001I also want to thank the audit committee. We are a part of the audit committee, which we did. We met with them to plan the audit. We went over their results. They're very thorough in their review, and they really understand the complexity of the audit. As far as the audit is concerned, the audit process began in June. We sent a team out to do some preliminary work, looking at your internal controls. We test your payroll, your claims, your bid process, your cash receipts. Then we come back in August to complete the audit. That's when we really drill down into specific account analysis. We take that information and then obviously we crunch numbers and we put together a financial statement, but we're really charged with running an opinion on the financial statements based on those results.
002With that said, we've issued what is termed an unmodified opinion. An unmodified opinion is often referred to as a clean opinion. It's the highest level of assurance that an entity can receive, and it basically states that the financial statements present fairly the financial position of the school district, again, as of June 30, 2025, in accordance with the account. From a financial perspective, the school district is financially charged. You did have some, you also had some expenditure savings to rattle. Because of that, the district was allowed to do reserves. New York State allows you to put money in reserves as long as your unassigned fund balance is 4% of your budget. And the district is within those reserves also gives up. In addition, the district has done this through a budget process, and you haven't exceeded
003the budget. In fact, from what I understand, the district is now, while the school district is financially strong, I still urge some caution as the cost continues to escalate and you have a cap to your personnel cost. You do pay into the retirement system, the teachers retirement, the employee retirement system. Those funds in New York State are in the stock market, so those are subject to what determines the rates every year. So although the district had a real... Just in closing, though, I just wanted to say that the district did a district to maintain the quality. I said I caution you because there are... the future is unforeseen, but obviously Seaford has been able to manage this without cutting programs for the kids. So overall, a really good year. You were within the targets of
004your budget. You didn't have to cut programs. You're able to be at the unreserved or undesignated fund balance a little bit under. Overall, I wanted to thank the business office again. A really good audit. I can't say much more. Thank you so much. I appreciate... This is the second year that we've had Steve Arnone, our treasurer, who is very instrumental in addressing many of the lists that we get and requests. So thank you, Steve, who's in our audience this evening, and also our chairman of the audit committee, Mr. Nick DiMola, and the committee that comes with a lot of knowledge base and really takes that role. They are an arm of the board of ed and we value that relationship. Thank you. ...to Matt. So he can... I don't know how much you have to
005say because we only met last week, but let's see what you have to update us on. Okay, Matt? So, like Dr. Picora said, there is not too much that is new with the student body within the past week. However, there are two very important events coming up in Seaford that I would like to remind everyone on. On Saturday, October 18th, it is Seaford's homecoming, and I'm so excited to participate in the events and celebrate a great day with the whole Seaford community. And then on Thursday, October 23rd, Seaford is attending the Newsday Marching Band Festival, and that marching band represents Seaford incredibly well each year when they attend this festival. So I'm excited to see how they do this year. But it was just those two days that I'd like to touch up on, and
006that wraps up my student report, so thank you. And we had a car show at the high school that was sponsored by the school district and the Bongiorno family, who has traditionally been extremely generous with awarding scholarships to our students. So with that event, it was reported that they raised I think close to $10,000 that will go back to our students. That's wonderful. So we thank the family. I spoke with Mrs. Bongiorno today to thank her personally for the efforts that she has to keep her husband's memory alive and to support our students. It's really quite a wonderful relationship. Nicole Schneegel had done a tremendous amount of work on this, and she has a very, very nice partnership with the family. And then as always, Mr. Costa always comes forward, so I want to thank
007him for that. And again, Don Borda had arranged for some of her cards to be here, so it was really a group effort. Okay. In addition to that, I just wanted to talk a little bit about the external audit report. That is, that's like it takes a whole village to be able to have the financial strength that we do. So if I do, Rhonda, please share with the business office the accolades that were shared tonight, and it's through everybody's efforts. Steve is in the audience. Thank you, Steve, our district treasurer. And in addition to that, I just think it's wonderful that the board has supported so many wonderful initiatives in the district that is supported with a foundation of strong financial planning. So thank you to the board. Thank you to everybody. It's really nice
008when we get a wonderful external audit report like that. So with that, we can talk about what we're going to be doing going forward. And I can present last week, the board presented their goals. This week, I can present my goals. To what Ms. Herbert presented last year, we build our goals based upon the mission statement that is co-authored by the Board of Education with input from the administration prior to that. So our mission statement is that the secret unifree school district's purpose is to provide our students with an innovative educational program that will empower students to develop their academic and social skills while becoming learners and leaders who create a better present and future in a democratic society. And I think that gets on some of our core values particularly well. When we take
009a look at the first goal, the Board of Education goal is to provide a dynamic, inclusive, and innovative learning environment that promotes and supports the academic growth of secret scholars so that they may realize their full potential while becoming responsible and productive citizens. So the goals under that are to support and bolster that initiative to make sure that we're targeting some of the key words within that first goal. So firstly, I would be working, I would be continuing to support our strong administrative team. And together we will collaborate to monitor and improve our educational programs that all secret scholars receive instruction that addresses individual learning needs, fosters innovation, and raise academic and social value, and assessment data to target instruction and elevate student performance so that targeted approach to taking a look at our assessment
010data and then informing our instruction based upon how we see our students are performing. Working with human resources, people, personnel, services, curriculum, and technology departments to further enhance teaching and learning through new professional development opportunities while focusing on two things in particular this year, our brand new elementary full ICT program and the new math program at the elementary level. So we're doing curriculum, professional development across the board, but those two areas are gaining attention because they're changing approach. Recruit, develop, and retain high quality educators and staff by investing in meaningful professional development, promoting staff wellness, and fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement. The next one, collaborate with the secret scholars committee to advance the secret scholar profile initiative. Our secret scholar committee is a powerhouse of amazing educators throughout the district and
011the work that they've done over the last couple of years has just been fantastic. It's it's shared by Dr. Jacob and it's probably the committee meeting that I really enjoy going to and should say the most because all of them are good. It really feels established systems and protocols that allow for the constructive use of artificial intelligence must cultivate technological literacy. So AI as we know is kind of a current train right now trying to and all trying to kind of lasso it a little bit and make sure that we're using it as well as Dr. Kennedy's group. That's another committee that's done really innovative work. Our education goals to promote a safe, secure, and environment that proactively supports the physical, social, and emotional. So we're in collaborative with students, families, and the community. I
012seek to foster and maintain a safe environment for all of our students in which there are more opportunities to develop positive relationships, healthy behaviors, and wise choices. All of those things are equally important in positive relations. Continue to incorporate our SEL program. So our SEL programs are pretty robust because we include as everybody knows Lions Quest, Growth Mindset, Innovators Mindset, Acts of Mind, and Ruler and a lot of the work that we do. A lot of that is embedded within the Secret Scholar profile. So these programs aren't independent of it. They work side by side and they're very well integrated. Work with the District Health and Safety Committee as well as Nassau County Police Department to continuously evaluate protocols and structures that will ensure that our campuses are safe and secure learning environments. We asked
013the District Behavior Threat Assessment and Management Team to continue to institute proactive measures to support the mental health of our students. That was the focus of our opening day. It's a very hefty, heavy topic to open the school year with. Our keynote speaker, Dr. Kostavakis, did an amazing job balancing the fact that we can live in very scary times and some very scary things can happen. Well, the good news is we're being proactive. The good news is the District's at it. We've started our partnership with Northwell organizations and then work with BOCES and our technology. And I do want to say our partners. My goal is to develop a fiscally conservative budget that stays within the tax returns programs while aligning with the community's financial and educational. We're working with the Assistant Superintendent's Operation on
014developing strategies that include prudent spending and targeted savings. The focus is to maintain financial solvency and support the Assistant Superintendent in creating a plan to build our reserves which will enable the District to sell funds. I think that's a huge accomplishment, the ability to build our savings so that we're not spending money on investing going through the bonding process. Communication. Our goal is to maintain and enhance communication that will ensure that open flow, transparency, and accessibility of information with all stakeholders. We will continue to improve the District's communication systems to ensure effective sharing of information with students, parents, staff, and community, particularly focusing on advancing the use of Parent Square, which we had our inaugural year last year, and the Viking Pops video. I hope you were able to see the one that we produced
015so far. It was just released last week. I think that's gaining traction and popularity. So Matt, you have to check in with the kids and see if they're watched with the Viking Pops video. I did. I loved it. Okay, one vote for the senior class. And then lastly, enhance the robustness of the District website and advance the branding of the Secret Union Free School District logos. We're really trying to brand ourselves so when you see certain logos, when you see certain colors, you just make Secret. I think that people need to think that they're not Viking enough. This is a very spirited community, but it always helps when you have reminders out there. Okay, and the last one focuses on operations and facilities. Create and maintain a modern and competitive campus to enhance opportunities and
016foster growth for all Secret scholars. I think it never gets old walking across the multi-purpose fields. I was at the fields a number of times this week because I tried to go to most of the senior award ceremonies for athletics. And when you're walking by, you see the stamp concrete and you see the Secret Scholars flags waving with all the athletes on them. It's just a tremendous sense of pride and our campuses are looking better and better every year. Not to mention, Matt spoke very eloquently over the summer about the cafeterias and the Nordic Nook and all the enhancements that they've made across the libraries. One of my favorite places today. It's really been fantastic. So we're going to monitor, I'm going to monitor the construction projects that are scheduled for this year in 25-26.
017As everybody knows, the programs, the projects that were scheduled in the budget last time are going to, they're somewhere behind. So in this past budget, we approved the Manor and Harbor roofs, but that's not going to happen because we have to get approval for the building projects until this coming summer of 26. So we just, on the new middle school roof, so that was the first in the line. And then this summer we're going to Manor and Harbor and then we have to just strategize for what we're going to do. We're going to create long-term plans for additional capital projects to ensure the beautification and functionality of our campuses, including the replacement of the roofs and inclusive instructional spaces. Motion for agenda item 5A, group 5D. Move it. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye.
018Anybody who would like to speak? Okay. All received correspondence has been responded to and I need a motion for agenda item 8A. Move it. All in favor? Aye. Aye. We're going to need a motion for agenda item 8B, but I'm just going to mention I'm going to be abstaining from this vote since I am the donor of this item. I'll take a motion for agenda item 8B. Move it. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Say 8A, 1-3-3. Is it okay just 8A? 8A, 1-3-3. Do I need to move back? Yeah, just revise your... If you're going to just revise, I'm going to revise 8A, 1-3-3. Who first? Who was the first? I was the first. And I was the second? Go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. Okay. Sorry about that. And we need a motion
019for agenda item 8C. Move it. We do have to take the vote again. We do have to vote again? I didn't hear the vote. We didn't. I didn't know. Okay. So, amend the motion for agenda item 8A, 1-3. Do I amend the motion? Move it. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. I need a motion for agenda item 8C. 8C, 1. 8C, 1. Through A1. A1. Move it. All in favor? Aye. Any miscellaneous discussion items? We can't do it today. Closing comments. So, I'll just say another thanks to PKF O'Connor for coming all the way to present the audit results to us. They traveled quite a distance. And a special thanks to Rhonda and Steve and the whole business office for their efforts to achieve that clean audit opinion. I know that's no small feat,
020especially when there's turnover. So, thank you to everybody involved with that. Lastly, we want to thank everyone here and the community for the outpouring of support and prayers for Lisa, our board president's son, Charlie, and Seabrook. One of us heard, so we all heard. And we're just very appreciative of the support that everyone's been showing. So, that's it for tonight. Thank you, everyone, for coming. And I look forward to seeing everybody at home coming next weekend. There you go. You ready? I need a question too, if you're unmuted. Move it. Sorry. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Thank you, everybody. All in favor? Aye.