comments or questions about
008school personnel or individual student matters. Please know, however, that we take personnel concerns very seriously. On these matters, we would ask you go through the appropriate administrative channels. We want our schoolboard meetings to serve as an example to our students that members of our schoolboard and members of our community can deal with controversial issues in a civil manner and demonstrate mutual respect for one another. In that spirit, we will insist that all speakers and members of the audience maintain civility and respect for any divergent views that others possess. We ask that speakers please address their comments to the board directly rather than the audience. During the first uh public comment period, speakers may address only items pertinent to tonight's meeting agenda. During the second comment period can address any school related topic. I want to
009remind everyone that you may submit written comments to the board via our BOENUFSD.org email in lie of or in addition to speaking during the public comment period. In the unlikely event the meeting becomes unruly, the board will recess the meeting and return once order has been restored. Each individual speaker is allotted up to three minutes. The individual time limits will be enforced so that as many members of the public who wish to speak may be allowed to do so. And to respect other board business that is being conducted tonight. Before speaking, please share your name and address. You can come up now. Okay. All right. Then we'll move on to our work session tonight with 3.1 demographers report which I think our demographers joining us virtually this evening. Good evening. Can you hear me? Yes,
010we can. Thank you. We're ready for you, Christina, whenever you're ready to start. Okay. Would you like me to present my screen? Uh, we don't have uh our tech person does not have your presentation, so if you wouldn't mind, that would be great. No problem. Um, it says that the host disabled the screen sharing. She's working on it. Give us a moment. We're excited to have Christina join us from Western. This is her first time presenting because Barbara retired. Go ahead and try now again, Christina. Okay. It will not let me. It's saying I have to restart my computer. I apologize. Um, I did send it over though. It's incred. I can try a different way. We're working. We're working on it. Give us a moment. Thanks for patience. Of course. Okay. Are we ready
011for Christina to talk? Go ahead, Christina. We can see the slideshow for on our end. Great. Thank you. Um, good evening. Thank you for having me. At the request of the ASN Union Free School District, the Western Suffach Boy's Office of School Planning and Research conducted this study to assess recent demographic factors and enrollment trends to prepare projections through the 2033 2034 school year. Our office has conducted more than 1400 studies for districts across New York since 1985. These studies are designed to help districts plan for the future using long range demographic enrollment projections. We've worked with districts and counties such as Duchess, Nassau, Orange, Putin, Rockland, Suffach, and Westchester. Here we see the key components typically involved in the study. It is divided into two main sections, demographics and enrollment. The demographic section focuses
012on various factors including birth rates, housing data, population statistics, and the state right statewide enrollment figures for non-public and charter schools. These elements are essential in understanding the broader context and background of the population being studied. The enrollment section focuses on the trends observed over the past 10 years, the patterns of student migration from one grade to the next, and an analysis of birth persistence. These aspects are crucial in tracking and predicting changes in student enrollment overtime. By analyzing both components, we then calculate projected enrollment over the next 10 years by district, school, and grade in order to ensure we are using the most accurate and up-to-date data. These are some of the many research sources that we use. We consistently track the accuracy of our projections. This shows the accuracy of Western Suffach Bosey's
013enrollment projections for the 2425 school year for the ANI school district. The projected K through2 enrollment was 4,637 students while the actual enrollment was slightly higher at 4,733 students resulting in a difference of 96 students and an accuracy rate of 98%. The chart provides a breakdown of enrollment by grade configuration comparing actual versus projected numbers. Although there are slight discrepancies between the projected and actual figures across the categories, the projections are fairly close to the actual enrollment demonstrating a high degree of accuracy. I would like to note while we use data-driven models to project enrollment as accuracy accurately as possible, one of the variables that adds a layer of unpredictability is the nature of the local housing market, particularly the high volume of rental properties. Unlike owner occupied homes, rentals tend to have higher turnover
014rates, making it more difficult to anticipate exactly how many school age children will move in and out of the district year to year. this transient population can create fluctuations in student enrollment that are harder to forecast um with precision. So now we're going to look at the demographics. So this chart shows that Westchester County reported 12,87 births in 2002. Although there was a 4.4% 4% postcoid increase in births from 2020 to 2021. The burst still declined by 1.5% over the next year with 9,913 bursts reported in 2022. This represents an overall decline of 22.6% over the 20-year historical period. Birth trends are critical to enrollment projections. The number of births and asing between 2012 and 2022 helps us estimate the size of upcoming kindergarten cohorts and informs future enrollment expectations. We see from 2012 to
0152022 the number of births fluctuated with a noticeable peak in 2015 at 476 births. However, there was a significant decline in 2020 with the number of births dropping to 352, the lowest in the decade. The data from 2022 shows a slight recovery with births. Here we see that the district resident population shows a steady increase from 2000 with three 33,047 residents to 2020 where we see 36,973 residents. Both the population count and the percentage of total district residents for the 5 to9 teen age group increased from 2010 to 2020. The 65 and older age segment has grown from 13.3% of the population to 17.4% during this period. The median age in the district has also grown from 39.5 to 41 years in 2020. Housing turnover in the school district was the lowest level of the
016historical period in 2014 when 227 units were sold. Subsequently, sales have fluctuated with a peak of 382 units in 2021 and there were 264 sales reported in 2023. Simultaneously, there was a change in median home sales price in the school district. Home sales also increased. They were at a low in 2013 with a median price of $367,750. There was a significant increase since then. In 2023, the median home sales price was 575,000. We also look at upcoming housing projects in the district. The village of Austining reported that the water street project will add 109 affordable housing units with groundbreaking expected in early 2025. Based on the Ruter's yield, it's estimated to bring between 21 to 37 new students depending on the final housing configuration. The estimate the estimate has not been added to the projected
017enrollment since we do not have a set completion date yet. Now, let's look at our enrollment trends. This slide illustrates a trend in Westchester County where we see enrollment over a 10-year period. The graph shows a decline in the number of students starting with 146,341 students in 2013 and dropping to 136,514 students by 2023. This represents a total of loss of 9,827 students or about 6.7% over the decade. The most significant declines appear to have occurred between 2018 and 2021 with enrollment numbers falling consistently each year. And then from 2021 to 2023, we see that enrollment numbers are still declining but more at a stable rate. Austin's K through2 enrollment increased from 4,652 students in 2014, hitting a peak in 2018 at 4,833 students, reflecting a gain of 181 students. But since then, enrollment declined
018for the next four consecutive years. The last two years in 2023 and 2024 have a small gain each year. The current year enrollment of 4,733 students represents an overall gain of 81 students during that historical period. Projection suggest a loss of 170 students by 2034, bringing the total down to 4563 students by 2034. The chart shows the historical and projected enrollment for rates K through five from 2014 to 2034. Between 2014 and 2024, the historical enrollment data indicates an overall loss of 102 students. The projected enrollment of 2025 to 2034 suggests a continued decline with a high of 281 students and a low of 1,971 students reflecting an overall loss of 45 students. This chart displays the enrollment trends from 2014 to 2034. The historical enrollment data from 2014 to 2024 shows an overall loss
019of 20 students. Projected enrollment shows a high of 1,116 students in 2027 and a low of 1,030 students in 2030. This projected period anticipates an overall gain of 28 students. This chart shows the enrollment trends for grades 9 through 12 from 2014 to 2034. The historical enrollment data from 2014 to 2024 indicates fluctuations with a peak of 1599 students and a low of 1380 students resulting in overall gain of 233 23 students over the historical period. The projected enrollment from 2025 to 2034 again shows continued fluctuations peaking at 1,635 students in 2029 before declining to 1530 students by 2034. Overall, the projections indicate an overall loss of 53 students over the next decade. And here we see the factors impacting the projected enrollment. So, district enrollment peaked in 2018 where 4,833 students were enrolled, but
020there have been losses recorded in four of the last six years. Kindergarten enrolled more than 350 students in six of the last 10 years. There are currently 340 students enrolled in 2024. However, projections indicate that kindergarten cohorts will remain below 350 students, ranging within 319 to 349 stu students during the next 10 years, except for 2026 when 362 students are expected. The incoming kindergarten classes were smaller than the exiting 12th grade classes of the previous eight years, eight of the last 10 years. This China is expected to continue with losses of 79 to 169 students each year through 2034 due to this displacement. Migration ratios also show year-to-year fluctuations. On average, the district gains students transitioning to grades 1 2 and then 8 through 12. It maintains students in movements from grades three through five
021and grade seven. And then there's an average loss reported in the sixth grade. All right. Thanks, Christina. Um, I'm going to open it up to the board if they have any questions of you. Roger, you'd like to start. I don't know if you can hear me. Can you hear me? Christina, thank you so much for this presentation. Um, you know, appreciate all of the facts and data and honestly this is always one of my favorite times of gathering this information, understanding a bit more about our demographics and what the trends are. had some questions specifically on the projection aspect of it because I was a little bit more curious in terms of um how this comes about because if you look at um let's go to I think it's slide 15 16 sorry slide 16
022on the chart which shows the K through 12 enrollment. Yeah. Uh yeah, that's the one. Yes. Yes, this is the one. So um I I see if I look at the historical enrollments and I'm I'm taking just more of a pattern of just that drop and then upward spike. Okay, I get that because those are actual numbers of what's what's gone on. And then I know also the the piece of more of like the political dynamic, national political dynamic perhaps has some play into some of this, but I'm just looking at this in and just, you know, thinking in terms of is that realistic for so this is going to be two-part question about this particular graph. Is it realistic to say that we're going to see a spike up that's going to be higher
023in 26 27? Well, 26 and 27 and 28 tend to be flat. Is that realistic from that perspective that it's going to go up that much? I mean, I I was kind of surprised because I was expecting maybe because of what's happening at that level that that that would have an adverse impact and that, you know, I was a little worried when um honestly before I saw this that you know, oh my goodness, what's this going to look like because of what's going on there. That's one thing, but and it doesn't look like your data, you know, you're you're looking and I'm just trying to understand like what's driving that up. Then if you get to 2031, so then it's 2030 and 2031 that kind of normalizes with what you're projecting for this year, you
024know, to some degree and there's a slight spike up, but it's negligible. But then all of a sudden, it's a precipitous decline. And that precipitous decline, it looks pretty dramatic. And I'm not understanding why that d decline would be so dramatic. I mean, and the reason why I'm saying this is partly because historically just what I've known and I know that there the data is showing you slight differences here, but we've always been a community of where we would have a lot of new to the US, new new toing English language learners, regardless where they've come from. we've always been that kind of community where there's been a lot of that and we've been that you know a community that's grown from that um for that reason. So, I'm, you know, and I know that
025there's perhaps some other extenduating factors in all this, but this I'm ju I was just a little surprised when I first saw this, like, wow, why would we spike up and then be flat given what's going on out out in the world that we're in? And then what's the 2031 to 2034 that just seems so sharp in all of that that I I just was struggling a bit to understand why so precipitous of a decline. Absolutely. So what we look at is first we look at the birth rates, right? So if you see on the historical period, we use those trends with birth rates to see what the actual kindergarten cohorts um led through the migration period. So we have that data from the historical period to be able to use that to see moving
026forward what has it looked like in the past and what is it going to look like going you know 10 years. So when we see the birth rates are kind of fluctuating as you see in this slide, we can take that to predict the kindergarten cohorts. So we do see that the kindergarten cohorts are also going to vary. We see um if you go all the way to the last slide. Thank you. So that third bullet where it says the incoming kindergarten class is smaller than the exiting 12th grade, that also is going to vary. So the losses are ranging from 79 to 169 students. So we're starting with less losses in the beginning where you see that the kindergarten cohorts are going to be bigger which with immigration period means those class sizes are
027going to be bigger. Um so we we do see also that there is a an increase in the elementary school level projected. So once we get to that 79 169 those higher losses is where we see that starting to dip down. Okay. So, the kindergarten classes coming in are much smaller than those 12th grade classes that were graduating. Gotcha. So, if I'm understanding correctly, and this is because I need this clarification in my head just so it all soaks in. The the this assumes for all intents and purposes is that everything staying static what that the birth rates of those families that are currently there that those will decline. It doesn't assume any new to the US, new to using families that may have come in and and now they're enrolled in our school. So,
028it doesn't assume all of that in there. just assumes some level of static of what you currently have in there because I I just get I just get a little skittish if it if we say that it's all blended in there when you know it's this has just been a community that's grown from what what we have had a lot of new to us new of course well we don't have those specific numbers for incoming students but we do look at students that come throughout the school years. So all the data that was given to us is not just in October. We also look at June, how many students ended the year because a lot of times there's gains in January or February. So we take that into consideration as well. It's not just the
029start of the school year and that's it. We look at how is that also fluctuated throughout the school year so that we can make sure we're using those towards our projections for the next year as well. Okay. So is is it safe to say from my perspective this is just right now a general what what it looks like today but you know as you go out to like some of these outer years you know it it starts to kind of like lose a little bit more of that stability in projection because your stability and projection will probably be closer in to correct in the first five years of projections but then after that you know it it just it's a little bit more unstable in terms of the projectability. Is that fair to say? And
030the reason why I'm asking that is because I'm looking at this and I'm thinking in my head, you know, what this looks like for student teacher ratio, what this looks like a lot of different things that are going through my head right now. And I'm just trying to understand is that more is it more stable in the first five years of projection post 2024 and post 2029 that that's actually it starts to lose the stability. Is that a fair statement? I would say that's fair. Um, of course, anything that shorter period of time is easier to project. But that's not to say that something can't happen next year that can completely change this and we've seen that in the past. Okay. But overall, we've really have maintained about a 4% accuracy over the 10-year projections.
031This is why we continue to do that. But we do have districts that come along every few years and get that update. And if we do see anything new with the trends over the last few years, we're able to also put that into our reports and change the projections. All right. So I just want point of clarity on what you said there. So your mean average projection error rate with is a plus or minus 4% on this two actual that's what you just said and that stability rate holds probably for the first few years in your projections correct seen that over the 10-year period that we projected but like I said anything could happen over those 10 years so you know it could happen in one year it could happen 10 years but yes we
032hold about 4% accuracy rate okay I I think that answers my question because I think a lot of what is being projected here is, you know, it it makes more sense to me that, you know, it's probably like the first five years after, you know, you probably have a stronger um stability rate on the data. Okay. Thank you. Y I also think um Christina a year ago, November, I think Barbara left us with an overall decrease of 200. So this is less than that only because I was looking at it recently for some reports. So again fluctuating getting tighter and it was you know a year ago November when she left us with that that number per se. So out of a school district of like 4,300 4,500 a fluctuation of under 200 over a
03310year period. It's a big fluctuation. I I get it. I guess I'm just trying to get to right I I agree with you understand I was just trying to look at this if I look at the highs and lows right and following a a moving average on this one the the stability of the moving average on the remaining five years it falls within a plus or minus it's like 4.3% right that's roughly what that is if you actually used a forecasted rate based upon historical and use the birth rate soon as you get towards like 2030 actually 20 29 that mean average percentage error stability falls to like about 11%. Um, so that's why I was asking about that. So, and and I want to just be sure as we're looking at that that in
034in some of that it's hard to kind of understand some of those variables that drive that in the it's just a little bit more of a general guideline. It's not going to be that's exactly and this is over 13 grade levels. Yes. Correct. But if you look at them individually discreetly in the That's where that's where you start to see a drop off. And the drop off comes and there isn't really anything discernable as to why that might drop off. It's just the stability rate starts to kind of fall off at a certain point. I just want to make sure I'm not misunderstanding. No. And and you were accurate in what you said that they don't they can't control for rentals, right? No, that's right. And and the also the new the US new correct.
035Can I also add another point? Um so also with the housing projects, we can't really always determine when they're going to be completed. So the Walter Walter Street project is anticipated to begin in 2025 and that can estimate anywhere from 21 to 37 students. So you know once that's completed that could also reflect in this 10 years projection. So that could also change things by then as well. So you know there are there are things that we can't predict. We anticipate as much as we can like these new projects. We reach out to all the housing um planning um you know planning developments, but we can't really predict when they're actually going to be finished. There are a lot that were anticipated that the leases uh ran out and so they're not actually going forward
036with the project. So there are a lot of other variables as well. The board has that in their full report. That's not the only one. There are others, right? There are others in there. Rob, do you have any Frank, I saw your pencil move. Do you have any? No, I mean I guess I don't really have a question, but I guess if you could confirm for me. So, what's interesting, one of the things that's interesting in the presentation is the high school will reach its peak enrollment between 2028 and 2031. And that number is probably a fairly accurate number because that's students that are in the buildings now. Correct. I mean, we're not expect, you know, anything can change given year to year, but these are the kids now. they all follow through. Um, so
037I just want to confirm that. Correct. That projection based off of really who's already in the school. Exactly. And we also use the yeartoear migration ratios. So determining how many students leave the district after each school year um in each grade level. So we see that from grades 1 to 8 and 12 that students are actually entering the school district. So we use that as well going forward. Okay. And so the, you know, listen, going 10 years out with anything is tough and 170 students projected being down. I guess from my standpoint, that would be 13 kids in each grade level. And we have more than 13 sections. So if it really did come to fruition, we might knock our class sizes down by one student, but we couldn't even eliminate one section if they
038were all evenly distributed, which I know isn't the case, but And if they all have the same needs. Right. Right. Right. So, so it's just, you know, so that's why we're going to get tighter in the high school and basically our class sizes are going to remain roughly the same as they are right now. And this that's where we landed during the bond conversation. It's not even a reduction of one section in a grade level. The other thing is I want to make sure that we're like with all the things that we still need with what we're going to have that space is still going to be very well used. you know, and that's why I don't want this to be misread. It's like, hey, yeah, it's gonna be a de, you know, you know
039what I mean? So, I think Annie, do you have any Melissa? Um, I just have a a couple things I want to, I guess, ask or share. I was looking at last year's enrollment um demographers report and there are some things in that one that aren't mentioned in here uh including our ethnic breakdown and foreignb born population which I'm I'm looking at them from last year's presentation are clearly based off census data given that the years are 2020 uh 202010 and 2020 so I assume that we don't have any more updated information on that um but it would be nice I think as we continue our partnership in the future that is um to just note that that's information that we have found relevant in the past. Um and just note again that there comes
040a challenge in predicting our enrollment in a community such as ours that includes so many rentals and our demographer cannot account for that. That's just a limit to what we can know. Right. Um anything else before we move on and thank Christina again for her time. All right. Thank you, Christina. You're faceless to me right now. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it. And feel free to reach out if you have any other questions. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. All right. Moving along. Uh the other item in our work session this evening or one of the other items is an in and our equity item is a curricular update. So we're going to hear about dual language this evening. So if you we have
041our presenters ready to come up we can turn it over to you. Okay, everybody. One second. I'm sorry. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Uh thank you for the opportunity to um share an update on our um multilingual learner programs and our multilingual learner department which includes our K to2 ENL program, our dual language program as well as our world language program. Um and you'll see throughout the presentation that it's very much aligned with the pillars of um the district's long range plan and the district priorities. Our agenda um today includes an update on each of the programs and a little bit of data, some of our prouds for each program, some of our opportunities and challenges and how that impacts our budget requests for the 2526 school year. So these are some of our focus
042areas and our priorities. We want to ensure that we're in compliance with mandated services per CR part 154, which is the New York State law that governs the education of multilingual learners. But we also want to ensure that we have comprehensive efforts around supporting the academic success of our multilingual learners and their movement to graduation and college and career readiness. So many of the initiatives here will include professional development, differentiated support for our u multilingual learners and our bilingual learners and some expanded learning opportunities for them. So we'll begin with our um K to2 ENL program. And this is a photo of um Miss Aguilar with some fabulous students at um Brookside School. They're all fabulous students and I'm very fortunate to be able to work with amazing kids and faculty and families. So this
043is just an overview of our current enrollment. We're currently just slightly over,00 English learners district-wide in the district. We started at 1048 in July. Last year uh we had a net increase of 135 English learners and this year we're at 54. So this really includes our starting number at the beginning of the year, students who have transferred out, students who have arrived from outside the country or transferred in from other districts, and for last year students who graduated. This year obviously doesn't reflect graduates yet. Um it does reflect some of our August graduates. Um and so the number right now is 54. Typically, we receive a larger influx of English learners in the spring, but we don't anticipate that this is a typical year. Um, because of the political climate, we are not receiving as
044many students since January 1st from outside the country, but we are receiving and welcoming English learners from other schools in the area as well as New York City and out of state and not a few out of state. Yes, few out of Connecticut, some from Massachusetts. Um, and they tend to arrive because they have family in the area. This is, um, an overview of the English proficiency level of our students. Um, this is data from the springlot. So, the nice slot measures students English proficiency or movement toward proficiency every year. And so, you can see that the largest number of students are at the expanding level. when students are at expanding they've made some progress towards um moving toward English proficiency but students tend to plateau here because of the complexity of text complexity of
045communication um and the nicest lab data shows that writing is the area where they need support so I'll share in a little bit some of our efforts to support writing but you can also see that a large number of our students are at the entering and emerging level and this is significant because students at this proficiency level need additional minutes of ENL support. So it does require additional staffing. So they have the integrated co-eing as well as the standalone. For our elementary students that's 360 ENL minutes per week and for our secondary students that's 540 minutes whereas if for students who are transitioning expanding it's actually 180 minutes. So the difference in minutes for our entering and emerging needs means at this point that with the increase in enrollment and some other factors we will
046need additional ENL staffing um as our students move from entering to transitioning expanding and eventually commanding. We also have an incoming kindergarten cohort and as you can see this year's kindergart kindergarten cohort 67 of the students were entering. So the vast majority of our students are at the entering level, but they're four. And so we see by the end of the year that a lot of those entering students move through the language development continuum and some of them move all the way through commanding. It's amazing. Um but it does mean that our that we have to ensure that our entering level students are receiving entering and emerging are receiving the number of minutes that they um need. This shows our English learner, our students who are duly identified as English learners and students with disabilities.
047Um, and this is one of our challenges because this requires careful coordination between myself, Miss Mauricio, and the Department of Special Education because one service does not take priority over the other. It's supposed to be a careful coordination and collaboration in supporting these students. Um, I can say that 99.5% of our duly identified students at the elementary level are getting all of their ENL minutes, but I can't say the same for our middle and our high school programs because of the complexity of the schedule as well as their placement. Um, so you'll see that there are some requests here so that we can ensure that all of our dy identified students are getting both their ENL and their special education services. These are some of our prouds as I said u because the data shows
048that writing is an area of need. We have an early morning writing program at Claremont and Claremont was selected because it's the first testing grade. We want to ensure that our kids are moving and prepared. And so, uh, twice a week at 8 am, we have a group of students in the library working on their writing and also then developing digital projects from their writing. And we have Mr. Orm running that program in the mornings and it's it's a great place to be at 8 o'clock. Um, it's a happy place. We've also really focused this year on raising teacher capacity. We have amazing teachers, but we continue to try to build their toolbox to support our multilingual learners. So, in the past, our PD um efforts were focused on our dual language teachers, our ENL
049teachers. We're having to shift that because of the high number of L's. And really, New York State's uh blueprint for multilingual learners states that every teacher needs to be prepared to be a teacher of English learners. So this year we uh shifted prioritized our elementary co-teers, those classroom teachers who have English learners in their classroom and who co-e with an ENL teacher as well as our middle school and our high school teachers, ELA teachers who have an ENL co-teer. And so we were fortunate to have Andrew Hanikfeld who's nationally recognized um and even internationally recognized as an author and educator run sessions for us to continue to build their capacity to support our students. And it was focused on co-planning. How do you look at instruction? How do you look at the linguistic demands and
050the content demands and plan instruction that's differentiated for the students in front of you and hopefully in small groups? In terms of the challenges um and opportunities in our English learner um in our ENL K to2 program, we need uh to address the growth um in enrollment as well as ensuring compliance for our dy identified students. We want to continue to build teacher capacity and we want to expand learning opportunities. So the this is how um it lives out in the budget for next year. We want to increase staffing at AMD and OHS of ENL teachers. So we requested three FTEEs. We want to continue to offer sustained and highquality professional development. And then we're also uh carefully using our title three funding. So the title three funding ends August 30th. So, we are utilizing
051this year's Title Three funding to support the summer uh elementary academy for our English learners and our dual language learners. Um, we know that that's a unknown what will happen with our title funding, but we uh at least this year we're utilizing it in a very intentional way. Our dual language program, this is the current enrollment in dual language program. We're almost at,00. We have between six sections. PreK has six sections and above preK we have between six to eight sections on each grade level. And that's actually the largest in our region. Um, and it's amazing to me that we have six to eight uh sections in each grade level. Currently um we have eight sections in kindergarten and eight sections in first grade and those sections are moving up. So next year second grade
052will have an eighth section. Next year third grade will have a seventh section and so progressively those cohorts are moving up. So eventually every grade will have eighth section potentially with the exception of prek. We try to increase the number of sections in kindergarten. So, if children have not attended Austining PreK, they still have an opportunity to enter the program. Um, just want to note that these may not be new sections. That's an unknown. They may be conversions of of existing sections once we know how many sections definitely will be on each grade level and potentially reassignment of staff. This is a a a balance check that I I run periodically just to ensure that we have fidelity to our mission in dual language to support both our English learners and that's actually a mandate
053to provide a bilingual education option for our English learners but also that we are serving students in the community whose parents want them to be bilingual, right? who are who are non- Spanish speakers whose parents want them to be in the dual language and and um become bilingual and biiterate. So on the left are those students who are not in dual language. We do have clusters of students on each grade who are not in the program for various reasons including that sometimes we run out of seats. Uh on the right you can see the balance of in the blue are our current English learners in dual language. In the center are our former English learners. So if you're a former English learners, you don't leave dual language, you stay in the program. So if we
054add those two together, then we can compare them to those in the gray who are our never L's or our um our students who are learning Spanish as their second language. So I think we do a pretty good job at it. Um with the exception perhaps of fifth and sixth grade and that's because uh in the past two years those are grades that receive the highest actually going back to third and fourth grade those cohorts that we received the highest number of English learners um post pandemic. And so this is just a way to ensure that we are being true to our mission. And so we run this report. I review it. I share with the principles, I share with the administrative team and then we problem solve if there are any shifts that need
055to be made. And so our proud lots of things to be proud of uh dual language. Our program was selected as one of three bright spot programs in New York State by the um New York State Office of Bilingual Education and by the US Department of Educ education's English language acquisition office. And so it was Austining North Rockland who actually came to visit us when they were starting their program three years ago. And not that I'm taking credit for their success, but it's so good to see that other people are joining the dual language community and one school in Brooklyn. So we were very pleased to host um Associate Commissioner Alvarez and some of the regents in the spring. And so this photo shows um some of our faculty, some of our students, two parents
056of students in the original cohort two 22 years ago. We tracked them down because they work in the district. Um and they joined the visit and is and Dr. Sanchez and it was just very exciting. Um and then as part of this work, as part of this DLI immersion project from OAR and New York State, um was included in the dual language immersion playbook, which is a document to guide commities and districts that want to um start a dual language program. So our best pract we were highlighted in best practices and our projectto Alcant was also highlighted for parent leadership. And so in dual language we also continue to support our teachers. We were one of the first districts to really engage in the work of trans languaging which was new to the field of
057bilingual education. We've continued our work with Christian solora and this has been amazing work this year. Um teachers are really looking at how do you teach students who are bilingual but they don't have two separate brains. They have one brain and how do they use all of their linguistic resources to continue to develop their language, their comprehension across all content areas. So it's a lot of making cross linguistic connections, differentiation practices in small group for students to give them what they need looking at their bilingual profile by looking at their English and their Spanish data. And so teachers engage in learning with uh Christian, they go back into the classroom and then they come back to the next session with what they've created and they share with their colleagues. So on the right is um
058from a fourth grade no third third grade dual language class at Claremont. Um I was actually doing a formal observation and she did a quick trans languaging because she want the teacher wanted feedback. So this has been very very exciting work for us and Christian is also working with monolingual teachers at Park School to be able to build their capacity to support our English learners. Also this year we were part of the regional bilingual education um dual language collaborative. It was a new initiative. They they invited us to um participate to host uh districts in the region that have dual language programs and then we had the opportunity to visit programs as well. We hosted two visits. We got amazing amazing feedback. amazing in the in that we got glows and grows, but it was
059just um educators in the field um who understand dual language who asked questions that made us reflect and and may trigger some changes but then also validated some of the wonderful things that we're doing and then we did the same for them. I uh recently visited Portchester Middle School with two of the uh dual language teachers from AMD um to look at their sixth grade program so that we can have some tips so how we can enhance our own program. So this has been an invaluable experiences and this was us hosting districts. There was suffern Brewster uh Woodbury various other districts from throughout the region. In terms of how we're supporting our dual language learners who may need additional um practice in English or Spanish, we're running morning programs at Park Brookside and Claremont twice
060a week 8 a.m. And it's really an extension of learning in Spanish for our English learners. Um, I'm sorry, learning in Spanish for Spanish learners and learning in English for our English learners and additional opportunities for them to practice. Um, and it's based on student data and we currently have 85 students enrolled across the three buildings. Um, which is pretty amazing when we don't offer transportation. Um but this is really an extension of their classroom learning but also filling a gap because we do not currently have um AIS or additional Spanish language support in our classrooms and that's one of our challenges. We have English support or English AIS. We don't have Spanish support with the exception of Park School. So one of our requests in this budget is to um add Spanish support in
061Brookside and Claremont. Um, we may still be able to offer these extended day programs, but we would be able to support students based on their data, their bilingual profile during the school day. We also wish to increase the level of Spanish instruction in grade six dual language. Currently, they receive literacy instruction in English and Spanish. And we want to add a content area. It is really a requirement for bilingual programs in CR part 154 for English learners. For our Spanish learners, it means that they have more opportunities to practice and learn in Spanish. And we selected uh social studies as a humanities course and as a course where they can learn, they can expand their literacy and learning through content, right? Because there's a lot of literacy and content. So, we're proposing increasing that um
062in sixth grade and continuing to add that throughout um the years. This has been a dream, I think, for me to be able to expand our dual language program and make it a robust robust dual language program through 8th grade and potentially beyond so that our students can achieve the seal of biiteracy. And these are some of our requests. Staffing for those additional two dual language sections will go up to 54. uh social studies in grade six, uh Spanish AIS teachers, and then also additional expanded expanded learning time through our title three funds. And then finally, our world languages program. This is the current enrollment in world languages. Obviously, um Spanish has the highest level of enrollment followed by French, Italian, and ASL. But, uh I understand the interest in ASL is growing. So, we'll
063look at the numbers this year. And this is one of our prouds for the program and I have to I have to give a shout out to our curriculum coordinator Alexis Nicholas because she has really done a lot of work in in the pen pal project. So students from AMD correspond with students from OS in the target language. They send three letters. They can be old school handwritten letters or through digital means. And then in the spring they meet either at OS or AMD. And so they're uh the teachers give an interest inventory so that they can pair or match students who have similar interests. And it's a little awkward when they meet, but it's also very exciting for kids to meet their pen pal who they've been communicating with throughout the year. And this
064is aligned to uh to the new world language standards for interpersonal communication and presentational communication. Some of our challenges in world language relate to our ENL program because we need differentiated Spanish courses for our students. We have many level many levels of Spanish learners. We have students who were in dual language since preK who we anticipate have a high level of Spanish proficiency. We have students who may arrive in middle school who come from their country of origin with high literacy levels which mean that they're going to transition and bridge to English so much easier. And then we have students who come with interrupted instruction who may need support and foundational skills. Um so in order to address that we last year we added a grade seven Spanish for the native speaker. This year we
065will we next year we're adding we're proposing to add a grade eight Spanish for the native speaker. Uh at the high school we have a scythe program for students with interrupted formal education. They receive three periods of emergent literacy, but what has been lacking is that very intentional foundational skills support in their home language. So, we're adding a home language arts course in Spanish for those students as a way to continue to develop their bilingualism and biiteracy, but also to help them bridge to English because the higher their literacy level in Spanish, the more it's going to help for them to transition. Um, and we recognize that many of these students who are coming in um are older and we want to be able to support them as much as possible to graduate. And then
066we um are requesting some funds for curriculum development so that our faculty can really flesh out these um courses. So, as you can see, many of the um proposed uh positions and resources are all aligned to support our English learners, our multilingual learners, our bilingual learners so that they can um achieve academic success. We can get them to graduation and we can ensure that um we also are are providing mandated services to all students. Thank you. Thanks, Nancy. Um I'm looking at the table. Does anybody want to have any questions? Wants to start started over here. I want to get this. Okay. All right. Thanks, Nancy. So I guess first question for you is is there like a goal that if we um get an English language learner in a certain grade what we predict
067based on all the supports and services to classes that they should become proficient by like is it two years, three years, four years and I would imagine it also depends what grade and level they come in at. Can you speak to any of that? Sure. So, the research shows that students take five to seven years to acquire to become proficient in a second language. Right. But language development and language acquisition is highly variable. So, there are many factors that could impact that including at what proficiency level you arrive. So, if you've had some exposure to the language and you could become proficient in two years. Um, as I said earlier, we see those kindergarteners, the earlier the better, right? The quicker language development. So, we do see sometimes kindergarteners who move to proficiency in one
068or two years because even though they may we may screen them and they are English learners, but they may have had significant exposure to the language. So, it is highly variable. The the research also shows that if children come in with trauma, um, it may take even longer. So there isn't a a real answer to that question except that it's very v it's variable, it's individual and there are multiple factors. The quality of instruction, those are all things that impact. But we would expect and this is what I tell parents because parents should hold us accountable that from year to year students move a level or at least move within a level towards proficiency. Okay. Um, I want to make sure other board members are done. I I've got I've got some more. But I
069guess the big thing for just to understand and know this is by not my expertise. I just I think I mentioned this last year. I guess the tricky part is here. We can do all we can within the four walls of the district. I guess the question is are we what are we thinking about and encouraging when students go home? Because I imagine if we're doing all this immersion and additional classes, but they go home and they're speaking in their native language and that have family or parents that are speaking in langu language, they're probably not going to get to that proficiency point as quickly because there's only so much we as a district can do. So I guess what are we looking at and what have we done to really encourage whatever it is
070need to be encouraged outside because we do a lot right we we we translate everything goes back everything goes back and when we have sessions here everything's dually translated and again I'm not an expert but I do wonder what we're really strongly encouraging outside because there's only so much we can do here so can you speak to that as well sure two parts to my response even if they go home and they are speaking in their home language and they are reading in their home language that's a good thing right and we sometimes tell families if the parents don't speak English then read to your child in Spanish read to your child ask questions create a space where they can continue to read because literacy development is literacy development even if it's in their home
071language and that's going to help them if you know who a character is in a book when you enter the classroom you're going to know who character is in a book, right? So, those are things that we continue to encourage our families. If they don't have the English literacy skills, then they have to offer what they have and they have to offer a quiet space. They have to offer, you know, reading a book. Um, so those are things that we encourage families even if they don't have the the ability to support them in English. And then we have consistent workshops. Um we have a nice slot meeting on April 1st for families. Our ENL teachers at the beginning of the year have offered we offer an an information night and it's organized by grade and
072they provide the expectations for the grade but also what are what are the expectations by the end of the grade and how some strategies for how families can support them whether they have access to English or they have access to Spanish or another language. So we do ongoing support for our families and I know the teachers individually do that as well. So we do have parent education and parent support but we also say you use what you have at home and that's going to help your child right. So we want literacy in the home whatever language it is because that's going to support their learning in school. And there one more then pass the mic on. I guess that probably partially answers this question like when you're asking for another you're asking for social studies
073was it sixth grade and Spanish can you help me understand then how that helps those students become English language proficient if we're just teaching social studies Spanish versus for instance for AIS push in pull out but literally teaching now a whole group of kids in in that language so the social studies classes for the dual language students who from preK through five have social studies in Spanish because that's just the the schedule, right? They have all content areas in Spanish, they have science in Spanish, they have English and Spanish. It it the allocation shifts. So, you know, one week they may have English social studies, one in Spanish. So, it's just a continuation of the existing dual language model. But right now when they enter sixth grade, they only have literacy. So we want to
074increase the level of Spanish and that's going to support their bilingualism. They'll still have science in English. They'll have their other classes in English, but we want to continue to support and the research shows that you have to have content area. Actually, it's a mandate in New York State that for bilingual learners, you have to have content area instruction in the home language. So it's not for English learners who haven't been in dual language. It's specific to dual language learners who have already been learning 50% of their time in English and 50% of their time in Spanish. Okay. I just I got I just got a new process that a little more because I wasn't able to because on the slide I didn't see that that was a dual language. It look like a we
075need to add section social studies in Spanish to accommodate what we need to do for the L's to help them learn English. So the L's will have the L's will be in that class, but so will non-L's. It was in the dual language section, so I'm sorry if I didn't specify that, but that class will be mostly 50/50 English learners and Spanish learners who have already been in dual language. I got a couple more, but let you can always email and they can be included in an update. Um, I can go this way around the table if you'd like. Nancy, good to see you again. So I feel like I we see just like once a year, so didn't see anything. Um, thank you. First of all, um, I have just a couple question. I
076don't think I've asked this before, but I'll ask it. The language of Spanish is more complicated than folks think because of the different variations in Spanish. And, you know, I kind of got a little bit of a a deep dive into this just actually this past weekend of when of what something means in one particular Spanish um language or if you will if you say this in to somebody who's Puerto Rican versus somebody who's you know from from Argentina or something has very different meanings. Is our Spanish Spain Spanish? No. Okay. Can you can you clarify what Spanish Okay. Can you clarify what Spanish is actually being taught because there there are so many nuances in this. And I asked this question because had a very interesting conversation with with a parent and who was
077kind of like, "Wow, I couldn't, you know, I I've been speaking Spanish all my life and I've come here and Spanish is what I know, but some of the phrases in here I are just so foreign to me and I'm just and I was like I was trying to grapple with that a little bit." And so I figured you'd be best to educate me. So, I can't say it's it's Spanish from Spain or Spanish from Colombia or Spanish from Puerto Rico. We teach the Spanish language and we actually acknowledge that there are children in our classes who come from many different parts of the world. And so the teachers teach into that. So if I'm if I if I have a term in my country, oh well, what do you call it in your country
078and what do you call it in your country? And so that's part of our of that third pillar of dual language education, not just bilingualism and um it's local and academic. It's that cross-cultural competence. Right. Right. So they teach into that. So you know a pig orcho in different parts of the world, right? So the teachers share and acknowledge what the children bring and the teachers are going to speak the the the Spanish um variety that they know. Right. Um, but also acknowledge that there's different types of Spanish. And I and I I have to disagree. I think it's easier to learn Spanish because it's a phonetic language. English is hard. No, I agree. I agree. I agree with you. I think English, particularly American English is like very difficult. I definitely agree with you.
079It's just it's funny. I came across and I said just bombicho pig and they looked at me like, "What the hell did you say?" I'm like, "I said a bug bit me." Yeah. That's a that's a curse in in the Caribbean. I just learned that the hard way. Almost got a smack in the back of the head for that. So, I'm like, "Holy cow, I'm so sorry." That is not what I was saying. We acknowledge um and value and respect all varieties of Spanish. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. No, I I had to ask that just because it was I was like, "Wow, I never asked this before." So, um question for you. So, you talked about the um writing there and I applaud you for, you know, bringing that up saying writing needs more support. Would
080you envision writing in terms of them needs more support start in terms of vocabulary and grammar collectively together starting in an earlier age thinking like around like that age when you know you would teach like an English grammar type of a thing you would is that kind of when you're talking about writing are you talking about writing much more in the freestyle writing freestyle it's both it's structured writing it's it's it's um narrative it's so Um, you know, the grammar is is embedded, right? It's it's it's it's contextualized. It's taught explicitly by teachers. Um, it's taught in context, not just in literacy class, but through the content areas. Um, and so teachers teach it explicitly. It's it's taught when it comes up as part of writing, as part of instruction. Um, part of this transl
081languaging work that we're engaging in is so that we can see do like a contrastive analysis and we can see the the similarities and the differences between English and Spanish. That's a way to teach grammar, right? If I know that in English you say the red house, the adjective comes after the noun, but in espanol you say laasa roa. So those are things that our our kids learn. Um, so it's all it's the the um the art of writing and the conjugations are also involved in all of that as well like learning the verb conjugation. Is that done at are you proposing to do that in an earlier stage and earlier age the the conjugation aspects of it that does get that does get taught in earlier stages it's consistent from from L's ENL's dual
082language you know I mean because I know like if you're starting I'm asking I'm just using that in reference to like just say somebody who started learning Spanish in middle school just started learning that right they're going through okay aua they're pointing to things right and then they start to go into the different um conjugation aspects of that's somebody who's just learning that new right so that's why I'm asking is that something that you're proposing to go sooner earlier than that we actually already do that right that's embedded within our our resources. Um, but again, it's not necessarily taught in isolation unless it's it's it's taught in a contextualized way as part of reading a text, as part of listening to a story, as part of listening to a song. And then when the teacher
083identifies that there's a need either for the entire class, or for a small group of students, then that can then be reinforced um in for in small group instruction. But we don't have first or second graders or third graders um conjugating verbs necessarily because they're immersed in the language. So, it's a different way than if you're learning Spanish as your second language. It's they're immersed in the language and they're learning it as part of the context. Um, but I know that it's already done even in kindergarten, right? It's embedded in a very grade and age appropriate way. Yeah. I I asked that because I'm thinking about that to the tests that are given, right? And the tests that are given are are literally they're they're asking you for like you can be asked this particular
084sentence, this particular tense that's in there and but that's not ne that may not necessarily correlate to the immersion aspect. Well, that's only part of the rubric. So there's there's you know there's all different it's a rubric that has five different components and so we teach into those components to prepare students for the nicest slot. So, grammar is one. Uh, being able to structure a paragraph. I can't think of all of them right now. Um, but I don't necessarily think that that's the issue when our kids struggle with nice and flat. It's just that being in that expanding level takes time, right? They can move quickly until they get to transitioning or expanding and then it takes time because of the complexity of the writing, the text they have to respond to. They don't do
085free writing on the test. they have to respond to a um a prompt that isn't always very relevant to our English learners. It's a little bit of a problematic test. This year we did a crosswalk between the ELA, what we require our kids to write for ARC, um what kids are required to write in the English language arts assessment and what they're required to write in the NISLAT so that we can better understand how we can support our kids. Okay, that's fair. I just again I I'm looking at this as like are we test are we testing what we're learning or we just or is the testing and the learning not quite equating to one another and that's why because if the scores are lower it's because you know there might be we're immersing you
086bringing you as part of the conversation you're you're learning it you're conversing in it whatever but there's also explicit instruction yeah yeah no I'm just yeah I'm just trying to get more of a an understanding and make sure I'm very clear on that um I'm going to shift really quickly the dual ask you how much more you have. This is last question. Last question. Yeah, last question on dual language. I think we've talked about this in the past. what is roughly the balance between in your dual language between non English speakaking to English speaking um for now and how is that shifted because I know there's still a demand for students who are non-English-speaking to wanting to get into the actual program itself at varying grades and I think it's always easiest to come in
087at the earliest grade because versus going in a later if you've not spoken so this slide shows the balance I mean if you add the um the former L's to the L's. That will tell you how many English learners or former English learners are in the program and then compare that to the grade column which shows the um the students who have were never English learners who are Spanish learners. So, it's fairly balanced. I I think I noted that grades five and six are not. Um we have the we've increased the number of sections. We went from in kindergarten from six sections to eight sections because we know both there's a demand um from the community for um from families who want their child to be in the dual language program and we also have
088a mandate to provide bilingual education for our English learners. Um so we try to maintain the balance. I I when we run the lottery it's 5050. Now obviously there's movement there's attrition throughout the years. We've um tried to explore how we can have our Spanish learners enter the program after first grade because that's challenging and that's why sometimes we don't after if you've been in the program since preK K and then first grade and then you have a child entering in second grade. It's very difficult and when we've tried it, it hasn't always been successful. That was one of our inquiry questions when we visited other dual language programs and they struggle with the same thing. Yeah, makes sense. But we try we try to ensure that there's a balance and as you see we
089check we want to ensure that we are being as fair as possible. Thank you. I'll send in the rest of my questions any Thank you. We'll keep moving in the same direction. Melissa, do you have any Hi, Nancy. Thank you for that presentation. Um just a couple of curiosities I had around I know you mentioned there were challenges that you're working on with synchronizing the needs of um children enrolled in the program who also are students with disabilities. I was curious as far as language is concerned if you can speak about any particular ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch challenges around nonverbal communicators and whether there's like the need for sign language, the need
090for devices to communicate when they're learning languages. Are those some of the challenges you're speaking about? Those are some of the challenges, but I was speaking more to the challenges of actually being able to provide the ENL services. Okay. Um, I think that's something that that Miss Moraicio attends to and does really well. Um, but we sometimes don't have enough staff, especially with the increase in enrollment to be able to have an ENL teacher go into a classroom that may have just five children, right? So, being able to schedule that and support that. And sometimes we have a newcomer student and we've seen this more and more who is coming from their country already with an educational plan and it's very obvious early on that they cannot go into a typical monolingual classroom. So I
091think it's more the challenges of how do we support them within their special education setting when sometimes we're stretched with our staffing to even provide services for our non duly identified students. Thank you. Um my second question was around the path to by the syllabi literacy. Could you speak about a bit more in depth about like how that's evolving to be able to an increase in student fees to have that pathway. So, I think the fact that our dual language learners only have literacy in um English and Spanish in sixth grade means that sometimes they lose interest, right? Because it's not so much an immersion program. So, in adding additional um time in the language, we want them to continue to develop, right? We do see that most of them continue in the language because
092their parents tell them you have to um or we encourage it, but some of them say, "I'd like I'd rather take I'd rather take ASL. So, it's also a way to continue to immerse them, to continue having them engaged and then progressively continue to develop their proficiency. So, when they go to the high school, they can take the Sunni advanced courses and then the AP course and eventually advance to the seal of biiteracy. Our numbers have ranged between 27 to 47. Um, this year I think there's 65 in the pipeline even though sometimes our seniors don't don't follow through, but we have our advisors who are really following up to ensure that they do um complete the seal. And for many of our English learners, the English regions is the barrier to getting the seal
093because they struggle with passing the English regions, especially if they're later arrivals. Thank you. And that's a trend actually uh statewide that um L's sometimes don't achieve the seal, but we're doing everything possible to encourage them to apply and to go through the process of preparing their portfolios. Thank you. All right, Annie. Um, so there is some data that I would like to see and I'm wondering if the board would as well. Um, I would love to see a breakdown by ethnicity of who's in the program and then who has an IEP versus who doesn't? Um, is there any barrier for kids who have speech services to enter? like they are um they are not L's but they have some kind of speech um need. Do they does that count into whether they get accepted
094into the program? When we run the lottery, we wouldn't even know that. It's not something we look at. It's a randomized lottery. um when we have a screening sometimes it's noted but just because they have they receive speech services does not preclude them from going into dual language. Now there are times when it does become an issue and then there's a conversation um with the parent about whether dual language is the best placement for them. Um but that doesn't mean that if children receive um speech services they can't go into the program. Okay. Um my other question aside from the data was If kids can test into the program after first grade test meaning you mentioned that it's really hard after first grade for them to go in. Are is there an option for them
095to test into it maybe show that they can handle it? We haven't explored that honestly. Um what we have is if we have space and a child comes from another district's dual transfers in from another district's dual language program which often happens they come from Peak Skill or they come from uh Terry Town we do try to accommodate them because if the child has been developing bilingually we want to give them that option but we haven't really explored we've asked other districts about testing um and they you sometimes they use like their own their own literacy assessments to see it's something that we've considered, but very honestly, we haven't had seats in the past three years. That makes sense. Yeah, that's it for me. I feel like we did get a proficiency chart last year
096and it showed it moving through the grades like how they're testing. Um, and I would just like to see that again. You mean each grade? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. We can provide that. Great. I'm sorry, that's not a directive necessarily. Does the board want to see it? I would say yes. Yeah. Um, thank you for the presentation. Uh, really great to see all the different aspects. Um, and certainly I think the work for the middle school and expanding is just something that was sort of needed because there has been that drop off going in at the middle school. So, I'm glad to see that. Um, talk a little bit more if you could about the morning writing club and just, you know, sort of I see we're serving 85 students. Is this something relatively new?
097you've been doing it for a while. What do we know? Like it's it's it's something that we sort of plan every year. We started it this year in January. Typically, we don't we we wait a little bit because we want to see the midyear data. Um honestly, we we sometimes plan it and and we can't implement it because of limited staffing, I want to say. I mean, it's challenging. I've been working with a teacher who's helped out this year. Um it's it continues to be an opportunity. We've offered limited um morning programs I think at Park and Brookside in the past. Um, but this includes both our English learners and our Spanish learners and it's really and also I didn't highlight it but at Claremont we in addition to the writing club, the Spanish club
098and the English club uh one of our teachers is running a club for students who need foundational skills support because they may have had interrupted instruction. So it's an additional way to support our students. we want to support them during the school day, but if there are opportunities to um give additional help um during the school year and again this is very much informed by needs of our students. So you know we looked at art data some of our need our kids need support in English some need support in Spanish nice and flat and classroom data shows that some students need support in writing and that's actually the writing club is a very small group it's about 16 kids um and then some of our students need those foundational skills um in English and Spanish.
099So, it's very much responsive to the needs of the kids this year. And just I think kind of with those types of efforts, it would be helpful if there's ways that you can sort of gauge and look at the student growth through the participant versus nonparticipation, right? So, what does it look like? You know, and that would be helpful to see just as far as a way of looking at the quality of the program, right? Yes, we are doing that. Great. Thank you, Nancy. Thank you so much for this great presentation. I do have um just a couple clarifying questions or one clarifying question and then a more substantive question. Um earlier you said that 99 something whatever of our students who are identified as being ELLL students and also have IEPs are receiving all
100of their ELLL support. Um legally that has to be a 100% right. So, this isn't a boy, it sure would be nice to have. This is a we really need these people at the high school. Okay, great. And and and honestly, some of these students have arrived this year and schedules are done, teachers are assigned. So, this there's an urgency to this and it's something that as the numbers have increased, we realize we don't have enough staffing to be able to provide these services or some of our kids are getting the services, but they're not getting their full minutes. So, it's under that we're underserving them and this is urgent. Thank you. Um the other thing I just want to bring up in response to one of Rob's questions, you mentioned that it's mandated that
101content be taught in um home language at some point uh as part of CR part 154 for bilingual programs which is what we do in dual language specific for bilingual programs. The content area for entering and emerging students is part of the requirement. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Um I I understand obviously the demographics of our district are such that most of our ELLL students are going to be native Spanish speakers but we have other languages spoken in the district. Can you talk a little bit about how we support students whose home languages are neither English nor Spanish? Right. So we have um variety of languages. We have Farsy, we have Uru, we have Russian but again maybe one or two Albanian uh in those languages. So not significant numbers. So our teach they
102receive their ENL services. Our ENL teachers don't necessarily translate, right? They're using method tissel methodology to support our students and actually they have to translate. They have tools to be able to do that, right? They we have pocket talk translators if that's part of the repertoire of what they need to do to support students, but they use ENL methodologies to be able to ensure that content is comprehensible for students, right, with visuals and um and anything that they have at their disposal to ensure that students are being able to access the content and developing English proficiency. So, we have these students interspersed with our Spanish speakers um and so they receive their ENL services. We to have a dual language program for them because um we don't have significant numbers. Thank you. And thank you
103so much for I call it the hot seat for sitting in the hot seat with us. It doesn't have to be trying not to make it feel that way. It's a hot seat. I I enjoy highlighting these amazing programs. Yes, we like to celebrate the work that we're doing and and the work that you're doing. So, thank you. Um I forgot to compliment you on the morning program. just went rapid fire into my questions, but I remember that being a big topic of discussion and clearly heard it and implemented something and that was really nice to see. Thank you. I think you heard Nancy mention too that she has proposed and it's all part of the budget with the 1.67 cap the request and the AIS services. It's really an extension of that, but to
104be able to do it during the day with teachers. So, we've added those very responsive to the needs and what the data shows. So, thank you for that and thank you for sticking with us tonight, Nancy. Okay. Thank you everyone. Have a good evening. You too. I will say Nancy could probably use an assistant director, but at this year, the money isn't there. We've added a lot of staff and I know, yes, I know Nancy, but we we try to support as much as possible in ways we can, but I know I'm being transparent about it, Nancy, that we understand it, right? All right. Um, okay. So, the fund continues in our work session. Um, item 3.3 is our superintendent's proposed budget for the 2526 school year. Continued budget discussion. So, I just want to
105take a moment just to highlight and recap some of the work in a quick moment for Alita to go over some of the big um topics. So, I want to thank the board for Saturday and uh the end the day ended with a very important recap. It ended with an excellent re re recap and I appreciated that with our work today together with the five board members giving really important feedback on and a green light on moving forward. So just to overview where we ended the maximum allowable tax levy is at 1.67%. It's under 2%. The actual budget itself has decreased by over a million dollars. It utilizes a philosophy we started last year where we're stepping down on the use of fund balance tightening up our budget. It's evident this year and the work
106done in position control by Alita and Don. So I want to thank them for that. It continues the work we identified as a capital improvement through our transfer from capital list including important site work for our significant uh bond project. Um the approach includes a way to plan for unexpected cuts to our federal grants by um going above the 4% uh figure and utilizing additional nonrecurring revenue identified in our audit to do that as opposed to putting them into reserves at the end of the year. All right. It uh it it recognizes the the use of our um fund, our general fund, and it absorbs programs into that general fund, some that were in federal grants, the ARP grant, as well as our consolidated grants last year, particularly the summer learning academy programs, which are
107now in the regular general fund budget, which I know was a goal and a question of the board. This budget also expands our instructional program by adding three new special education teachers. It adds all the English language learner staff that you heard identified by Nancy and particularly this the mandated support we need at the secondary level and including AIS support for our um dual language students um in um the elementary level for monolingual um English speakers and Spanish speakers. It adds three new coaches, the unified sports for our kids who are differently abled, boys JV volleyball and our modified cheerleaders. It also has an increase in the salary for athletic trainer. I think the board is aware, we've seen reports from our athletic director that our our salary was low and we were having difficulty
108attracting and retaining a full-time athletic trainer. So, we have funding for that. It adds monitors for security at the high school and it adds a couple of new clubs, a small stipen for a DI coordinator at Roosevelt. Maria can highlight these. It also adds a 0.5 additional music teacher needed here at AMD. And I know this has been very popular because it's the thing I've gotten the most questions about this week alone. Seriously, it adds funding for air conditioning, including the electrical uh runs, the electrical work, and uh commercial units, all included in our proposed budget, the board. I'm not sure why I'm standing here, but I'll pretend like I have something more to say. Well, you got the figures to back up what I just said. Well, I'm going to try to look here
109because, you know, I have trouble seeing. So um this is really just a presentation. We discussed this um towards the end of the Saturday meeting and this is more so uh understanding uh the philosophy behind the budget um and talking about what the uh superintendent has spoke about in the past um is going up to the cap and we know that the cap is 1.67% and we are suggesting and proposing that we levy a tax in that amount. So U towards the end of the meeting, we had a lot of um information from different presenters. We talked about the the modifications of the budget and taking a second look and we certainly did that. We did a lot of that this morning and it was intense and it was I I enjoyed this stuff. So
110they my my team um they dealt with me and um it was really productive and I think we had found a good tool um to identify some of the nonp non um salary positions. Um so those are the positions or additional monies that are related to after school programs, summer school programs. So there's there's a lot of um not a lot but there's money that is budgeted there. Um it's additional funding. So we just try to look at what the experience has been over the past three years and um understanding that we have um some limitations with the timing of things and just trying to get a better sense and tightening those numbers up. So, we did do that this morning. Um we uh know that we're still waiting for building aid to come out
111and see if that's going to have any impact um after April 1st on our tax levy limit calculation. um we spoke about which is probably one of the most important things is the use of um a fund balance which we project that we will have funding available to do this. Um when we look at the projects that may be um may be in jeopardy for the 2526 school year um we are looking at a number even though the total number of grants is 6.6 million or six yeah 6.8 8 million. We're only looking at um addressing the salary and the benefits. So the salary and the benefits is roughly about 5.3 million. So we're looking to set aside above and beyond the 4% um an additional 5.5 million to be applied towards any um any
112uh unexpected changes in grant funding throughout the 2526 year. Um so again what that means is um we will be um making a deliberate um uh decision to go above the 4% and I estimate the number will be 7%. Just to have available unrestricted um those funding just in case we get uh cuts during the 2526 school year. So again we are not looking to levy any additional taxes for a whatif scenario. What we're trying to do is put ourselves in a a good position to make proper decisions in a proper time and manner um and giving us that year during 2526 to properly plan. This is not a um forever fix. It's basically an opportunity again for us to start to look at the entire budget and think about what we definitely have to
113keep um because obviously there's UPK in there which is our prek students. Uh there's a lot of money associated with students with disabilities. So these are things are important. So we don't want to be in a position where we we are reacting um within a year but we want to be able to give ourselves that flexibility by using available fund balance to um airmark towards if just in case something happens and some of those are required or I would use not just required by statute but we required for the work that the board set out in terms of goals for the district. So without approaching it this way and again you heard the auditors report we had unexpected additional revenue. Um so it's not recurring revenue it's onetime revenue you know from uh we had
114additional state aid we had additional in interest income we had additional sales tax money. You often would put that into a reserve to use later. We're recommending not to do that to have it available because if some of these things do get cut and particularly the ones that are required under law we would be looking to cut in the general fund itself not to do this. So this addresses a question the board had asked us how do we protect ourselves from any um potential federal cuts next year. So this this unassigned fund balance unrestricted fund balance would also include um the additional funding that we need to balance the budget of $6.6 million. So in total there will be 6.6 million applied to the 2526 general fund budget as is and then the remaining the
115remainder remaining amount um and this is based on projections as of today. So that number can change. Um but I don't I don't feel uncomfortable that it'll be that much different than what we're projecting in the the later part of the school year. Um I do want to mention that every year every year we look at our taxert reserve. Um and you'll remember how we address some of the we have to establish a tax reserve for the 2425 school year. So we'll be looking to do that um sometime next month. Um, and normally what we do is we try to uh reduce areas in within the tax reserve, but I just want to remind you that that's something that we should be doing every single school year and um this year is no different. So,
116uh Jared was here um one Saturday and he took care all of this stuff for me. So, um uh I think uh I think if you look at that video, you'll do he did a better job than I will ever do. Um but these projects are basically transfer the capital. And what's missing here, and I promise you have an asterisk is that um the air conditioning is in his supply, his equipment code. Um so you don't see it here because it's not truly a capital project that has to be approved by NIST, but it does exist in the budget in his 200 uh code, which is equipment code. So it is there. So there's a lot of things that he's recommending um that we do. I would like to point out again that the board
117had asked last year um whether or not we would be able to fulfill all of our our um needs by red if we reduce the um transfer to capital um from the 6.9 for capital projects and then using that to pay for the bond premiums. And so the things that we discussed are here. We talked about the security cameras. Uh we talked about um the 7A building um which is very important and that clearing and earthwork. talked about that being in this budget cycle. Um and we also talked about AMD track. So all those things are in here and then some um addressing uh uh masonry and um RTUs. Um so that is here. So I think the transfer to capital line is uh very robust and the work that's going to be done um
118is going to have um a benefit to the district for a long time. I think I think Jared also Lita um Jar I know it was a question someone had asked and is definitely a question I received from various people um inside and outside the school district over the AC units you know will this cover all the rooms what I can tell you it's an equipment line so whoever has the state contract on air conditioners or or else you'd have to put out a a bid for them I don't know if the whoever owns the state contract if they are made in China or someplace else that might have a significant tariff on it. There are factors beyond my ability to understand right now or project for. But in theory, the way this should work
119is that as soon as we have the budget approved in May, we could start issuing purchase orders immediately. Um, and by using state contract options, uh, we can purchase very quickly without having to bid it out and try to get as many as possible. Obviously, there's a parallel path because Jared will be running uh individual uh electric lines to the service panels in order to support them. Right. So again, this is an overview of the limit uh calculation and it was reported to the state controllers's office. And again, the variables that may change after uh the the state budget is released and approved uh are the um uh the exclusions related to building aid. Um so that's the only place that may change and that's it. Any questions? Go ahead. Thanks, Alita. So I I
120admittedly I didn't follow the part where you had the slide up about our state and federal grants and then you mentioned 5.5 million I think to cover this. So can you explain this again? So we have fa federal and state grants on that screen. Are you saying that protectively we're going to allocate from one of our fund balances about five and a half million to cover if those federal andor state grants get cut? Is that am I understanding that correctly? And then if so, what does that do to that fund balance that you're pulling that line that we're pulling from? Like what does that reduce it to? And if I didn't understand that correctly, let me know. But I that's I I just admittedly didn't follow that. Okay. Okay. So the um I'm not going
121to try to do that. The um the 6.8 is the total amount and this is based on this is projecting for 2526 school year. Believe it or not, we have this this um chart in the budget since I've been here, but nobody's really paid attention to it. Um, so we're not suggesting that we fill all of the 6.8 or try to fill all of the 6.8. We're only looking to fill the salaries. Those are the most important things. And the benefits. So if you look at the salaries, the total at the bottom, that third table is 4867. And then the fringe is 494. So that's health insurance, that's pension, that's social security. So that adds up to approximately 5 um four, but I think I'm rounding up a little bit just to just for you
122know making sure that we cover everything. Um so that's where that number comes from. So what I'm saying to you is typically when we do our like we do this all the time at this time we try to uh figure out what fund balance is going to be because we've already said that we're using 6.6 6 million of fund balance just in general to cover the general fund expenses. So in doing the projections with our treasurer Tony um I know that I can find if things stay the same the way we're projecting it currently that I can find another $5.5 million in addition to the 6.6 which is always going to be which we always discussed was going to be part of the budget. So that total is um 11 million maybe 12 million. So
123that 12 million would normally be available as additional un unencumbered fund balance. So that would have been way above the 4%. So we already know we project what the 4% is um because the 4% is the 4% of the ensuing year's budget and that number is $176 million that we have as a total budget amount. So, we do all of those calculations and then we're left over with a number. So, we already know we have the 4% that's allocated. We should be keeping 4% no matter what all the time. Um, and then we are using 6 million 6.6 million to to balance the budget and not increase the tax levy. And then we're identifying another 5.5 million for federal grants. So all of that money, all of that, all of those funds um would normally
124hit fund balance and make it more than the 4%. So our audit is done at the end of the year. So that number would have been much higher. So what I'm saying is when the audit is completed, there's a space in the and I can show you the page. It's called unreserved fund balances. It'll show you that if the board agrees and is deliberate in their thinking of using the 7% that instead of that number being representing 4% it will represent 7%. So it'll be 3% percentage points above the maximum amount of 4%. Which represents the 5.5 million. Can I I I Alita I'm gonna try I want to try to explain in my own words and that way if I'm wrong you can correct me too because I'm going to explain it in my
125like non-b businessiness experience way how I understood it right at the end of the year every year we have money some money left over because we can't go into the negative and this becomes our unallocated fund balance and we can do a few things with it we can use it towards next year's budget typically and our original plan was to move some of this un unallocated money beyond beyond the 4% which we're um fiscally responsible to keep and and and are able to keep, we would have put that into a capital reserve, for example, to replenish our capital reserves because we're know we're spending that down and we're choosing instead to go exceed that 4%. Um so that we're leaving it where it is. We're not pulling it from somewhere else. Normally, we would be
126moving it to replenish capital reserves. But instead, we're leaving it where it is intentionally to cover this loss because you can't take the money out of the reserves once you put it in the reserves. And if we don't need it, we can always put it into reserves later. The 26 27. No, that that help. So, where but where are we getting the the 6.6 plus the 5.4 from? Where are we collecting that from? We already have it in our because we can't go down. So, we have to pad the budget a little bit in case and so we have a little leftover over here. Well, that well well well had the budget's too strong a word, but we have to we can't go in the we have the possibility to take out debt, right? So,
127we have to be able to make sure that we're prepared for our worst case. Yes. But, um I will and and brings it up all the time, the audit report when Alan's here, he talked about the use of fund balance and how we're reducing our reserves. So you can see through that type of uh report where the extra funds or the remaining funds are coming from by looking at the the projections. There's a chart that I I I do share it with the board towards the end of the school year, but you'll see that it's in salaries, leftover salaries or positions that were in filled and uh leftover benefits. And then you'll be reminded that we budgeted a lot more for health insurance um for than what we thought it was going to be. So
128the health insurance came in lower for this school year. So you'll also see savings in that line in the benefits line. So that's where the money comes from. There's a whole uh report that's um that Allan actually went over when he was here um and showing where the additional funding is coming from. And he also pointed out again we had more revenue from interest income. We have more revenue from um state from the uh the sales tax. And we have more revenue with building aid. Actually, this year we had additional million in building aid. So that's where the money is. You haven't seen it yet because the report is not finalized. These are just projections that we do based on our current expenses, based on our past um knowledge of what's been happening over three
129years span and making these projections to say that we can have this money set aside unless there's something that comes up that is beyond our control. But I think that we would be in a position where we would have the 4%, we would have the 6.6 for the general fund regularly and then the 5.5 for the the federal and state grants. And historically my looking at when I came here, there was always a lot more money than we're ste you're stepping down off the use of money at the end of the year debt. That's for sure. Um, and you can see that if you go back and look at it and the ability to generate savings in a current year, the ability to get non-recurring new revenue from different sources, a typical mode of practice,
130which the auditor mentioned would be you put it into different types of reserves. The difference here is that we're projecting because we were asked to project what would you do if we lost this money mid year? What how do we manage it? How do we handle it? So we're saying whatever savings we have done, you know, not to follow what you've traditionally done, put them into reserves and and I think on Saturday Frank pointed out that the state actually has 15% and towns and villages have more than what we do. So anyway, um you might have addressed this on Saturday, but there has been a lot of talk about students with disabilities losing services. Does do these um does this usage of money also cover that? I know we mostly talked about UPK. Yes, 611
131and 619 are in there. Yes, that's why it's important like we wouldn't if we if Here's the caveat. We didn't project that we can do this and it's only for one year because I can't we this is one time money. Uh we'd have to cut the general fund to take care of what's mandated in mid year. In mid year in midyear. So this is like insurance money. I see now I was reading the chart. Roger. Thanks Leah for this quick question for you on the You don't need to go to any particular slide because it's you'll know which slide I'm talking about. It's the uh one with all the capital projects once everything's transferred in and everything else like that. Just more of an an understanding. Do do you go through and try to get
132all those projects approved um up at night line by line? Like you do that like right up front, right? after you get the monies, you know, transferred in there so that this way they can move forward at whatever timing that is. Is that a correct statement? Correct. And this is very different than a bond to get approved. Yeah. Like these are some of these are just mechanicals. Um, so yeah, but like Jared said and I had mentioned before, it's not line by line. We would group a lot of those like the masonry. Correct. Yeah. So you wouldn't need to do so if you have to paint the hallways, you got to do something to the bleachers and all that other stuff that's there that all of that stuff is bulked together and if details ar
133you have all of that but that's that all moves forward and this transfer is a transfer but the the actual spending and you did clarify this in a prior meeting but I just want to make sure it's clear it it is phased based upon when projects can get done based upon resources that are available to execute. Is that correct? And it's based on when the pro when the commissioner approves it. Yeah. And also the timing of because you have to do a bid. Correct. Um so typically this stuff is some of the stuff is done over the summer or after or a second show. So correct. But the money is there. Yeah. So and this way it makes it easier for the work to move forward and it's not like all nine million gets spent
134at once. It gets spent over whatever period of time the project can be feasibly executed. Again, that air, like I said, that money is earmarked in that school year in that H fun. H fund goes on multiple years, so it doesn't go anywhere. It's sitting there just waiting for the project to be completed. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Any questions from the other side of the table? Um Alita, I thought of one question um just because I want to make sure we're fully understand the consequences of going above that 4%. Um, does it because I can't remember everything that goes into the um, foundation aid formula and the tax cap levy calculation. Does having a fund balance over 4% impact our tax levy for next year. Fabulous. Thank you. That was my question. Just got followup.
135So, um, I don't know how everybody else at the board t table feels. Just top of my head. First of all, I think what's been presented as a budget is reasonable. Good job. I do think that in the interest right of the board's fiduciary responsibility is to suggest to look as you know deep into this as we can. Um there are things there that I do think we could take second looks at and the butt here is even though this is a you know we're 1.67 if you take 1.67 from this year and add it to the 3.23 23 last year where we went it's almost a 5% increase in the levy over two years. It's not an insignificant amount. Um I know last year was you know challenging but I just again um if
136the next meeting is going to be all budget all the time to talk about I don't know what's on the agenda. maybe we can have discussion then otherwise you know there's some definitely some things here that I wanted to ask about um and and based on the previous presentations we've had tonight where we're going to you know there's part 154 regulation things we have to do to me that we need to look into the budget as part board's fiduciary responsibility to to make sure we've got it exactly what we need. So if there's line items that we think we could do a little trimming on. If there's things that we really think, well, maybe we could defer, I think it's the board's responsibility to do that. I don't know if every if everyone's head at
137this table right now is like, no, I'm good with what's presented, but I do think there there's we should do that. If it's not tonight, that's fine. But as long as we have a clear opportunity to have good discussion on some of the line items, um certainly you can continue to submit your questions to Mary as you think of them, right? and we will continue discussing the budget throughout all of budget season. Um but at the end of the meeting or uh work session, I should be more specific on um Saturday, Mary, we went around the table. How do we feel about a 1.67? And I believe there were five trustees here at the time and she got a green light from from five of us at 1.67. Um so that's the way the wind
138is blowing right now. Certainly, we're not done discussing the budget. Um, but I Does that answer your question? It does, but I would say to the B I wasn't here then and Roger, I don't think you were here then. You know, in last year and I'm still learning these things. I mean, I to me again a budget is always presented as an opening. There should always be room for negotiation on that. I've done that, you know, away from this board table. So, 1.67 67 as a number sounds good, but I do think it's it's our duty to look at everything and not just take that first thing and be like, "Okay, we're good with it." Um, and and if that's, you know, I think I think that's fair, right? Um, well, I think that different
139trustees are going to have a different perspective on the process and what our duty is and may not view it necessarily as like an opening bid and a negotiation meant to go back and forth, right? like different trustees are going to have a different approach to that. Um Melissa, you wanted to say something. I know you haven't heard yet. So, no, I was just trying to clarify because I know like I I agree our fiduciary responsibility. Um and I'm just wanted to get clarification on like because Saturday that's what Saturday was, right? Going line by line kind of analyzing what um the you know administration feels is necessary for the upcoming school year. So, I'm just curious, are there things within that that we should be that maybe or felt we dove deep enough into
140or are there things that weren't there that we should I'm just trying to get an overview of like what it is you're thinking as far as There were many things that were we didn't include that others asked because it tipped the scale of the 1.67%. We just couldn't afford it. So yes, that was that obviously at our level, we did a lot of that, an awful lot of that, right? And if the board wanted to hear what everyone requested or asked for, that's a whole other different conversation. You know, we could do that, but it would have put the amount o over over the limit. We had a limit and it's dictated by math. Can I just jump in for a second because this is also this is also about timing. Um, so these are
141the deadlines that ASBO has. I couldn't necessarily identify them illly in the um budget meetings, I mean in the board meetings. So I know from ASBO, New York Asbow that the board has to adopt I have the property tax report card available by the 25th. And that's something that I do after the board adopts the budget. So you have until April 25th, but Ellie, please tell me what meeting that they're actually adopting the budget. Right. So, you have to look at those dates um and how many board meeting dates that we have from now until that date. Um because we do have to adopt the budget by a certain date, which is the 25th. Um and I don't know, Ellie, how many board meetings are there? I'm sorry. up until April 20. April 25th. No,
142no. From now until April 25th. Okay. So, three meetings. Okay. So, you have to adopt it on the 25th. So, you have to have the resolution available on the 25th. So, there is room, but I'm just want to put those dates out there to remind folks of those dates. The hearing has to be by the 13th and obviously the vote is on the 20th. So, Melissa, I can answer answer specifics and I can give broadly. So, it's some of it is the what and some of it is the how. So for example on the how we have 320,000 or so in security for OS I think there's a general agreement we need security at OS but is there I don't know again is there an FTE because that's going to bridge right that's third party
143is there you know and maybe this what did this specifically did come up but it's a big line item are we looking at hiring our own do we talk about the SRO piece would that be more costefficient So some so some of it's how and there's some little things like I brought up the New York the the National School Board Association it's five grand 25 states have dropped out of it from both sides of political spectrum do we use it if not that's five grand right there um also on you know I mentioned that my sort of pet project the calendar say 6,000 to print how much are we mailing with it can we just do a digital version so right there there's two things almost $12,000 right there. Um, so those are a couple
144of the little things. The bridger, the security was another big one. Um, I talked we talked about the books and the consumables. Uh, we, you know, I I I thank you. I think Murray, if this was your answer, um, in the questions, but we talked about NWA contracts, our contracts, that's yeartoyear. So again, if that's an annual thing, that's actually good. Are there ways where you can reduce some of the consumables? Maybe we re reuse some of the items and that could be a significant savings. If the answer is no, the answer is no. But I do think you know again trying to answer your question Melissa there are things here that some smaller but it's still money and some other things you know I think is it feasible to take closer looks at to
145more on the how versus need security but how are we doing it? And I think it's fair to the board to think about that a little bit more even though it's a five five person vote on the 167. If we can do better, we should try to do better. So, we can do more other stuff, especially we can add I think there are five um the high school is big with multiple hallways, multiple places. I think there are five monitors, but we we'll provide more detail and I did add as much we got from folks to the Q&A for the entire board. I just want to circle back a little bit to the conversation from last year about the maximum allowable tax levy and the role it plays. I the osing board and right and
146I understand why because I wasn't here but I did read all your budgets. We had three years of zero and one less than that. So what happens in a scenario like this? This is all about the math. It has nothing to do with philos philosophy. It's all about the math. Um the maximum allowable the amount that collected from the community stays flat. Costs increase. So what ends up happening is that you eventually create a gap there. So people will tell you once you have the maximum allowable tax levy, if you go to your legislators, they will basically say to you, you know, if you're going to ask more aid for us and you haven't used what's legally allowable to you under the law, because I've been there multiple times. That's the response back. They would
147encourage you to go to your maximum allowable tax levy which last year was a a very significant amount of money which is I thank the community profusely for that and so needed. What that did is set your base higher this year so that the maximum allowable tax levy this year isn't nearly as big. What you do each year with that is that you up your base in anticipation of a tighter and tighter budget. So, um, anyone can go through and it is 100% the board's responsibility to be fiscally responsible. And I certainly think we can because I've done it the other way. We could present to you everything every administrator asked for. I think staffing was well over a million dollars when we everyone went through their court sessions. people were asking for a lot
148of additional help, more in technology, more uh administrators to support over a thousand in English language learners. You've got you've got principles with over 700 kids in the schools with one assistant principal. In many school districts, sometimes those are two. So, there were a lot of like I'd say six weeks of meetings with staff trying to get them to understand we have to stay at or below our maximum allowable tax levy. we just have to do that in order to um stay below I overheard last year 2% it's to stay below so it's just how the math impacts that formula it's just something for people to be aware of when you go in and look at a budget right this time next year with a cut in federal money or other things we might be
149looking at a different scenario alto together who knows trying to look ahead that but but here's something that I know that I was personally bummed about that we had a cut last year that data scientist the data person to me we're $180 million company and we don't have someone crunching the data I know the building administrators are in it and doing and you're doing but to me you need someone and I Mary you know it's up to the board but that's like something I would love to see put back in somehow so that's why I'm looking for some of these other things we've got our attendance data, we've got the testing data, we've got other data, uh, PBIS, in order to really make decisions on that, you really do need someone to look at it.
150And I would I would I I would be surprised. I could be wrong, but if you know, Mike Hannon team like I bet they would support that if we could afford it. So that to me is something that, you know, we have data analysts in there, but I don't think the data analyst that's in there is what I'm describing. I think it's more of an IT analyst. I could be wrong. That was my understanding of it. Yeah, that that's a civil service job title. Correct. Right. So, this is like I'm saying, okay, we got all these dashboards working bill administrators like to me predictive modeling on that. Yeah. I don't that's why I'm looking for some other things to tweak because maybe we can get to that. and maybe and that's a two the request
151was the administrator an average salary for administrator 140 at the low end $150,000 plus you add benefits TRS you're looking at a $200,000 ask for that position maybe you try can we do it part-time like try guess I'm hearing two contradictory asks from you Rob I'm hearing can we go lower than 1.767 And also can we add these positions that I think are valuable? I don't think it's contradictory. The the data thing is one I would say here's something to add. In order to add you got to look to take maybe move some stuff around. So again I haven't gone line by line and trying not to be too prescriptive. Although with this is one thing right with the budget the board's job is to kind of be somewhat prescriptive on it. You know like
152hey can we get to here my point is is that I don't think it is contradictory. I think we should look to try to get some of this. Again, I threw out the consumables. There's a $1.1 million line around that. Do we need to buy all the books I You weren't in here, Roger, but I brought props in. There were four books that my son brought home that were onethird used and he went home with them. There's got to be 20, 30, $40 a book. Are we required to buy those? If not, maybe we don't buy as many this year. I I don't know. Like I That's not my And I Yes. Right. And I don't know if you know, you're speaking for yourself here. If that was Maria's page, so I'm and that's why
153I'm looking at Maria. But if Maria's telling us we need ARC books, I'm not an ELA teacher. If she's saying these are the books that we need, and you're saying do we need those books and she's saying we do need these books, then I'm inclined to believe that we do. This is a I haven't heard any other, you know, discussion. I don't want to be a school district that can't afford books for children. That's not where I would look to cut. For the record, I just I'm going to drop. I'm not saying cut books for children. I'm saying do we need to buy contractually certain amount of consumables? Can they be reduced? I don't know. I'm not an ed I'm not the person doing it. And then I look to Maria's advice on that. I'm
154not saying cut anything like that. Saying is it Yeah. Is it our efficiency? Are we able to do it? So maybe some of these other things that we look that were asked today about we want to add sections of dual a language. We want to ask other stuff. I mean I do think it's this board responsibility and if and look if no one else really like hey Rob I'm good with that is we should take the vote pass it and then we don't have to have those three other meetings to discuss the budget. That's okay. I can live with that. I'll may not be happy about it but I live with it. But then what's the point if if we're all if five you know there's a five split right now we're good as is.
155Then then what's the point of you know more discussion about it. Frank, I see you wanting to say I I think part of the conversation's changed because we have not been getting the influx of foundation aid like we've gotten in other years. So before we had that experience, you had roll forward budgets, which is essentially your tax cap, and that was really to maintain what you had and add a little bit if you could in terms of mandated things. And so at the 167 really from the conversations that we had, my lens was rolling things forward. We're not cutting anything. We're adding in some special education teachers because we have requirements to do that and where there's things that we can do to add like, you know, increasing salary for athletic trainers and things like
156that. These are all kind of incremental things. This is not a change sort of thing. At the end of the day, if the recommendations are coming from the administration to keep the books and I think that's probably they brought it to us. I don't think they would have brought it that way. I think for this budget cycle to look at those kinds of things we're probably sort of some of it past that point and really if we're really have concerns that should be something that's sort of flagged and gone through over the course of the year. Am I thrilled with the 167 budget? I got to be honest with you. No. There's like if we're going to have a conversation about things that throw on the table and and go at but like there's a
157there's a reality of a tax cap. there's a reality of our roll forward costs which are really our our staff and our in our and our benefits at the end of the day. um there's not as as much to talk about in other years when we had significant amounts of money that we could basically then come back and say, "Okay, do we go out at a zero? Do we go out at a negative? Do we go out a little bit of an increase?" So, I guess from my standpoint, this is the recommendation from the administration. They went through it from my lens. I saw it. I I think it makes sense how they're presenting it. There was a rationale behind it. You know, I think there's always little things, Rob, like we the $5,000 on
158the NISBA. We can go back and forth on that, right? I'll tell you the value. I'll tell you how it's worked in the past and all that. And some of that's a good conversation to have, right? At the end of the day, but generally speaking, my sense is this is really a roll forward budget with a few incremental ads and I support that even though there's areas I would like to be able to do different. I think something that stood out to me personally um not just this budget cycle but last year was um you know Mary so eloquently explaining different factors but one of them being um the risk of rolling back too far not being able to recover if that if the needs around wherever we roll back change in the future. And
159I and I think just like in in layman's terms, if I'm following it, that's kind of um the balance we found ourselves doing for the last couple of budgets due to where we rolled back in previous years, which was I'm great we were able to do that and have that opportunity, but there was a balance that had that came with that. And so I think considering that going forward, there is a a delicate balance. I don't think it's in my opinion just from experience um it's not so much not really digging down into those fine finite line items. It's more of an overall general impact of what those decreases can mean over time especially in such a financially unstable environment. Um and how that might create this wave this influx of of instability in the
160future that we just really don't have the the structure to be prepared for. I think one thing I was impressed about this year as well is that we do we we found a way to also have a contingency plan for things um that might come down the road and impact continuity of instruction and also would also come with its own inherent um reverberating effects financially for the district. I think um I don't think we've really gotten into the weeds of what that would look like, but I think it's pretty obvious um of some of the impacts that can have um if we in the middle of the year or or so have these financial obligations that we just weren't prepared to meet. Um, so I'm just kind of like thinking back to Saturday and just
161thinking back to past budgets and the experiences around those and then also forward thinking of just there's so much unknown um out there. But I do, you know, I agree that it is good to conceptualize and and look at all the possibilities and I think we did a lot of that Saturday. Um, but I'm open, you know, if the board feels we need to continue having deeper, more intricate discussions around it. But I, you know, those are just some of the things I'm considering when when I settled at Saturday when we had that discussion. I think we also need to be mindful that just because we personally don't find something useful or impactful, that doesn't mean that's the case for the community. like in the example of print calendars, a lot of people do find
162value in those and they don't have access to an online calendar and that's just something that they use to be involved in the district. Um, and then even if we did cut things, there's so many of us, we would all have a different idea of what we'd want to put that to. Like for me, I would want to put that to before or after school program. And that's not because I need before or after school care. I don't. I just know it's a big need in the community. So when we're talking about this, it's it feels very like personal and I think it needs to be more community-minded. And I just I kind of I just want to underscore that I think the point I made earlier is really true when you look around the
163table that we all approach the budget discussions with our own kind of philosophy about what the role of the board is and about uh what the role of the budget process is and what that should look like. You described kind of a negotiation. I'm picturing like a car dealership and like the car salesman says the number and then you you kind of like wage back and forth and I might not be capturing what you're saying, right? But you're talking about kind of like an opening number and then we should really kind of tear it go through uh line by line which we did go through the budget I think fairly thoroughly. Um for me just so that we can kind of understand each other's perspectives a little bit. Um I read the book on my
164own first. um and write down my questions on a post-it note and then I come to the board table. But the question I'm asking myself is not where can we cut, where are the inefficiencies, where do we is is this budget fiscally responsible, does it meet our needs, can our community afford this, will our community support this? And those are kind of the questions that I'm trying to balance. Does this do that? And then if not, then then what? Then what? And for me, I think that this 1.67 balances those needs as much as possible. And I agree with Frank about kind of characterizing this budget as basically a rollover budget with some kind of mandated ads uh and not a lot of other bells and whistles. Uh this was supposed to be just a
165presentation on it. Do you want and I know um Roger I want to give you space to speak because you have not had an opportunity to speak in public on the on the budget if you have anything you want to say. No, I just I think there's one point about um and I know there's there's a lot of work that went into this. So I certainly appreciate that. And um you know and some of these things I'll probably have to email in anyway because I had some additional follow-ups based upon the questions that came out and the sorry the answers to the questions. But um you know in terms of the at the overall just rationalization of of expenses probably you know as you're going through this I think there is perhaps some level of
166you know look and to see what's there that could help fund things that that are still needed that uh you know because there could be some additional things here and there but what those are that's not for me to to determine right it's just you know what are those things that are just kind of like would make funding things that because we are going to need funds. God knows what's going to happen, you know, as decisions get made at the federal level. And I think honestly we all should be pretty scared about that to be honest. But I just think in terms of if we have to sharpen the pencil somewhere and say, you know, what could be help to fund things that are recurring that are school needs? Let's let's have a look at
167that. Um and obviously, you know, not down to pennies, but you know, order priority of where where haven't we actually looked for potential efficiencies of doing things, you know, So just that's just a comment that's all. I I will add that I I don't think any administrator because there are many who have everybody that had a budget came. I think people everyone approached hours of meetings with the sense of this is what I feel are my recommendations to support the program that you put me in charge of and I appreciate everyone doing that. Um, you know, the administration will live with whatever budget the board of education decides can be afforded. In in my years of doing this, the perspective would be you come back and say, I want to see a 10% cut or
168a $50,000 cut or $100,000 cut or whatever it is. We'd go back to the people that run all the programs and say, "Well, what does this look like?" you know, and then we do an analysis at district office like what's a mustave, what's important to have, and what's a nice have. Now, of course, to some people who run a different department, they're going to be like that's a mustave for me. And I want them to say that because that's what you want the leader of a program to say about them, but at the end of the day, you know, at our level, we'd have to take a better look at is it an afterchool or preschool program? Is it is it more of this? Is it more professional development for for teachers? So we have
169to look at that and give you our recommendation based upon talking with people throughout the the the day and try to we've added a to for the data piece we're in the middle of a school meter project which is leveraging AI we're bringing in um we're upping that analysis to others and trying to share making the team who's looking at that with a concrete data dashboard because the overarching goal is to have a better system to take a look that and I often say to the staff, why is it always a body? Like, is there another way to approach what you're asking for other than an additional body? So, this is just an approach we use towards budgeting. But at the end of the day, I going back there, it's 100% a board's responsibility. If
170you don't think this is something fiscally you can afford, then we will take this back and we will then put together a bunch of recommendations that we would think we'd have to consult with others to do that. The only little caveat, it's the one I added last year, is this nuance over your maximum allowable tax levy and how it sets you up for the next year. And I have a funny feeling, I think Roger just said it, next year we'll probably be in a much worse place. So you you know it's it's kind of like you just don't do a budget in isolation, right? You you do it looking at multiple years to set you up in a place for the next year because who knows what's going to happen. No, thank you. I just
171want to clarify. No, I think to do good work and we we could let it go. I guess philosophically on this table at the board to me it is it is the responsibility of the board to critically look at everything and to your point Annie I would agree we should have the debate like if you think we should have more after school program and I think data science and you think something else we should all absolutely so maybe for I don't want to say for next year we should put out wish like we should talk about a wish list in the beginning of the year and then have that discussion and then we work towards that. So when we get to this point and I'm like okay maybe trim here, trim there. I think that
172is the responsibility of the board even if the administration and absolutely has sent up something fiscally responsible we should look towards all those things and have those discussions so by the time it gets to us like okay we're all kind of good with it and then and go from there. That that's just philosophically how I personally would do it. Maybe not others, but that's just one old person. And we can talk about, you know, when we have a summer retreat and we're setting our goals, if you know, discussing what our priorities are is part of that. That's what our That's what our goals are. That's where we've done it historically. At the end of the day, if you're going to talk about something that you want to try to achieve, whether it's shifting something, program
173cost, all that, you start it in the retreat, you go through there. I mean, because the reality of it is like adding new like that window came with foundation aid right in terms of this. So now you're really talking more about like reallocating at the end of the day. You're really a tax cap was designed because communities were going out 78%. You know if you look back in your early 2000s right what happened that's what was happening it was going out. So tax cap is kind of and when you go to legislators they're like are you leaving money on the table with the c tax cap? How are you asking us for more aid if you put the if you're not going out to the tax cap with your community? Right? So, and if you
174look in the in the region, that's what most districts are doing. Sometimes they have enrollments drop, they go down. But, um, you know, I think at the end of the day, the summer retreat is where we've done that historically. And I think for those kinds of things, that's the exact place to do it and then administration can tell you what it's going to take and board can decide that what they want to pursue. I think some of the I find it beneficial because I think some of that is built into what we request to be presented to us at the meetings, right? That gives us a chance to hear from the actual people um in front of students um what some of the the the areas of the grows and glows are, right? And it
175gives us a a chance to really analyze from a person with the lived experience with these uh resources that we're pro uh you know obligated to provide to really be able to analyze that from an informed perspective. So I find benefit in that and I think that's um a place where we can utilize kind of digging down deeper by being strategic which I think we have about the presentations that we have so that we can analyze um some of the resources some of the gaps and and what that looks like so that by the time we get to the where we are now we have somewhat of a perspective of what the actual needs uh in our district are. Um, so I personally I I think that area um is designed for that, but I
176think you know we can definitely look into tweaking how we approach that. But I think that is um for me I like that opportunity because it we we're not just conceptualizing where we can take stuff from or put stuff to. We're actually, you know, having a dialogue with the administrators and the educators who are involved in the process um through the year and they're seeing where things are shifting, needs are shifting um gives the opportunity for us to have that to to to apply that fiduciary responsibility in a way that's um truly informed and not just you know concept people of another just a really important point. Um the reason why we are in a position currently or for the 2526 budget to be at a 1.7% a 1.67% increase is because benefits for projected
177for 2526 are flat. Health insurance is flat. Um ERS went down slightly and TR TRS went down slightly and ERS went up slightly. But if we would have had the same kind of increases um for the 2425 budget which we were able to uh accommodate with using a lot of our ERS and CRS reserves and we have some left but we would be having a very different conversation like this is not just a rollover budget. We are taking advantage of the fact that benefits of significant the most significant um part of the budget besides salaries is flat. So that may be very different in 25 in 26 27. So we just have to consider that. Um but if we would have seen the same types of increases that we've been seeing in pension and um
178and health, we would be cutting. Right. Thank you, Alita. And I I want to use this moment again to thank the board for last year, you know, doing that one time poll out of reserve because that's when you use the reserves and we made the risk. We made a gamble that they wouldn't go up. But I can't we can't predict that for for next year. But Elite is right. There would be I mean, we've added like close to 10 additional teachers. We've added new coaches. Um, you know, there was a conversation with the principles um this morning and they missed the instructional coaches. They would like to see them back that we took out because they were funded by the federal money. So I think the comment that we are all sharing sitting down and
179hearing directly from the people that run programs themselves you know about what they see what they would like um is important part of the conversation. I know that's when Austin decided to commit to universal prek by correct me if I'm wrong, but those became bigger uh program goals. But um again, the administration I I think took it seriously to try to stay under. We did eliminate an awful lot of the asks. If the board would be interested, we can put together a list of those asks so you can see them. That might give you a good reflection. I think I'd be happy to share that with you. Um but again 100% it is the decision of a board of education. It's your number one responsibility and the administration will administer whatever budget you decide. Uh,
180one last quick one, not specific that Alita, just on just back to the grants. Were were there any grants like how we had the ESA grants and CO grants that rolled off that we did roll any of those programs that end? Any grants that ended that we rolled those programs into the general budget? Yes. But this this year they ended already. The um CO funds ended. They were not part of this budget cycle but yes we did keep some positions right so the only little piece that was different because remember they ended at a different time last year's summer money was the last of the use of the that funds so that's why they're in the general fund for the summer learningmies I think there was a question the board had asked what we do
181in the summer what's required so what's required is what uh the extended school year program I would say required is also what we offer our high school kids, right? Um like it's not technically required by law, but we do offer summer program credit recovery regions makeup. Um but there are summer learning that we have which have been transitioned into the general fund. So this year they're in this year's budget, but nothing no grants ended. Were there any grants that ended just now this year that we did have to roll? But you're saying we did roll this program because it was because it ended in August 31st September 30th. It ended September 30th, 2024. That's it. So there was that three months. So we could use them in the summer and that was based on what
182was left over. It's all planned and used. Exactly. And that was the elementary summer program. Yes. The elementary and AMD. Okay. We running an AMD one because I saw a zero in the line for We corrected that. That was um a correction that needed to be So we corrected that. Okay. So we're running an elementary and AMD summer program. Yes. Yes. Incoming K through and high school. So several high school. Yes. Incoming K through 12, right? I mean, so in this instance, I think the financial planning has put the board in a position to be able to try and maintain those programs at a rate which they were in the past. I mean, we've put the knife to them in the past, after school programs, we've also cut significantly, right? So, like there's there's stuff
183that comes off of grants that we're able to roll in and then there's stuff that we don't. And so, I think right now you're trying to maintain continuity of service. I mean, we see the impact of when those cuts the the piece that I've always said like we know when we cut the after school program at the middle school in 2012 our ELA scores dropped 10% in one given year from those losses of extra supports right so it's not like there aren't I think we're in a very good position considering all the uncertainty for the community to be able to offer a semblance of continuity of service at the end of the day considering if we do get hit in these ways and if we don't then the board next has to revise and it's
184thinking and it's a one-year thing and we'll figure that out too. But I've sat here with people lined up 50 deep at the end of the day, you know, upset about programs and fighting and we're not talking about this here. And I give credit to the administration for being able to weather the storms. And again, please put in as many questions. Our job is to make sure the next meeting we try to give you as much information as possible. Um, we might add an opinion or two. I added an opinion about the calendar. came from Nicole that people actually call up. They want the calendar and I actually use it for we have to mail some annual notices. So to save money I attach it to the calendar but but so that you will you
185will get a recommend I'll call it a recommendation from key staff that it might be informative to the board. But always please any and all questions um that could help inform your conversation for the next meeting. We are more than happy to do that. I'm going to email my questions. I got probably a lot of them that will keep us healed from midnight. I'll have like six angry trustes. I'll be like, "Hell you doing?" Not necessarily angry. Just tired. Just tired. Actually, yes. Tired kind of begets anger. Maybe a little hungry. I mean, to be continued, right? These certainly were continued budget discussions. All right, I'm going to move things along and we can pick it up. We haven't heard the last of the budget, right? Okay, so um for item 4.1, let me see
186here. Uh any discussion? Uh 4.1 resolution designating the officials to act the special district meeting. Uh, all in favor? I think I take a motion for it first. Oh, I'll take a motion for it. Second. Thank you. We are getting tired. Um, at least I am. Uh, opposed. Oh, all in favor? I opposed. Abstension. Woohoo. Okay. Uh, does anybody have anything they wish to break out among 5.1 and 5.2? Okay. I'll take a motion for 5.1 and 5.2. Second 5.1 resolution regarding cooperative bidding with Putnham Northern Westchester Boseies. 5.2 resolution regarding interfont transfers. Any discussion? All in favor? I I opposed abstensions. Now um it's listed as a consent agenda consent agenda item but 6.1 is a board policy. I'll just briefly explain um because the policy committee hasn't met but this kind of was
187um conducted over email. Latoya reached out and wanted to change the date by which saludiatoran and validictorian are selected in order to submit their names for certain scholarship scholarships. Um and this is consistent with what other school the timing of other school districts so that those students can be more um out able to be submitted for things like scholarship. Yeah. And and Mary this was like where last year where where the other kids in other schools were being submitted and our kids kind of like missed the boat on that. That's what that was. That's a damn shame that this has missed the boat in previous years. So yeah, that's a damn shame. This is one that we got to do. This changes the selection of those students to be instead of at the end of
188the third marking period, the end of the second marking period to avoid that problem. Yes. Okay. Um, any further discussion on that or any other questions? Okay. I'll take a motion for 6.1. So, 6.1 resolution to approve policy regulation number 4710-R grading systems regulation high school grade waiting policy as a first reading. All in favor? I opposed. Abstension. Time for uh second public comment period. Seeing nobody here in person. Angela Ilia, is there anybody online? Okay. Uh board reports and dialogue. We certainly had some dialogue already. Um does anybody have anything they wish to discuss from a committee? I think we're just meeting policy uh tomorrow won't have an update till next time, right? Um we need to talk about the communications committee. Um Katherine has stepped away from the committee via email. Nicole is
189also emailing to set up a meeting on um Friday. Frank has expressed an interest in attending one of those meetings. So, uh, we'll email Nicole about our availability on Friday, but next steps going forward as far as the mascots's concerned. Um, Nicole's shopping around some ideas basically with um, stakeholders. I happen to there was a communications committee meeting today that included community members. I was able to attend that and see Nicole Shiel in action and her kind of presentation and see her get some feedback in real time from the adults who were in that group. Um Mary and I were talking today we had our agenda setting meeting and um this topic came up and I think we are at a point where we are really needing entire board input and uh Mary suggested doing
190a work session basically, which would be an opportunity for um the whole board to be able to contribute without having to vote on the mascot in that moment, right? And hear from Nicole, hear from Miss Lynn, hear from uh maybe some other equity leaders, maybe some students. It can look however we would like it to look so that we can um discuss what we want the next steps to be as a group. If we want to spend money, we need to discuss that as a group. If we um are satisfied with how things look, we need to discuss that as a group. So, that is kind of the point that it feels like we're reaching. Mary, do you have anything you want to add on that? It I just think it's helpful to have a
191a conversation in a work session as opposed to where people can just discuss things. I I used a lot of work sessions a lot over my years. I found them helpful on a variety of topics. But yeah, you can What do you mean by work session? Like the budget workshop where we're not having public comment. We're just you can invite different people to come in and talk. It's more a little more free flowing. It's like a work session over a topic. So a separate meeting. Well, we have a before. We can have it before a meeting or we can meet at a separate time specifically to devote to this because if we wanted to discuss it now, it's 10 p.m. It's not happening right now. What are we thinking time? Well, I mean, we can
192I Mary said, "What if we do it before a board meeting?" I said, "Let's talk to the board and see if they want to have a meeting and then if so, when that would take place." So, I'm interested in a meeting and I would prefer another meeting. That's just like at like 6 p.m. for example, on a day where we already have a meeting. Okay. That's fine. We could do that, too. Okay. Melissa, do you have any thoughts? No, I'm open to the discussion. I think we definitely need space for it. It sounds like Yeah. Does before a regular meeting that we already have make I mean, I don't know what everybody's lives are like as far as schedules go. Would is it preferable? That's the question. Would would doing it, you know, just showing
193up early and doing something earlier make sense? I think my family would be more disrupted if I had to annoying evening rather than one annoying night. Okay. Um Roger and Rob. No, I'm I'm good. I I'm good. I'll bring pizza if you want. Okay. Um I guess are we I mean if we can make it we whoever can make it can make it. I guess is the idea that we would come back forward. Are we coming are we still moving forward with based on the research and then we're going to say okay here's kind of where we are. It's not going to just be a hey what should we do for a mass? No, no, no, no. It's a it's a here's where we are. What do we want to do next from the next
194keep it's not stepping back. It's No, it's the point at which I mean we need to hear from our people outside of the committee in a more conversational way. Um I I'm happy to have received the feedback that I've received and we've been asking for it, but I'm also playing telephone in a way where it just seems like the simplest thing to do right now is to just discuss it. It seems like the perfect topic for a work session, which done before, right? Informal conversation with everybody here. They don't have to televise it. Food obviously is part of it, but yeah. Does that sound amenable to people? Okay. As long as it's not next meeting. Oh, we can't even do next meeting because the AMD students distinction is at that time. So, that one I
195have Um, oh, another little update. This should be quick. The NISSBA presentation committee. Um, I emailed what we came up with as a draft. We probably should meet Melissa. I'll email you and Catherine and set up one more meeting just to like cross any tease dot any eyes, but I wouldn't expect any huge changes. Um, and then we got to get that shipped out like I'm hoping end of week or like by Monday. I think it's due on the 24th. Just I'm gonna send some comments on this one. I think there perhaps could be a tiny bit more specifics than that. It just felt a little bit more Sure. And I can share with you if you'd like um because it does match in length the sample that we were sent. Yeah. No, it's not
196the length. I'm just perhaps some details. Yeah. Just maybe we can just tweak it a little because I know there's a lot that's in there, but I mean I think it's good. It's just a couple of little tweaks. Send it uh as soon as reasonable to you can you can reply to the email so that everybody sees it and then the committee will meet one more time and decide what to do with the feedback just suggest yeah um I think that's all we have that's all I have on my list of things to discuss anybody have anything else okay we do not need to meet in executive session tonight so there's nothing else Um I will take a motion to adjourn the special meeting of March 19th, 2025. So moved. Second. All right. Any discussion?
197All in favor? I opposed. All right. Thanks everyone.