001good evening this is a regular scheduled board of education meeting the board of education was an executive session in accordance with open meeting laws 105f specific personnel matters serenity and associates audit separation and paid time off moa operations grades published on portal updated 30 20a and board development agenda review In a moment, I'm going to have Ms. Leonard and her students join us at the podium to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. And I will ask that you stand and remain standing until after a video of the Newfield High School Select Vocal Ensemble performing the Star-Spangled Banner at the SSB Winter Concert and directed by Ms. Joan Meichner-Shaw, music teacher at Newfield High School. Please rise. Good evening. It's my pleasure to introduce our bestie. student Nicholas Whitaker who is here from Miss Panichi's
002self-class. Very quickly I just want to introduce Miss Panichi, school psychologist Miss Thibodeau, teaching assistant Miss Brown who are here tonight to support Nicholas. So Nicholas please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic, where we stand, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Great job, Nicholas. Thank you. And now for our Secondary Student of the Month. If I could please have Mr. Bell to the podium. Good evening. It's with great pleasure that I introduce Zachary Atkinson as the Centering High School Student of the Month. Zach is so deserving of this recognition. He truly represents the best of the best from Centering High School. Academically, socially, athletically, and musically, Zach is at the top of everyone's
003list. Some things you might not know about Zach is he's an avid hockey player. He's been on the honor roll every quarter since he entered high school. He's a member of our Centering High School Junior Fire Department, and in his spare time, he started his own business. He is such a great ambassador for our school, we've used him to introduce our 8th graders coming over from Donwood so that they feel more comfortable entering high school. However, it's apropos that we're here in the auditorium tonight because Zach is most recognized for his talents on stage. Singing and acting have become his passion. If you've attended either of our last two musical productions or our drama productions, you could not have missed Zach's incredible talents. He was the lead in both plays, playing the part of Jack
004Kelly in our production of Newsies last year and Roger in our musical production of Rent this year. These parts are entirely different as is the music. It requires an amazing range of talent to play both of these parts and Ben was simply spectacular. I'm sorry, Zach was simply spectacular. Ben's your brother, right? Yeah, I knew that was gonna happen. I knew that was gonna happen. That's all right, I have a brother too. To quote Ms. Bush, our band director for both musicals, Zach is an exceptionally talented young man. He does a wonderful job in every aspect of our music department. In preparing for his lead role this year as Roger, Zach took the time and initiative to learn both the electric and acoustic guitars specifically for this role. Zach is always willing to help with
005anything that the department needs. He brings great energy and enthusiasm to everything that he does. Mr. Huff, our director for both productions, is also one to rave about Zach's talents. However, he notes, Zach's work ethic, humility, and leadership shine through daily and cites those qualities as what make him such a valued member of every ensemble in which he participates. Zach walked into CenterH as a ninth grader looking to find his way and in the process became a leader. Thank you to Donwood Middle School and Eugene Auer Elementary School, and of course, Zach's parents, for providing us with such an incredible young man. Zach is off to Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee in the fall to study vocal performance. I'm sure that once he arrives, the staff will recognize that which we all have at CenterAge,
006that Zach is a special talent and an amazing person. Zach, thank you for all you've done to make our school great, both on and off the stage. Congratulations. melba are you going to take pictures like now present when they're here or at the end up front i just don't want as they are okay thank you thank you and congratulations if i could please have mr graviano to the podium good evening everyone it is with tremendous pleasure that i introduce to you newfield high school student of the month for april april mr logan squillas This month's voting for student of the month wasn't even close. I usually select a department to provide nominations and send those nominees out to the entire faculty to vote on. For this month, I asked the entire faculty for nominations. Safe
007to say he had a minimum of 20 nominations across all grade levels and all content areas. Logan is a young man held in the highest regard amongst the entire staff at Newfield High School. Of the many responses sent to me with descriptions of Logan, I narrowed it down to three teachers who I feel captured best the young man Logan is. Ms. Morello, one of Logan's former teachers, stated, Logan is always looking to help others. He is the student in class that looks to see how he can help when the wind blows the teacher's papers to the floor or a student drops his pen. He's one of the most selfless students I've ever met. He works hard in class to be successful and puts 100% effort into all academics. Logan's perseverance, work ethic, and motivation to
008succeed will ensure he does great things in life. Ms. Westby, a former math teacher of Logan, explained that right out of the gate in ninth grade, Logan was a standout student and just well-rounded overall human being. He always strived to reach his fullest potential, demonstrated maturity beyond his years, and exhibited kindness and compassion toward everyone that he crossed paths with. Logan often receives perfect score perfect scores on exams in her class and continued on to more advanced math classes He is a great example of the student recognized of a student who recognized early how he can utilize everything Newfield has to offer and use it to his advantage Logan is a wonderful role model for others and has accomplished a great deal and has always remained extremely humble about his achievements Lastly mr. Asmo described
009Logan as a senior whose dedication and strong moral compass have always stood out He is a hardworking young man who consistently works to do the right thing, no matter the challenge. She stated, I had the pleasure of teaching him in food and nutrition, where his passion for cooking first began to shine. Since then, he has continued to develop his skills through the BOCES culinary program, showing both talent and determination. Logan is also on the verge of achieving the prestigious rank of Eagle Scout. a reflection of his leadership and commitment to service. He started in the Cub Scouts back in elementary school, where he was active for a few years, but eventually gave it up for a little while. I guess he missed it, and in March of 2020, Logan moved through the ranks from, and
010I think I got this order right after we talked about it today, from Scout to Tenderfoot to Second Class to First Class to Star to Life, and he will soon reach his goal in earning the rank of Eagle Scout. He came to me earlier this school year about his Eagle Scout project and of course as a true testament to his character Logan asked if he could build a memorial bench and plant a tree in the front area of Newfield High School in memory of Robert Bush He looks up to his father who is here with us tonight along with mom and big bro Vinnie He explained to me that dad always instilled the importance of helping others, respecting everyone, working hard, and making good choices. Mom and dad, we at Newfield can very happily confirm
011that you have succeeded in all you aimed to instill. After graduation, Logan will be joining the U.S. Army Reserves as a cook, combining his culinary passion with a very deep desire to serve his country. From there, Logan will be attending Pennsylvania College of Technology, specifically their culinary program. Logan, your future is so bright. Your work ethic, your kindness, your respect, and your care for everyone and everything around you will most certainly lead you to greatness and, most importantly, happiness. Congratulations on being voted Newfield High School Student of the Month for April. Congratulations, Logan. If I could please have Mr. Kachidis to the podium. Good evening. It is with great pleasure that I introduce 8th grade student Kara Zappasoti. as Donwood Middle School's April Student of the Month. Ms. Pasternostra said, I have been one of
012Kara's teachers since she was in the fourth grade. When I first met Kara, it was during COVID. Although we're in the same room, we still had to sit very far apart. While this was a terrible situation, she became comfortable enough to start chatting with me. From that time forward, we always make time for chatting, beginning our sessions. She tells me the scoop of what's happening in school, and then she asked me about my day. We laugh, we eat, we work. Kara has blossomed since those early days into a wonderful, confident, smart, and funny student. She is truly one of my favorite students. I should also add that Ms. Pastor Nostra is here with us tonight. Also here with us tonight is Ms. Della Pina, and she said... I've had the pleasure of having Kara in
013my math class for the past two years, and she continues to be a standout student and an all-around wonderful person. Kara regularly recommends some of the most fantastic places to eat. She could have a side gig as a food critic. She also is a joy to spend time with during lunch when our schedules match up. She brings kindness, positivity, and extra brightness to every day. Miscato said, Cara is a shining example of excellence in every sense of the word. Not only is she maintained a perfect average in ELA, she's consistently demonstrates a passion for learning. She's a gifted writer using her creativity and insight to bring depth and beauty to her work. Her ELA skills are exceptional and she is an inspiration to all. Cara's overall average for her sixth and seventh grade school years
014was a 96.1. Her average for the first three quarters of this school year was a 95.5. Outside of the classroom, Kara's a member of the Girl Scouts, where her mother is her troop leader. She enjoys that very much. She enjoys spending time with friends. She's also very good at drawing. Kara has a photographic memory. When she sees an image, she memorizes it and then recreates it, which is just amazing. When I asked Kara who she admired, she said my dad. He always did well in school and he encouraged me to do well too. Kara also told me that what she likes about Dawnwood is all of the teachers are really good and they explain things really well. And I said, really, all of them? And she said, yes, all of them. Kara, thank you for
015all the wonderful things you do. Congratulations on being Dawnwood's April Student of the Month. This is for you right now. Congratulations, Cara. If I could please have Mr. Bennett to the podium. Good evening. The Selden Middle School Student of the Month for April is eighth grader Dylan Gregorio. Dylan was an almost unanimous decision by the teachers at Selden Middle School to receive this month's award, and it was a pleasure to sit down and speak with him about his middle school experience. Dylan has maintained consistent grades each quarter of his middle school career and has been a fixture on our honor roll. His favorite subject is social studies, and he has a particular love for learning about the bravery and dedication of our soldiers during World War I and World War II. Dedication is something that
016Dylan has embraced and applied to his love of wrestling. As an eighth grader, he wrestles for the Newfield team and competes outside of school for two other teams. He looks forward to traveling out of state to New Jersey and Philadelphia to take part in tournaments there. Dylan also likes archery and the band Nirvana. He told me that his favorite thing about our school is the teachers, who have all been kind to him and helped him over the past three years. It is no surprise that Dylan likes his teachers because they adore him. They describe him as a hard worker, a polite young man with an outstanding work ethic, a great role model, a conscientious student, and one who leads by example. Dylan's English language arts teacher, Ms. Pernikone, who is here with us tonight, shared
017that Dylan is a wonderful student. He asks questions, comes for extra help, and will redo assignments until he is pleased with the results. She added that he genuinely cares about doing well and shows great maturity. All of these attributes were on display when Dylan and I met. Dylan is joined tonight by his mother and father, his sister Emily, and his brother Jonathan, both of whom attend Stagecoach Elementary School. Dylan, when we spoke, it was very clear to me that you are a determined young man who does what he needs to in order to achieve his goals. I wish you luck with all of your endeavors, and I know that you'll be met with much success in the future. It is an honor to name you our Student of the Month. Congratulations. Congratulations, Dylan. If I
018could now please, for a certificate of appreciation, if I could have Rosmeline Polino join me at the podium. Rosmeline went to the legislative breakfast, the Longwood legislative breakfast. We have it every year. And I will say she represented us so well. She was so impressive. She memorized her question. She interacted with our elected officials. And she's just another example of the wonderful students we have here. So on behalf of the board, we thank you for taking the time to represent us so well. Thank you. Now for a certificate of recognition, if I could please have Dr. Cook to the podium. Hi, everyone. I'm very happy to be here tonight. This is Christian Gensinger. I'm happy to have him. I'm saying it correctly? Gensinger. Okay, I stand corrected. I'm sorry. Christian Gensinger. I can do it.
019Okay, so we have this very exciting contest every year. I'm hoping it's up behind me. Nope. Tech is gonna put it up. Christian won the sticker for this year. So every year for the last three years, we have done an I voted sticker and we've asked our computer graphics, our college computer graphics classes to design them and then we have them compete. Then the really cool part is we take the finalists and we put them up at the elementary humanities expo and have the children vote on who their favorite sticker is and then we print them up. So we now have, 8,000 of these I voted stickers, which is really cool. So this is your designs. You get to keep this. So that on budget vote day, when the students get to vote on their
020school lunch and on their extended recess, they get the civic readiness of learning how to vote so that when they become adults, they know how important voting is. So as children, they learn. They get to pick the sticker, which they were so thrilled to do. They were really, they sat there, they look like this. They studied each one. They looked at it big. They looked at it small. It was great. So Christian here, he designed it. So he's won the contest. The Middle Country Education Foundation has supplied us with the stickers, and we're very much appreciative to them for doing that. And Christian has also won an ice cream sundae at Mia's Ice Cream Kitchen, which has also been around for three years and has given us a certificate each year, and you've now won
021it. which is great. And the Middle Country Board of Education would like me to present a certificate of recognition on their behalf. So congratulations on your win. Your sticker is awesome. I want to know if it's up here yet. Oh, there it is. It's cool, right? Yeah, so let's hear it for Christian. I always like to tell you about our students when we come up here a little bit. As I said, he's in college computer graphics with Mrs. Calatelude, but he also has done college English, college accounting, college economics, college into criminal justice, college Spanish II, AP calculus, AP physics, AP world history, college pre-calculus, and he's in the wind ensemble. He's a mighty fine trumpet player, and he wants to be an elementary educator when he graduates. So we look forward to, you know,
022maybe you'll be back someday and you'll be helping kids just like you, which would be a really cool full circle moment. So thank you and congratulations. Congrats. And now for a certificate of pride, if I could please have Ms. Pacifico, Director of World Studies K through 12, join us at the podium. Oh, I'm sorry, and Dr. Ndimbera. So good evening. I'm here to recognize our students who participated in Long Island History Day last month. For those of you not familiar with the program, all of our eighth graders complete a National History Day project through their social studies classes. And then we have students who self-select to go on to competition at Hofstra in March. So they do months of additional research. They put together their projects. And then they have to be interviewed by a
023panel of judges. and these students have been working with miss cook who is our selden middle school advisor and mr dovas who is our dawnwood middle school advisor what's very unique about this program is six years ago we started as just a middle school endeavor but this year we had students from both high schools decide to compete most of them doing a second year of competition after working with those two advisors And as a result, these students are working with legacy programs who have been doing this for decades. So we had nine students representing middle country doing college-level research. I got to sit in on a few interviews. It was a privilege to see the way that these students prepared themselves and represented our district. And many thanks also to our social studies teachers who
024helped students get this research off the ground every year in their eighth grade social studies classes. So I'd like to have those. students come up front and if miss cook who's with us can help with some certificates so our first certificate is going to go to safina afroz who is a student at newfield high school and she did an individual website on the bangladeshi quota system Our second award is, certificate is going to Saraya Roy. This is actually her first time competing. She had not competed as a middle schooler and she decided that as an 11th grader she wanted to compete. And she did an individual documentary on the power of the pardon. We then have Sylvia Zhao who last year won a special award. She continued with the theme of music and she did.
025parental advisory labels in the music industry and that was an individual documentary next we have our center reach students second year for grace and julia working together this year they did an exhibit board on idea and then in our junior division so our middle schoolers who are doing this for the first time we have shaura ahmed who did an individual website also on the bangladeshi quota system We have Emma Krakow who did an individual website on Bob Marley and Bob Dylan, Activism Through Music. And then we have Sarah Faridi who did an individual exhibit board on the Freedom Riders. She actually created a bus that was an open display on the work of those civil rights leaders. And then from Darwin Middle School we have Aishwarya Bhatti who did an individual exhibit board on the
026Ukraine and Russian conflict. So congratulations to all these students for representing us in the best ways possible. miss pacifico are you going to stay there okay can't escape that quickly now uh dr endenbaran can join um miss pacifico and myself at the podium we have some certificates of pride for uh teachers can miss cook come back and stand with us okay what's nice about getting um miss cook back up here for the second time tonight is that she does not love to be the center of attention but we will see that a Long Island organization begs to differ. And so we are so honored to present Newfield High School's librarian, Lisa Cook, with a certificate of pride for receiving not one, but two awards from the Long Island School Librarian Association. The Long Island School
027Librarian Association is the only professional membership organization focused on Long Island school librarians, and we are in region one. So I had meant to say this first and then introduce our students. So Ms. Cook, I have to mention her unwavering commitment to National History Day. She joined us just a couple of years as an advisor, and she really has helped grow the program well beyond what we originally envisioned. And like I said, that includes working with our high school students. They love Ms. Cook so much that they wanted to engage in college-level... research a second year when they didn't necessarily have to she's also an active participant and judge and she did win runner-up for teacher of the year at the long island history day competition we have a plan to plot for first place
028next year but that's super impressive because like i said these are legacy schools who have been doing this for decades so within two years to have middle country recognized in that way you know we couldn't be more proud of her and you know when i was speaking to some students about their competition they were you know obviously naturally nervous and i said to them do you actually think that miss cook would allow you to go into this competition unprepared and they all affirmed no that there is no way that they were not competition ready because of her support and it's just you know a testament to her unwavering commitment to our students and making sure that they show up um you know in their best light um in these high pressure situations okay so the
029actual awards that she um won she won the 2025 lisla fresh start award this award recognizes ongoing efforts of a new school librarian at their school for four years or less to build a strong library program and highlights their contributions so this is the one that she actually applied for and tried to get but what ended up happening was the people from the organization contacted her and said we're putting you up for this other award as well And so that one is the 2025 Laisla Librarian of the Year Award. This one recognizes the best practices of school librarians and highlights the impact on learning, advocacy, and our leadership carried out in their school, library, or library. So you already heard about her work with the National History Day. Ms. Cook is easily one of the
030kinds of colleagues that you want to have. She works with... teachers across all disciplines and grade levels to really enhance knowledge seeking right and creates a very safe space in her library for people to come and relax and browse and um kind of regroup so actually recently mr graviano described the library as a hub of the building right and that's really what you want a library to be it's a community space um so this war is so very well deserved these awards that you received are so very well deserved if i could please have miss melfi mr miller and mr nelson join me at the podium Ms. Melfi is a math teacher at Center Ridge High School. Mr. Miller is a biology teacher at Selden Middle School. And Mr. Nelson is earth and space science
031teacher at Newfield High School. We brought them up here this evening to give them certificates of pride because they had won, they received the Scope Teacher Service Award. And we want to thank you on behalf of Middle Country for all that you do and all that you have brought to our students past. present and future so we thank you for all that you do and making us so proud thank you and congratulations barry would you like to come for uh certificates of pride for students correct so these students are here um to be recognized on behalf of the district for, as you know, I like to say developing questions that we have not yet imagined. They presented their research at the Long Island Science Congress competition earlier this month. They basically took over the entire
032Aerospace Museum with their posters and had to present their work to judges that were identified as judges and people that were unmarked. So there were just a lot of adults and scientists coming around asking them about what they studied. as we recognize the students we also want to thank their research teachers for supporting their endeavors so i'm going to read to you their titles and present them with their certificates of pride so they're i'll start with the center each research students and their research teacher is miss melinda nickel so the first project is how does nutrient pollution affect marine plankton by autumn youngling shellfish and nitrate pollution by natalie teeple Exercise versus Vision Improvement by Isabella Koch. Removing Microplastics from Water and Home-Based Filtration Methods by Haya Khan. Level of Acidity on the Growth of
033Microorganisms by Jean-Vie Islam. The Population of Deer and the Vegetative Effects on Long Island by Savannah Giordano. And the Effects of Copper Fungicide on Plant Growth by Kira Malaborski and Gavin Estafanos. Okay, and then the Newfield Research Projects, as taught by their research teacher, Jim Nelson, analyzing historical ocean temperature trends in the Long Island Sound and the potential impacts by Kiera Green Wilson. The evidence of Long Island's glacial past is disappearing. Research will be difficult to discover by Peyton Greco and Alishba Aziz. okay so the last two projects i just want to kind of recognize um slightly separately you've seen these students before they've participated in a multi-year longitudinal study in the pine barrens out here looking at invasive species in prosser pine so these students have been going to brookhaven lab working with the
034light source they've presented their work at brookhaven lab they've presented their work at long island science congress and they will be presenting their work again on monday coming up as part of the Brookhaven Lab SPARC research symposium. So these two projects are investigating the resource battle between eastern white pines and invasive species, Glassy Buckthorn by Tiffany Gao, Abbas Lawrence, and Umber Sharma, and dendrological investigation and elemental analysis using root cross-sections and adjacent soil by Matthew Betis and Julia Carter. So as we know science is not a set of words that we just need to memorize. Science is a lifestyle. To conduct research takes resiliency and perseverance. We're proud of your work and congratulations. We thank the Board of Ed and the cabinet for supporting their endeavors. Thank you. Congratulations. and now for our first of
035our two pta ptsa reports if i could please have miss um heather hanick pta council delegate from hawkins path elementary to the podium good evening my name is heather hanick pta council delegate here to represent pta president miss kaufman who can't be here tonight i'm also a teaching assistant in praise at hawkins path This year, our PTA kicked off the school year with our traditional welcome back to school barbecue, bringing everyone together to celebrate the new year. In October, we had our fall book fair, then our pumpkin patch provided by Woodside Nursery. We had our annual Halloween Treat Street event, which is always a big hit. In November, our family fun night, Hawkins Path Bingo, also known as Ho-Wingo, allowed us to collect three bins to donate non-perishable food items to give to our Hawkins
036Path families in need. In December, we brought back our pancake breakfast at Applebee's. There were several teachers, PTA, and Ms. Leonard there as servers. A special guest from the North Pole made a surprise visit. In January, nothing beats coming back and kicking off the new year with an amazing booster fund and raising almost $20,000. Our second grader, Aaliyah Baker, earned Principal of the Day as the highest earner. Based on the school totals, Ms. Leonard and several other teachers and staff were pied in the face during a school assembly. In February, our special someone special dance had everyone moving and grooving the night away. It was truly a beautiful night. In March, our lucky Ho-Wing-Go family night allowed us to collect even more non-perishable items for our families in need. In April, our PARP theme was
037Out of This World. We ended our PARP event with a spring book fair and a visiting author as well as our annual field day of literacy, also known as the Read-Around. Coming up in May, we are very excited for the Staff and Teachers Appreciation Week. We have a lot of stuff, a few surprises up our sleeves for them. Also in May, we were excited about our barbecue and field day. We were able to provide each student and staff with our field day t-shirts. In June, we will be wrapping up our school year with our school supply box orders. We offer parents an option to purchase a box of school supplies for their children and they will be waiting for them in September. We will also be saying goodbye to our fifth graders with special gifts
038from the PTA, as well as a trip to medieval times in New Jersey. Each grade level will be receiving a little something special from the PTA to kick off the summer. We want to wish Ms. Costa, Ms. Olson, and Ms. Pedente all the best as they head off to their exciting retirement adventures. Thank you. Thank you. If I could please have Ms. Irene Pizzo, PTA President of SEPTA, to the podium. Thank you for inviting SEPTA tonight for the meeting. We greatly appreciate the opportunity. Our PTA year was kicked off in late August when we had a visit from Mr. Softee to celebrate the end of our extended school year. Children really enjoyed ending the summer session that way. It was so nice to see them enjoying the sweet treats while working on their communication and
039social skills. In the fall, we had a one or two fundraiser at the Port Jeff Cinemas. The outing brought many families, not only from our community, but across the island together. It allowed families the opportunity to run a movie while not having to worry about disrupting others. It was a huge success, and we cannot wait to do another. We took one of our meetings over to the Middle Country Library for us to learn about the various materials available for loan right at our local library. We also learned about the services available through the library that are free or at reduced rates. Earlier this month, we co-sponsored the Youth Abilities Fair with the Middle Country Library. It was a very nice day that brought out very many special needs vendors and other opportunities for people to
040be involved with each other. The kids were able to come and interact, and parents were also able to find out. material and information to help their children. Throughout the year we have been working on membership. We are very thankful for the continued support of the Middle Country staff as we continue though to focus on trying to get more parent involvement. Be sure to mark your calendars for our Backskid Auction which will happen on May 30th right here at Sunridge High School at 6 p.m. it's sure to be a nice evening for everybody we'll continue to bring presenters in for our meetings to help guide parents and how to best help their children currently and in their future last but not least we are all looking forward to our end of year summer bash i hope
041to see you all there Thank you and on behalf of the Board of Education we thank all of our PTA volunteers that help ensure our students receive all their fun and extra activities. We know it's all volunteers so we thank you all for volunteering your time. And now if I could please have Mr. Mercado to the podium for a physical education, health, athletic and facility budget presentation. Good evening. It's my pleasure to present our physical education, health, and athletics and facilities budget presentation for the 25-26 school year. So we'll start with physical education. Physical education is New York State mandated for all of our students in grades K-12. Our elementary students meet twice per week and all of our secondary students meet every other day. There is a main focus of lifelong fitness for all
042of our students, social interactions among students, and new for the 25-26 school year, we're very pleased to present our athletes with an emphasis on physical fitness. And what we're going to be doing with that is for at the high school levels, I've worked with both Mr. Graviano and Mr. Bell. in order to secure time slots where athletes will be able to participate in physical education that is more geared towards their athletics and their physical fitness. And coaches will be participating in that class as well, where they upload off-season workouts for their athletes as well. So that will help our student athletes that participate in multiple seasons work after school to have that time to work out and get more prepared for their athletic seasons. We have several budget codes for our phys ed staff, equipment,
043other professional tech services, which takes care of things like our project adventure equipment over at Newfield High School, general supplies for all of our class and our salaries. There's a major decrease in the equipment code this year, but that is being transferred over just to other areas this year for athletics. That has to do with the fact that our weight rooms at our four secondary schools have sufficient equipment for their school year. So we're reallocating that money just for the 25-26 school year. For health education, obviously that's a graduation requirement. It's offered to students in grades 6 and 10. Where they're focused there is mental health awareness. Mental health disease awareness, drug and alcohol prevention, steroid prevention, human anatomy and chemical makeup, nutrition, suicide prevention, sex education, STD prevention. We have 5.7 staff members in
044the district, and that is a .3 reduction from this school year. For health, there is minimal budget codes, obviously with the use of our students for Chromebooks, but they do need their general supplies, and we're pretty much staying flat for the year. Obviously, there is a slight decrease since we are going from 6.0 to 5.7 teachers. For facilities. I'm very lucky this evening. I have my very trusted assistant, Mr. Mark Werner, here with me, who helped me build this entire presentation. We monitor 90 custodians, which includes our mail department. We are in the process of hiring three, 10 groundsmen, 10 maintenance men, currently in the process of hiring an electrician. As I stated, we have our assistant director of facilities and a foreman who's included in the number above. That department supports the approximately 9,500
045students and 1,600 staff members in the district, all 14 buildings, 15 total sites. We maintain and repair our facilities, complete many projects effectively, cost-effectively in-house rather than send them out to contractors as we can save a lot of money for the district that way. obviously the main responsibility is for a clean and healthy environment before during for before during and after school events This being my first year, we've made some recent upgrades to the Buildings and Grounds Department. First and foremost, the increased use of technology. We utilize a program called School Dude, which handles all of our work orders that come in from every single building. And what we've been able to do is utilize a note system, which monitors specifically our outside vendors. So we send a job to an outside vendor, for example,
046a boiler system or an air conditioning system or a roof. And very often, as an outside vendor, They come and they go and in order to monitor them we're able to to keep better notes on them and hold them a lot more accountable for their work. Aesop for our custodian, our teachers currently use that for already for when they're going to be absent. We're going to be utilizing that for our custodians as well. Some cost-effective solutions, something very simple, especially there are teachers that are here in the audience. There are univents that are constantly running every single day, especially for heat. We were able to find one of our vendors to rebuild motors rather than replace motors, and that's a 50% savings on that. This year we're in preparation for capital projects. This will be
047one of the first years that we are working with capital projects and we are preparing to start that for this summer and we have some very exciting things coming to the district that Dr. Rella has highlighted in our overall budget presentation. maximizing BOCES support with once a month visits BOCES sends a representative down and they're able to walk through all of our buildings to ensure that we are utilizing our staff our supplies efficiently also making sure that we maintain in compliance with all outside organizations and state organizations Restructuring of district records. We have one person that handles all of our district records in the school district and she's working to consolidate all the special education records, human resource records, and create a new space for those records to ensure that they are kept maintained properly.
048And we ensure maximization of our work schedule for our restructured positions and basically what that means is very simply, we have two shifts. We have a day shift, we have a night shift. for our maintenance people. And what that allows us to do is kind of work continuously almost around the clock to ensure that the building is operational during the school day and it's properly prepared for our students the next morning when they come into school. Work orders. So these numbers are as of April 4th. We, as of April 4th, we had 1,822 total work orders that came in. We only have 355 work orders still in progress. 64 of those are for outside vendors, and 75 of those are specifically just for electrical needs. So you can see how efficiently the department is working
049with one electrician as we're in the process of hiring two, and obviously as we maintain what our outside vendors are doing. and we're currently at an 84 completion rate for all of our work orders that are done in-house So just an example of some of our in-house projects that have been completed by our district. Again, saving you, the taxpayers, money. Our new drainage system over at New Lane Elementary School. The Newfield Univents solution. Sounds very silly, but we had all those univents. We're sucking in a lot of dirt and dust off of a dirt patch that was over the side of Newfield. When you have an athletic director that becomes facilities, we turf everything. We don't concrete it. We don't blacktop it. we bring in artificial grass. Turns out that it was much more cost
050effective and much more aesthetically pleasing. New Lane hallway leaks, New Lane had some massive hallway leaks going on in their building at certain joints. Our crew was able to complete approximately 90% of that job in conjunction with an outside vendor. Again, being able to reduce the cost that we had to pay to the outside vendor. Just a couple more. Newfield Science Room, room 125, which is an absolutely gorgeous science room where our students are able to visit every single day. A new waste pipe over at Holbrook Elementary. And currently we are in the process of installation of fans in our elementary classrooms and any classroom that is not air conditioned in order to increase air circulation. And this is an unfunded mandate that we're able to work. on in-house again helping save the district money
051by not going to the out to outside vendors for it So there's a lot of facilities, budget codes, as you can imagine. Here are just some of the things that are included in that budget code. Main thing, obviously, being equipment. Three new vehicles were ordered for this year. One grounds truck, a new mail truck, a maintenance van, boiler maintenance, seating of our natural fields, air tests, supplies for our custodians, district records maintenance, in-house projects, paying for those in-house projects that we were talking about earlier, for their supplies, such as plumbing, electrical, painting, carpentry. special air conditioning for our special education rooms snow removal rubbish removal air duct maintenance asbestos removal when needed roof maintenance security and fire alarms we just had a brand new fire alarm installed over at stagecoach elementary school over the holiday
052break so here's a list of all of our budget codes some budget codes show drastic increases some show decreases There is, you'll see once we get to the end of the budget lines that we are pretty much maintaining a solid budget. There is a small increase due to salary increases, but the main changes are just due to a restructuring of how we are managing our budget codes. So where you see equipment replacement at a plus 10%, and you see our memberships, obviously there's an increase just because of a little bit more staff, but a lot of them are steady at zero. very minimal increases you have your BOCES services things like gasoline structural inspections licenses and permits all the things that are required to maintain a district on a day-to-day basis and ensure our healthy
053and safe environment so like I said once we get to the bottom you can see that we're going to be able to function on the 25 the 25-26 school year at a 2.5% increase athletics We offer a variety of sports. Some are combined. Many people don't understand how we work our combined sports. We have new field teams. We have center-reach teams. We have middle country teams. Also, we have obviously Selden, Dawnwood, and even at the middle school level, we have a couple of combined teams as well. Those are always noted when they are recognized as a middle country team. We offer a lot of variety for our student-athletes depending on their varied interests. We try to ensure that we have a wide variety. to meet all of our students' needs. We have a total of
054109 athletic teams in the athletic department. We pride ourselves on student athlete academic performance. I always tell our student athletes, good students make good athletes. You perform well in the classroom, you will perform better on the fields. Very pleased to announce that we are able to maintain a New York State Scholar-Athlete, New York State School of Excellence at both high schools. In order to reach that status, 75% of your teams must have, 50% of their roster have a 90 GPA or above. So it's very difficult to achieve, and it shows our student-athletes are not only successful on the fields and on the courts. but they're also successful in their classrooms. In terms of the general population, Minds in Motion award winners, we just attach that to individual student athletes that are able to achieve a
05590 GPA or better. 52% of Center Reach, which has stayed flat since last year, and 47% at Newfield, which is a 1% increase, are able to maintain that 90 GPA or better. We also encourage our students to participate in community service. One of the things that they were very happy to join in on this year was PARP. PARP fell on a week when it was in between seasons, and student athletes, rather than go home for that one week, they decided to go and visit elementary schools and read to students. Also raising mental health awareness. Our student athletes have become very involved in the USC Ice Bucket Challenge. We've got, we had several administrators, some of them that are here this evening, join in with pouring some ice water on themselves. And you can see that
056we had a bunch of coaches that participated as well. And it's really created a nice community feel for our student athletes. We work to incorporate youth into our programs because we understand that the youth is the future of our programs. Many of our athletic teams have done things like clinics. They do a lot of program days with younger kids and outside organizations. So that way they are starting to get to understand and learn our programs. On the field, our student athletes have had a lot of success. Behind you is a list of over the course of the previous nine years where just about all of our teams have qualified for the playoffs at least one time. And here's just a few highlights, including our Newfield fencing team winning their fifth consecutive county championship. We have
057our individual gymnastics athlete who was a state champion. We have our Newfield Rocky Point wrestler that was the first female state champion in New York State. for girls wrestling. Here's just a couple of photos of our athletes participating in many various sports. Hannah Hughes from our gymnastics team, who was our state champion. You see our cheerleading team that travels down to Florida, our golf team, tennis players, our kick line teams. All of these teams, as I stated before, are to offer a nice wide variety of sports and extracurriculars for our student athletes. Going back to how we are focused on student academic performance, obviously we're very proud of our student athletes that will be participating in athletics at the collegiate level next year. To date, and this is only for our fall signing day, already
058our athletes have earned $439,000 in scholarship money. Some of the universities that they'll be attending are listed right there below. we hold another signing day as many student athletes don't commit to their colleges until later in the year and we'll be holding another one in june where already i've been receiving a lot of questions from student athletes about participating in signing day so i'm very confident that we'll break the one million dollar mark once again we're very proud of the facilities that um Middle Country athletics has we're very proud of the commitment that the Board of Education that our community members have Put into our facilities and we do a lot with them We show we're very proud of not only playing here and calling it our home But we're very proud of sharing it
059with other schools in section 11 and across New York State as we have hosted many different events for section 11 And even New York State Championships in the past Obviously, the budget codes for athletics, we have 101 total bodies, people that coach. 67 of them are in-district employees. Obviously, some of them coach multiple sports in order to meet that 109. We're very proud to have such a high percentage of teachers that work in the district that coach our students. As I stated, here's our budget codes. There's a large increase that's visible on our transportation budget code. The main reason for that is just that the way we're presenting the budget is different, along with Ms. Myers and Dr. Rella, and we're incorporating the outside transportation into the budget this year. So you see a large
060difference in that, but it is pretty much flat. Our coaching salaries obviously have an increase. Our chaperones and our security has a bit of an increase to ensure the safety and well-being of our students. Plus, there's also been mandates from sports such as lacrosse with shot clocks that requires us to have more personnel there. Large increase in equipment. Again, that was the transfer over that I was speaking about from physical education earlier. Obviously with inflation and being mindful about our budget, we do incorporate many cost-saving measures in athletics. Two years ago, we started incorporating a change in our uniform brand. One of our vendors has created their own brand. We've started to change our athletes over to those brands. The athletes like them. They're comfortable. They wear well. But yet our advantage is that we
061have a 40% cost savings per uniform. Plus, those uniforms are guaranteed not to go out of style, which means that we are allowed to constantly just do add-ons for them rather than ordering teams entire new uniforms. We did a change in bowling alley this year where we saw a huge savings per game that's bowled. When you have 25 bowlers between boys and girls bowling three, four games at this cost that you see above, the bill can get quite expensive. So obviously changing our bowling alley saved a lot of money. Changing to our hosting procedures, how we host events from Section 11, New York State. We changed those procedures to ensure that those events are run more during what's called straight time, which means we're not paying overtime or opening the building just for those events.
062Student-athlete participation. Student-athlete across the participation is very strong. At the high school, we had over 1,400, almost 1,500 students across three seasons, which is flat from last year pretty much. The middle school, we had 605 students across three seasons. Again, last year it was 598, so a nice little uptick from both levels, even if it's just a little bit. And obviously we end all our presentations with our mission statement. Specifically, what I always feel that adheres most to athletics is each student will identify and implement creative solutions to increasingly challenging problems within their world, as I feel athletics always helps students get ready for the real world. Any questions? Excuse me. Excuse me. Are the microphones working? Can you please use the microphones? To what extent are we articulating with our local sports organizations with
063our program? So each individual coach reaches out to their sport for what they need to meet up with their youth programs. And like I said, they're working in different things like camps, youth programs, so that way they can communicate and have increased participation with the youth programs. anyone else thank you so much oh that is how we start our budget presentation every year back in 2014 a young man in pre-k by the name of john kusamano was the voice of that he is now currently a ninth grader in newfield high school and we continue to use his voice because it's just too adorable not to i don't know if he finds it adorable i'm sure his mom does I'm going to have everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance as recited by the Center
064Reach High School Select Vocal Ensemble. And then please remain standing for the Star Spangled Banner as performed by Jolie Washington, a senior at Center Reach High School at the Suffolk County Legislature Breakfast. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States. United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. everything we do is always rooted in our mission statement and Dr. Cook always finds a new and creative way for it to be presented in our school budget presentation that we do and here this year we have the Center Reach High School leads from the musical production of Rent The mission of the Middle Country Central School District is to empower
065and inspire all students to apply the knowledge, skill, and attitudes necessary to be creative problem solvers, to achieve personal success, and to contribute responsibly in a diverse and dynamic world. Our budget planning objectives, even with the continuing budget challenges we deal with such as rising costs and state aid inconsistencies, we keep our focus on ensuring that comprehensive opportunities stay in place, including a full universal pre-K program, a wide array of courses, BOCES, OCED programs, athletics, and extracurricular activities such as our amazing music program. some of our budget drivers and challenges for the school budget the school year of 25-26 contractual obligations health care costs additional special education praise classes currently at plus five our transportation our retirement cost our BOCES oc ed program our insurance increases and also unfunded mandates building heat is one of
066them we have two new ones this year building heat and cell phone legislation that with the cell phone legislation we're still not sure what the cost will be that is attached to that I think this slide is important to note and to have conversation about it's our fiscal stress designation in previous years in 324 um we did not have a designation because we had a score of 21.7 points and as you see no designation is 0 to 24.9 that has been the focus of the district to make sure that we keep ourselves not having a classification to keep us with no designation that's something we focused on and we're continuing to focus on The use of our reserves and fund balance, while the district has had to rely on the utilization of reserves in the
067past few years, you can see that the district is making progress by relying on reserves less as witnessed comparing the usage in 23 and 24. That is also part of what keeps us off the designation. You get cited by the comptroller if you have too much in reserves. You get cited by the comptroller if you don't have enough in reserves. So it's a tricky balance we need to keep. Here is our 25-26 proposed three-part budget. As you can see, our capital, which makes up about 14%, that is the safety of our buildings, the upkeep of our buildings. As you can see, administrative, which is more than just administrative, it's also our insurance costs and our legal costs. And then almost 80% of our budget goes into programs which directly impact student instruction. Middle countries per
068pupil expenditure, we're at 25,000, which is lower than the Suffolk County average of 28, and the New York State average of 26,000. Even though our pupil expenditure is lower, we provide full comprehensive programs. It also means that we are efficient or tight with our budget, so we don't have a lot of extras that can be cut without real impact. Our 25-26 proposed revenue, our budget expenditures are supported by revenue. The two primary sources of revenue are property taxes and state aid. Middle Country is a state aid dependent district, which means any underfunding in state aid requires either program reductions or an increase in taxes or overuse of our reserves, if they're still available. This year, based on the governor's proposal, we are slated to receive an increase in state aid, which would help middle country
069maintain programs while staying within our allowable tax levy cap of 2.21%. This chart here shows that the average tax levy increase over the last 10 years here in middle country has been 2%. It's also important to note here that 2% is not a true 2%. There's a formula that's given. That's why you see across the island different tax levies that school districts can come in. We've always been very careful to stay at or below our allowable tax levy. We're very respectful and mindful to our community here as well. This budget stays within our 2.21% tax levy cap. This translates to an average annual increase of $182 yearly or $15 a month. But I do want to note that these numbers here are based on the assessed value that we received from the town of Brookhaven
070and it's for $2,500. If you want to see what it will be a direct impact to your household personally, you can go onto the website and go onto the tax levy increase calculator. And from your tax bill, you get what your house is personally assessed at. You punch those numbers in and it'll tell you what this budget will, the direct impact to your household will be. Our 2526 proposed budget, sorry, our current budget. is 294 million dollars our proposed 25-26 school year budget is 304 million that's an expenditure increase of 3.33 percent our tax levy cap is estimated at 2.21 percent we're coming in at 2.12 percent that's an annual increase for homes assessed at 2500 dollars of 182 dollars a year Nobody ever wants to talk about it, but we do have to mention
071a contingent budget. That would create a $3.5 million gap for middle country. Unfortunately, the things that are impacted are the big items that are not mandated. So that would be program staff. That's our pre-K electives, BOCES, OCAD, our class size in K through 12, field trips, extracurricular activities, late buses, charging for building and field usage, and equipment and supply purchases. If you'd like to go like the one Mr. Mercado did this evening, all of our past 25-26 budget presentations that were given, you can go online and you can follow, click on the links and you can go through all of them, some of them, none of them at your leisure at home, but they are all listed that you can see in case you missed any or you have any questions about a particular area.
072Another thing that I would recommend you do is go on to the website and you can click the link for all of our bulletin boards. While we have sent home more this year, they're normally just four pages. Some of these that you even did receive at home, they're online. They're more pages. They're up to eight or even ten pages. And some that we didn't send home, you can go online and you can look through at your leisure all of our bulletin boards. They really tell our story. They get into specifics, athletics, the BOCES program, just different things. areas that we really focus on just in that bulletin board this is through the years sorry i need my glasses for this some of what our operating budget has accomplished we established well in 2006 we had
073our half day pre-k but in the school year of 20 14-15 we established full day universal pre-k and I think it's really important to note also that over 9,500 students have benefited from this program we in the 18-19 school year we first unified basketball team We have had 50% of our athletes are designated scholar athletes. That's a GPA of 90% or better, like Mr. Mercado said. We've had five students selected to NISMA. We've had nine students awarded AP Capstone diploma, eight in 23-24 school year. We have our lobbying day trip this year in 2025. We had 26 students engaged in advocacy with our legislators in Albany. This is some more of our continuing success. Like Mr. Mercado said, the Newfield Boys Fencing, five-time county champions. Newfield Boys Soccer makes the playoffs for the 15 of
074the last 20 seasons. We have all our cosmetology students compete in the SkillsUSA competition 17 plus years. we have students from newfield high school and center reach high school compete at the arts center and both of our robotics teams at both high schools consistently compete in state and world levels and again you can go on to our website and look at this presentation and you can look at everything that's listed there because i only touched on some something else i think is amazing and i'm super proud of as being a board member we are This slide here shows how we are preparing our students to be competitive in the college process. Anyone who's been through it, you know how competitive it is, whether it's academically or with athletics. Our class of 2024 earned $4.5 million
075in scholarships. Our average scholarships for the class 2018 to 2024 is $3.5 million that they've earned. And I think it's also worth noting here how our teachers and our support staff are behind how... helping to create these competitive students that are able to go on and earn these scholarships. So they need to be thanked and acknowledged as well. And here is another test to that. We've had middle country graduates gain admission or currently attending over 265 different colleges and universities. I won't go through and read all of them, but we've had Notre Dame, we've had all the SUNYs, University of New Haven. That's a little plug because my daughter's going there. We have also, too, I want to acknowledge all the students, several students throughout the years who have gone into the armed forces. We
076want to thank them for their service. They leave right from high school. And then also our students who go into the workforce directly from school, whether it be into a trade or just joining the workforce in general. This, too, I love. Dr. Cook kind of touched on it. For the last several years, we've... had elementary students learning about civic engagement. They have a vote on the day we have our budget and our elections. And in school, they all vote. They vote on what's their favorite lunch. And I know that last year in particular, I'm curious to see how it'll go this year. We've had students who actually were campaigning for what their favorite lunch is to get others to join in so their lunch wins. They get a sticker in school. If you join your
077adults and you come to vote at the polls that day, there is another vote. that is set up and we have a booth for the students set to their height they sign in like their adult does it really mimics actually voting they also get that one is for a recess should there be more recess you get a sticker when you vote at the school as well and so to all the adults we offer it to all the adults as well this year's winner as you all saw earlier was christian jensinger a newfield high school college computer graphics student Then we ask you to please remember to vote on Tuesday, May 20th in the rear gyms at the Center Reach High School and Newfield High School. The polls are open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. If
078you're unsure where to vote, you can go onto our website and do the poll tracker or you can contact our district clerk and she'll let you know exactly which high school you would be voting in. And now I think the student voices say it all. My voice matters. My voice matters. My voice matters. So I will vote. So I will vote. So I will vote. So I will vote. Your voice matters too. Will you vote? Okay, thank you. Now for board commentary. Mr. Halleck. Mr. DiBenedetto. Ms. Mann-Rodriguez. Ms. Haggerty. Ms. Walsh. Ms. Feldman. Mr. Feeney. God bless you. We have our minutes from regular meeting on March 26th and minutes from our special meeting on April 10th. If there are no edits or changes, we'll accept them as they are. Thank you. I need a
079motion to accept the consent agenda. Instruction, there is no action this evening. Pupil personnel services, questions, comments? Personnel instructional? Personnel classified? Finance? All those in favor? opposed motion carries superintendent report okay uh we have s 25-04-sr-1 eastern suffolk boces administrative budget for the 2025-2026 school year all those in favor opposed motion carries 25-04-sr-2 eastern suffolk boces annual election all those in favor opposed motion carries 25-04-SR-3 scope summer enrichment program contract for the 2025 summer all those in favor opposed motion carries 25-04-SR-4 scope before and after school and summer child care program contract for the 2025-2026 school year all those in favor opposed Motion carries. 25-04-SR-5, Memorandum of Agreement, Operations Unit. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. 25-04-SR-6, Property Tax Report Card for the 2025-26 school year, and a roll call is required. I'm sorry,
080who was the second? I will call your names in alphabetical order. the vice president president being last please respond by saying yes no or abstain after your name has been called please use your mics i'm having a hard time hearing everybody from way down here thank you mr dipenadero yes thank you yes miss haggerty yes mr halleck yes miss mann rodriguez yes miss walsh yes mr feeney yes miss sherrock yes thank you at this time would anyone like to change their vote being no board member has changed his or her vote the motion is being carried eight to zero thank you 25-04-sr7 uh 20 25 26 school year budget adoption and a roll call is required is bob and denise again thank you mr dipenadetto yes miss feldman yes miss haggerty yes mr halleck yes
081miss mann-rodriguez yes miss walsh yes mr feeney yes miss shirak yes again does anybody want to change their vote being no one's changing their vote it's being carried eight to zero thank you thank you policy 25-04-po-1 second reading of policy number 6110 budget planning all those in favor opposed motion carries correspondence make sure you're checking your emails and this is going to be the busy time of year we're going to be getting lots of invites coming up to attend events so between the nine of us i think we can make a good showing so just rsvp if anything changes let myself or stephanie know so we can let the appropriate building know and i thank you in advance for all the events you're going to be attending unfinished business new business any committee reports liaison
082committee reports follow-up board discussion public input our last meeting we had two speakers the first was one of our nurses we know and feel and believe how important our nurses are we do have we do realize we have to address an attendance problem we just want to reiterate that our nurses do not perform drug testing they assess if a student comes in but they do not perform drug testing that actually falls under the question of the second speaker but i just said it there in that part also our wands are being used and we know that they have been used in each of our secondary buildings and we also were asked about a question of a letter that was received by the gentleman um we did not send the letter out um we don't know
083about it we didn't endorse it however um the voter roll of registration is viable so we're assuming that's how the information was obtained any public input for this evening miss larkin no public input thank you i need a motion to adjourn bob first john second all those in favor opposed motion carries thank you and good evening