Board of Education Meeting 2/24 7:00PM

001All right. So, on to item number four will reconvene to open session. Be resolved that the board of education reconvene to open session. The time is >> 7:24. I'll make a motion for that. May I have a second? >> Michael. And all in favor? I I And that's unanimous. All right. Can you please stand with me and recite the pledge to the flag? Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. So, on to item number six. We have our presentations for this evening. We'll start with the first one which is our support services budget planning for 2026 2027. And I'm going to turn it over to our assistant superintendent for finance uh

002Mrs. Maryanne Heslin. >> Hello everybody. Hope you're going well. Um I just want to start off before we actually get to the presentation just to remind everybody um of what the process is for the roll out of our budget. So tonight you're going to be hearing from the sports services team and also the instructional team um in reference to their their budget planning and their requests for next year. Um tonight is really more of a program and operations picture of what their buildings and departments are currently doing and what they have planned for next year. And then on March 10th, which is the next board meeting, that's when we officially roll out the superintendent's recommended budget. And that's when we really start digging into the financial aspects, right? So we'll get into details on the

003expenses as well as the revenue side of the budget. And then um following the roll out of the superintendent's recommended budget, uh the board at that point will have all the details for each individual line. You can go through that um as thoroughly as you choose. Um, and then we would ask that you submit um questions um to the superintendent and and myself like the week before March 24th so that we have time to put the the answers together. And basically what we've been doing uh for the last couple of years is we've been compiling a Q&A. So, we've been taking the questions um and then, you know, with their corresponding answers, we've been addressing them at the March 24th meeting and we also um have put together some documentation that goes onto the uh

004the website so that everybody has access to the question and the answer. Um we've been doing it that way for a couple years now and it it seems to be working. So um and ultimately the goal is that the board is feels properly informed uh and prepared to adopt the budget um on April 7th. So now we're going to move into tonight's presentations. Um and first we're going to talk about budget planning for our support services departments and that of course includes transportation, food services, facilities and operations and technology. So, um, you know, the budget process starts early, right? Our, um, our support services administrators have been working probably as early as November putting together information, um, to start gather the data for for their budget requests. Um, they also receive requests from building administrators

005and other departments. Um and they that all has to happen by December so that they are able to make sure that they include that um whatever is going to get move forward into their budgets as appropriate. And then the superintendent and I meet with each of the support service departments um in January to review the requests. Um and um you know throughout the process um there are certain things that they keep in mind. um they're they're committed to sustaining all of the important service uh support services that we provide but also understanding that they have to balance those needs with fiscal responsibility as we have to do in all areas of the budget. Um and they do focus on certain certain guidelines. So safety first and foremost um is the number one consideration. But we

006also want to make sure that our students are getting the best opportunities possible and that student, staff and community are engaged. Um and that we do this in a way that is um both fiscally and operationally responsible. Um we also you know always try to keep our our minds on the board goals um and towards empowering student success. So um in reference to um to goal one really each of our support services departments do contribute to a welcoming, supportive and inclusive environment. Our bus drivers of course are the first people that our our students see every day, right? And they make sure that they welcome them with a smile, make sure their day starts off right. Um food services is very cognizant of um offering a variety of cultural food through the global menu. Um

007facilities and operations are always making sure that our learning environments are clean and welcoming. And technology of course provides supports to students um to meet their individualized needs. And specific to goal two, um our technology department ensures that the students and faculty have the hardware and the software and the security that goes around that um that they need to support innovation innovative curriculum um and personalized learning experiences. And as far as uh goal three, our food service director has an active presence on social media. She's been very active with that for the last few years. and our technology director um continues to be part of the district's communications team. Goal four um of course speaks directly to our operations and maintenance department um in reference to the capital project. Um a lot of things a

008lot of improvements have already been done and there's more to come and when all is said and done really it's going to impact every single aspect of the district. Um, and tonight we're going to give you a glimpse into how those departments develop their budgets um, considering community needs, long-term sustainability, and um, continuing to be good stewards of district resources. And I'm going to start off turning it over to Sarahi, our supervisor of the transportation department. Thank you very much, Miss Hland, and good evening. Thank you for having me here to talk about the transportation department tonight. I'd like to start by briefly outlining who we are and what the transportation department does on a daily basis. We are a staff of 48 employees responsible for operating and managing a fleet of 49 vehicles. Each

009day we provide transportation services for students in all three of our district buildings as well as to 16 additional out of school out of district schools. Our work extends far beyond just morning and afternoon routes. We are continually coordinating special education placement, private and parochial transportation, McKenna Vento needs, athletics and field trips, often adjusting in real time. At the core of everything we do is student safety. That is always our number one priority and drives every operational decision we make. We areing that all drivers and monitors are properly trained, tested, and compliant with all required regulations. Finally, we take pride in maintaining safe, reliable, and well-maintained equipment. This is made possible through strong preventive maintenance practices and the dedication of our mechanics. Together, these commitments allow us to provide consistent, dependable transportation services for our

010students and families. This year, our office staff transitioned to an updated routing program. While there has been a learning curve, especially for me, the goal is greater efficiency, improved accuracy, and stronger long-term planning. The team has worked diligently to adapt while continuing daily operations without disruptions to the students. Transportation is a very fluid operation. We make daily adjustments to routes and schedules due to ongoing changes in private and parochial placements, special education programming and McKenna Vento transportation needs. These are not occasional changes. They happen continually throughout the school year. Recruitment of drivers and monitors remains a priority. We are actively working with human resources and utilizing multiple avenues to attract qualified staff to ensure we maintain safe, reliable coverage for all our routes. Despite staffing challenges and daily operational changes, the department continues to successfully

011provide transportation for all required field trips and athletic events. This speaks to the flexibility, dedication, and teamwork of our staff. This slide focuses on planning ahead for the 2627 school year and continuing to be proactive rather than reactive. We are proposing to stay on track with our established tenure vehicle replacement plan. This plan has served the district well by avoiding large unexpected capital expenses and ensuring we operate safe, reliable equipment. Specifically, we are planning to purchase two 36 passenger buses and two 66 passenger buses. This mix allows us to match the right vehicle to the right route, improve efficiency, and reduce unnecessary wear, fuel usage, and operating costs. In addition to new purchases, we will continue our comprehensive vehicle maintenance schedule. Our mechanics consistently keep the fleet in optimal condition, which not only extends vehicle

012life, but also supports our continued success with our DOT inspections. Finally, we are planning for two additional driver positions. These positions are critical to stabilizing daily operations, reducing reliance on overtime, office staff, and mechanics for coverage, and ensuring we can continue to meet instructional, athletic, and field trip transportation needs safely and reliably. Thank you for your continued support. And I would like to introduce our food service director, Miss Lauren Ka. Good evening everyone. Thank you so much as always having me here each year to review the food service budget and our goals for the upcoming year and how we'll manage those. A little bit about our department to refresh your memories. We're continuing with our 11 employees which includes myself which is four full-time employees and six part-time employees that operate our three um self-operating

013kitchens within our district. Um, the Pauling schools proudly uh participate in the USDA child nutrition programs which are administered by the New York State Department of Education. Our menus continue to feature partnerships with local and New York State growers and processors. And we look forward to continuing our district programs like our harvest of the month taste tests and our heritage celebrations with coincide with the middle school um heritage committee. Uh more than ever, we're maximizing our resources with creative menu writing, new recipes, and care careful planning. Our sales drive our budget for our department. So, we're thrilled to see that more students than ever are participating in our meals and opting to have school breakfast and school lunch with us. Some highlights and information about this school year. Um, our new and continuing resources include

014the community eligibility program, which allows us to provide meals at no cost to families and also provide us with a higher reimbursement rate per meal. So, it's a win-win situation for both our community and our district when our students participate in our meal programs. Um, this program has a 4-year lifespan, but we will continue, as Pauling's numbers allow, to reenroll each year to extend the life of that program as often as possible. Um, during the summer, we'll go through an in-depth audit of the New York State 30% initiative to continue um that certification from year to year. Um, we've pl we have planned for our spending of our fund balance. Um, that includes our new walk-in cooler and freezer at our elementary school, which we were excited to start filling last month. We have made

015good use of it so far. It's a beautiful, well-working uh, unit, so we will continue to fill it with all of our quality ingredients. Um, we have um, also planned um, this year to possibly replace one of our warmers at the elementary school. Um, it's a bit outdated. it requires us to pour some water in it every morning and then it gets, you know, the hard water deposits in it. So, if my budget allows this year, I'm I'm going to purchase one of those units. Um that will make the life a little bit easier down there for our elementary cook. Um the PNW Boseies put out a new bid this year, midyear, uh for New York State products, and they're offering that to school districts um at no crosscontracting fee. So, right now we have

016a bid um for those products that is a little bit better, but it's something that we'll review on a year-to-year basis to see um how that cost reflects with our Duchess Bosy's bids and our local bids with other school districts that we partner with um to see where we can get one the most local and New York State products at the best value for our district. Um our digital menu is in full use. I hope that you're all giving that a look every now and then. Um, I've been uploading photos to that. Our displays are now loaded and behind our serving areas in the middle school and in the high school. They're beautiful. They feature pictures. They feature, you know, it's so surprising how much our middle school students um, pay attention to the weather

017now since it's on our digital display of what the what the temperature is outside. They're all very excited for that. Um, so we're very excited that that's up and running. It's it's a beautiful, wellorganized uh, piece of software that we invested in this year. Um, so our planning for next year, um, we're going to continue to increase and strive for the most local and New York State ingredients that we can find. We continue to work with the Cornell Cooperative Extension to, um, find these new ingredients, talk with these um, farmers and processors and growers throughout our region to work together with other school districts to find out how the distribution can come into our school district um, in the best way possible. We've we've partnered with a lot of new vendors over the past few

018years and we're always welcoming more to try and get some of these really quality ingredients into our kitchens. Um could tell that I wrote these notes earlier than today because today I placed our government order for next year. In February and March each year we get a lump sum of our entitlement government funds and these funds go towards things like our pilot produce program. We divert funds to get some of our students favorite processed items like some of our pizzas and things like that. Um and then we also allot some of these funds to our minimally processed um government commodities like maybe some frozen vegetables. Um so those orders have been placed. They're locked in for next year and we're guaranteed to get those commodities through our door. We're budgeting for some new equipment for

019the 2627 school year. Um there's a possible cold serving unit here at the middle school that may need to be replaced. Um we're working with the facilities department to uh repair or replace our grease trap here at the middle school that's created um some issues along the years. Uh we will apply for the New York State Education Equipment Grant for food service again this year. We are eligible as as a three-year cycle. So, we will apply for that and possibly upgrade some of our kettles to tilt skillets or replace some of our aging ovens. Aside from that grant, we've also built those funds into our budget to possibly replace those items regardless of the awards and how they land. So, those are things that we definitely need to consider as we go forward. Um, I'm

020very excited at the state of our program and what we can do for the years to come. And for now, I will pass it over to the director of facilities, Gary Green. Thank you, Miss Kica. The pancake, bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich hit the spots after shoveling. I recommend it to everybody. Good evening. I'm proud to once again represent our facilities and operations team and share some of the important work happening behind the scenes every day across our district. Our department is made up of 23 dedicated professionals who support the daily operations of three school buildings and two support facilities covering nearly a quarter million square ft of interior space and 74 acres of property. That footprint represents classrooms, cafeterias, gyms, mechanical rooms, parking lots, athletic fields, and everything in between. And every square foot

021matters. What drives our work each day is a clear and consistent focus. Safety decides Safety guides every decision we make. Every system we maintain, every repair we complete, and every improvement we plan begins with protecting our students and staff. Reliability matters as much. You maintain complex building systems, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, grounds with consistency and care so that learning continues without interruption. We understand that facilities directly support instruction. A comfortable, well-lit, properly ventilated and clean environment allows students to focus and teachers to teach effectively. We also take pride in our buildings. Our goal is to ensure every space feels welcoming and reflects the quality and standards of this district. And throughout all of it, we operate with efficiency, managing our resources responsibly, extending the life of our infrastructure, and planning thoughtfully for our future. When

022we do our work well, the focus stays exactly where it should, on teaching and learning. This year has been both productive and forward moving for facilities and operations. We installed a new boiler at our maintenance facility, strengthening the reliability of our infrastructure and ensure and ensuring our support operations remain fully functional. We completed the building condition survey, a comprehensive state required assessment that provides a detailed snapshot of our facilities. This survey is critical. It guides long-term capital planning and ensures we stay proactive rather than reactive. At the elementary school, as Miss Kica mentioned, we installed a new walk-in cooler and freezer, improving food service operations, energy efficiency, and reliability. Construction activity continues and it be a major focus for us. We are anticipating phase three elementary school construction to be restarting and as we have

023phase four middle school construction ongoing here. Managing active construction while school is in session requires constant coordination, communication and flexibility. Throughout all of this, safety remains at the forefront from site logistics to daily operations. In addition to construction, we are preparing for a significant operational transition, the district office move. This requires careful planning to ensure continuity of operations and minimal disruption to district leadership functions. Despite all these moving pieces, we continue to maintain a conducive and stable learning environment across all our buildings. That balance takes teamwork and constant attention to detail. Looking ahead, our work continues at a steady pace. We remain focused on phase three and phase four capital projects with a significant work scheduled during the summer months and second shift work during the school year to reduce instructional impact. Strategic coordination will

024be key. We must carefully align routine maintenance work with ongoing construction to ensure efficiency, avoid duplication, and maximize our resources. We are planning an upgrade to the elementary school PA system, improving communication capabilities and overall building safety. We will also complete the district office relocation and and we will ensure a smooth operational transition. And finally, we will be looking to install a new LED sign at the high school. Something uh we are especially excited about because we currently really do not have a sign at the high school at all. What makes this project truly special is that it's been driven by our students over time. The first class to donate towards this effort was the class of 2017. That means this sign represents nearly a decade of student pride and commitment. Their fundraising efforts will

025cover approximately half of the cost, including installation, which is an incredible testament to how much our students care about leaving something lasting behind. This sign will do more than display announcements. It will celebrate achievements, promote events, strengthen communication with our community, and create a visible presence for our high school. In many ways, it is a legacy project funded in part by past students, built for current students, and serving future students for years to come. We're proud to help bring their vision to life. Each of these projects reflects our ongoing commitment to modernization, safety, and responsible stewardship of district assets. In closing, I want to I want to uh recognize the professionalism and dedication of our facilities and operations team. Much of what we do happens quietly, early in the morning, late at night, during breaks,

026behind walls and ceilings, but it is foundational to everything else that happens in this district. Our team takes tremendous pride in maintaining safe, efficient, and welcoming schools for our students and staff. We are grateful for the support of the board and the administration as we continue this work. Thank you for your time this evening. Now I'll turn it over to our director of technology, Christopher Kenyonz. All right. Thank you so much, Mr. Green. I appreciate that. Um, oh, yes. Uh I'm a member of an elite squad of four technology professionals that comprise the technology department. Uh our organization plays an essential role in the organization's infrastructure and the facilitation of instruction. Our priority is to ensure students have equitable access to various forms of technology and the digital literacy to engage in learning experiences. We

027support personalized learning for all students, including English language learners and students with learning differences through the integration of technology. Safety is also a priority as we continue to implement and sustain a secure network to ensure both sufficient and reliable connectivity. Each year we reinforce our commitment to digital access and part of that process is upgrading and replacing devices at various intervals throughout the grade levels. Marisquare is a unified communication and engagement platform designed to streamline hometoschool notifications. It consolidates multiple communications tools such as emails, texts, app notifications, and calls into a single secure interface which is in alignment with our supporting of our district's goal of increasing accessibility and community engagement. I'll also say that as a side note, families have shared that they appreciate the clarity and convenience of receiving school and district information

028in one place quickly and consistently. In May, we will launch our new district website powered by Parent Square smart sites. This transition is a continuation of our plan to consolidate communication platforms by providing a more streamlined and one-stop experience for our families. As always, cyber security is a and data privacy remain a priority for us as we reinforce respective procedures for both. We continue to review and revise such procedures in light of the changing threat landscape. Moving forward, we will continue exploring methods to safely access and utilize artificial intelligence by developing guidelines centered on academic uh safety, academic integrity and the ethical use of such tools. Our primary motiv motivation for integrating AI as a district is to empower student success through critical thinking, creativity, respectful discourse, which is in alignment with our district vision,

029and the New York State portrait of a graduate. We also want to ensure every student can live work productively and safely as envisioned by the New York State computer science and digital fluency standards. I'd also like to mention that we're procuring an additional email filter to bolster our defenses against fishing and malicious content uh which often utilizes ironically AI to refine the attacks. We'll also be upgrading the district web filtering and management as well as our visitor management system at each of the instructional buildings. As in previous years, the district remains steadfast in its commitment to providing every student with equitable access to technology, recognizing that it is an essential tool of modern instruction rather than a luxury. Our stance is that the students ability to engage with digital learning should never be determined by

030the socioeconomic status or home environment. Thank you. So, I just I just have to say that the support services team is such a great team of individuals and um they're they're really so good at at bolstering each other up and helping each other out and um I commend them for that. Um they're also dedicated and they're very proud of the work that they do to serve our students um and to help them enjoy the best educational opportunities. Um you know sometimes the connection isn't made but it really they they do play a critical part in in our students success. Um they get them back and forth to school safely. They make sure that their tummies are full so that they can focus on learning. They create a physical environment that is safe, clean, and conducive

031to learning. And they ensure that all of our students and staff have access to secure and state-of-the-art technology. Uh they're dedicated and they're also flexible. And I think you've heard, you know, the their environments are constantly changing and they have to adapt to that on a regular basis and they're very good at it. And I have to say the district is very lucky to have each and every one of them. And I have to do a very a special shout out to all of our support staff who have been involved in snow removal. Whether it's removal from our our roadways, our sidewalks, or our buses, um they have just been slammed this year. They have been working very hard um in extreme conditions. Um and we appreciate them very much for their efforts. Um, and

032you know, in general, we know that none of our work uh would be possible without the support of this board and the support of our community. Um, and we're thankful for the the support that we receive. Um, and this team in in whole as a whole is proud to be contributing to the district's attainment of board goals and we're looking forward to a very successful year in 2627. And now I would ask if there are any questions for the support services team. >> I just wanted to say to echo your point, Mrs. Heslin, on behalf of all of us, thank you so much. Mr. Green, you and your team, Mrs. Clea, you and your team. Um, Mrs. Saraphini, you're and your you and your team. How much work is done prior to 7 a.m. I

033cannot imagine. Mr. Green, I don't I don't want to know how much sleep you've gotten the last month or so, but um, but it doesn't go unnoticed. I mean, the fact that we were open today, I think is a huge testament to just the hard work of everybody that Mrs. Heslin just mentioned. And um it's not lost on us and we just wanted to say thank you to all you guys remaining flexible. I know menus change and all the bus drivers getting in and doing what they need to do in the morning and Mr. Green, like I said, you and your team. So, just on behalf of all of us, um thank you especially prior to 5:00 a.m. for everything you do for for our students and for our community and all that. So, and

034with that, yeah. Does anybody have any uh questions for the team or >> I don't have a question but a comment because I want to echo has hes said what I wanted to say now you said what I wanted to say and and it's and actually u Mr. Green, you said it perfectly. It's like the quiet strength behind, you know, every wall and door and bus and it's just I hope everybody at home really is a part. I mean, the instructional portion is coming, but this is this is what our students need to feel welcome and you don't get a we don't see a lot of you all and it's just kudos. Thank you for everything that you do all of you. Anybody >> else? you know, great. Thank you guys again. Okay, with that

035we can go to our second presentation for the evening which uh Kazak just said we are going to jump into the instructional budget planning for 2026 2027. So I will turn it over to Dr. Kirkus. Good evening everyone. I'm pleased to be joined by our building leaders and department directors to present the instructional and athletic budget overview along with any enhancements that are included in the 2026 2027 school year budget for each department and building. Before we begin, I would like to thank Mrs. uh Audrey Feliciano for presenting for the elementary school tonight in lie of Mrs. Grievous who could not be here. Our instructional budget development includes a very thorough and lengthy process that begins as early as November. It should be noted that the budget process starts with the faculty and staff in

036each building and department. The building principal or program manager reviews all submitted ideas, requests, and needs from faculty and staff to create the building level budget. This is all done prior to winter break. From here, each building or department manager meets with the superintendent and the assistant superintendent where each budget line is carefully reviewed and thoroughly discussed. Any enhancements or changes are discussed. Staffing discussions and enrollment analysis are done with each principal during these meetings as well. Tonight, each instructional leader will highlight the continuation of programs in their building or department along with any enhancements that are that they are requesting to the programs they supervise. We are extremely fortunate to have the ability and support to continue with our robust robust offerings in the Pauling Central School District through so many years. We have

037often been commended about our ability to offer such a diverse program for such a small organization. As years have gone on, this has become more and more challenging, as you can imagine. But through creativity and teamwork among the group that you will hear from tonight, we are pleased and hopeful that we can continue to provide so many excellent offerings for our students in preK through 12 for the 2627 school year and beyond. The slides that follow will outline the programs we are sustaining along with any enhancements in the 2627 budget. At this time, I'd like to turn it over to Mrs. Feliciano, who will provide an overview of the highlights from the elementary school budget. >> Good evening everyone. Tonight I'm going to present the proposed elementary budget for the 2627 school year. And I'm

038going to present this information in three categories. The first category be items we're going to sustain. The second category will be budget enhancements and important shifts to ensure that all students are on grade level reading by third grade. And I'll conclude today's presentation with a third category of a brief outline for the proposed 1.0 FTE assistant principle. In efforts to sustain our focus on reading and literacy, we'll continue professional development opportunities focused on evidence-based reading. We're going to continue our Heggery phonics programs in grade K and one foundations phonics programs grades K through three. We will continue the next phase of MTSS including PDS for teachers on tier 1 and two interventions. Continue using the NWA and assess 360 literacy screeners for grades 1 through 4 and include an end of the year baseline in

039NWA for kindergarten. Continue with enhanced PD supports. our universal prek program and the section of prek at stages childcare continue educational programming including makerpace and fine arts and continue to support grade level experiences for all students through field trips. Now we're going to enhance the budget. The continued focus on reading at the elementary school result in the purchase of the benchmark literacy curriculum. The budget also includes enhanced summer professional development to support the roll out of benchmark an overall literacy program. This involves teachers becoming familiar with the benchmark resources by reviewing the materials, understanding the scope and sequence and assessments for each unit. The budget includes extended Hegy phonics awareness to second grade and an additional lunch recess monitor. There's been a need for increased supervision during lunch, indoor recess, outdoor recess. Thinking about our

040enrollment over the last several years, we're looking at 2021 when we had 380 students. And every year since then, it has increased. And we are this year with 408 students. That's representing a 6.5 increase in our student population, which warrants an additional lunch aid, lunch monitor. Now moving on to shifts at the elementary building. In properly implement the benchmark with fidelity, teachers need to protect 120 minutes of ELA block. The extended time allows for full instructional cycles including whole group lessons, small group lessons, independent practice literacy circles. So the instructional leadership team, myself, Dr. I mean Dr. Kirkus, Mr. D. Carlo and Miss Fivas have all been really looking at the preservation of the schedule and making sure that we have the 120 minutes for ELA. Um, with that there was a discussion with our

041music department and we'll now shift our strings program to begin in fourth grade rather than third. And this is a very important change which is going to be able to preserve 40 minutes of the integrity of the ELA block for our third graders which is very crucial. this coming year. In addition, fourth grade strings lessons will occur at the high school before school starts from 8 to 8:40. This also is very crucial to support our literacy program and ensuring that all students are present. Um, and transportation will be provided to and from the high school. It's very similar how it's working right now in the middle school with bands. And then to ensure uninterrupted instructional courses throughout the day, and we're talking about our core courses, um, Project Lead the Way will shift to fifth

042and sixth grade, but students in the earlier grades, they're going to continue with their hands-on learning through maker space activities. And these shifts are very crucial when we consider the MTSS process that we're in, as well as the investment of a benchmark curriculum that we're um going to venture into next year. and the level of um supports and professional development that we're going to need. And now I'm going to conclude with recommending to increase the elementary assistant principle from 0.5 to 1.0. Um this has been grounded in current student needs um the building's operational complexity and leadership capacities which is required to implement a strong sustainable NTSS process. While the principal retains responsibility for vision and coherence and accountability as well as ensuring the continuity and fid fidelity to the implementation of a new curriculum,

043the assistant principal's role is intentionally designed to focus on implementation, monitoring and responsiveness within MTSS. So the MTSS related building needs, student behavior and discipline which is part of the MTSS PBIS um supports behavior and social emotional needs require daily coordination um that's aligned with MTSS which include restorative supports and instructional approaches monitoring behavior data to identify patterns for atrisisk students tier 2 and tier three needs expanded expectations for datab database decision-m and progress monitoring. The need for consistent oversight of tier 2 and tier 3 interventions. Increased staff support is needed to ensure tier one instructional fidelity. Monitoring referrals to special education to assort MTSS processes are followed before a special education referral is made. And the size and the complexity of the elementary building which cannot sustain MTSS implementation with a part-time administrator. A

044full-time AP will be responsible for instructional leadership at tier one. This includes conducting regular class walkthroughs to monitor tier one instructional practices and core curriculum implementation. Supporting grade level teams with instructional problem solving using universal screeners and formative assessment data, ensuring consistent alignment to district MTS instructional practices. The AP will also support the principal with MTSS coordination and student supports at tiers 1, two, and three. Leading MTSS structures, including data review cycles, intervention planning, progress monitoring, ensuring fidelity of academic and behavioral interventions across all tiers, coordinating student support team meetings and monitoring timeliness for interventions and adjustments. And without a dedicated leadership time, even strong programs risk becoming soiled. So having a full-time assistant principal at the elementary school to support this work is crucial for the success of our literacy system. Okay. And I'm

045going to pass it on to the middle school, Miss Megan Gleason. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Feliciano. Thank you for having me. So I am happy to represent Pauling Middle School and the 2026 2027 proposed budget for our school. Uh a significant portion of the middle school budget for next year is all about sustaining the great work that Pauling Middle School, my team at the at Pauling Middle School has really worked so hard to build and develop over time. Um so this includes some highlights from that are the continued development of our full academic program including classroom libraries, curricular resources and differentiated instructional and study materials for regions level classes. Um so a few examples of this include digital curricula for um in math uh Desmos our e-math instruction, trade books across subject areas, world

046language textbooks, the PNW Bosey's SSLA curriculum, um which is both a diagnostic and um instructional tool that differentiates in real time in both our intervention classes and ELA, math and Spanish classrooms. Um, in addition, we are sustaining the continued um, focus on MTSS framework, including professional development opportunities and data analysis. So, as Mrs. Feliciano described so well about the work at the elementary school, all of that work continues at the middle level. Um, and I'm sure uh, Mrs. Kalen will be speaking about how that also continues at the high school. But to kind of give a a little bit um of a detailed example of how this plays out, our assistant principal chairs IST meetings once every quarter. Um at this time we look at data and we plan and inter implement interventions. This requires

047in-depth knowledge of NWA assessments, how to track progress um over time in both math and reading. um really developing a a toolbox of interventions that are evidence-based, how to track data over time, how to communicate to all stakeholders and really keep that system up and running throughout the year. In addition, we are um sustaining our focus on personalized real world learning opportunities, including specific field trips and guest speakers. Um and a a huge part of this is our trip to Washington DC which we have um been able to sustain. Now we are about to embark on our second trip and um we would like to continue this field trip for our eighth grade students which is really a culmination of multiple curricula over multiple years of instruction. Um the itinerary is evidenced to support this

048with students um attending all war um going to every war memorial in Washington DC going to multiple museums. Some are student selected, some are assured uh museum visits for the whole grade level. And um there are so many curricular projects that are completed both on the trip and before and after. So really enhancing learning and bringing it to um to a level that I think is unforgettable for our students. The um we would we are continuing the development of our inter session program which is intended to be a bridge between 8th and 9th grade uh really focused on career planning on really thinking about the portrait of a graduate and post-secary goals for students and um this requires staffing. This requires a lot of planning of field trips and time spent um partnering with community

049members so that it really is a diverse experience for all students. Um oh and I'm forgetting about the partnerships with all of our with the local universities Vasser Maris uh Duchess Community College. This year students are attending DC Boseies as part of inter session and that's also intended to help build pathways for students as they progress through high school. This strengthens our students secondary and post secondary aspirations. In addition, um we are sustaining our technology um hardware software programs such as 3D printing resources, Blender, Tinkercad, Photoshop. Uh a new 3D printer will be added to our sixth grade design and modeling course. That's a project lead the way course. Um, we are also sustaining our incredible arts program championed by Crystal Walters. Um, and this includes pottery, fiber arts, digital arts, studio art materials. You

050really walk into this classroom and it is incredible what middle schoolers have access to um throughout their art experience. It's not just limited to one unit of study. You know, they can self- select to be working with a potter's wheel uh whenever they they choose to do so. We are sustaining the project lead the way um program and materials across grades 5 through 8. This is currently defined as fifth grade robotics, sixth grade design and modeling, seventh and eighth grade uh science of technology and energy of the environment. Uh this not only meets the career and technical education requirements by the state but it really brings students so many realworld uh projectbased experiences and it's a real continuum uh developing their skills in in so many different subject areas but really in steam. We are

051also sustaining our comprehensive extracurricular offerings for all students. Uh we currently offer approximately 17 afterchool clubs and we are sustaining the um differentiation tools that we started to really use this year such as um as I described before the program as um it's a continued diagnostic. So teachers are looking at NWA data at the start of the year, but they have access to um um specific to to skills or specific to units of study. And um that has really helped to inform instruction, differentiate instruction. So we're meeting the needs of all students. And in addition, the diff tool, which is a differentiation tool, it's a technology tool, but it helps teachers to really in real time meet the needs of diverse learners. And our enhancements are um I'd like to expand a little bit on

052what Mrs. Feliciano talked about the movement of some project lead the way programs but really it's our technology and computer science programs that we are bringing to the fifth and sixth grade level. So um you know we audit our program often we take feedback from students often and we have really heard that within our program there's room for us to be really teaching into the computer science digital literacy technology standards the ISTY standards more um so this may show up as game development coding um awareness and understanding of artificial intelligence and we really see this as an an area that our fifth and sixth graders will gravitate to that they need. Um it will enhance it will transfer their skills into their core academic program because it will also include um building skills of executive

053functioning skills for Google Classroom um turning in work uh study skills. All of that is also embedded within that um that new curriculum that will be coming to the middle school. And then um in the spirit of really trying to capitalize on middle school as an opportunity for grade level experiences outside of the the the school building. So this is a time when we can travel as a grade level students are taking um you know ELA7 so we can make real cross uh curricular connections to real world experiences create assured experiences for every child to go on these trips. I think we've done an excellent job in eighth grade. This year we're bringing Hamilton, the Hamilton experience to all seventh graders and um we have experiences in fifth and sixth grade as well, but we're

054looking to really articulate them, make them crosscurricular, make them more assured and a a um part of our budget year after year so we can sustain these experiences for students over time. And I will hand off to Mrs. Kalen for Pauling High School. Thank you. Hi, good evening. Thank you for having me as well. And I'm going to start out by agreeing with Miss Gleason that the bulk of the high school budget is on sustaining the programming that we currently have in place and that includes all of our academic programs. I gave you some data of what is exactly there now. Uh you can see there on for for uh for example our 13 advanced placement courses 133 students. So you can see exactly how many students at the high school are taking advantage. Another

055important one would be our nine Duchess Community College classes. That's 91 students currently enrolled. And so our computer science, our music and art program. So the bulk of our expenses is to maintain that programming. And a big piece of maintaining that programming is supporting our teachers in their professional development, especially as New York State continues to illuminate their portrait of a graduate. And as we move away from 100% reliance on regent exams and move into projectbased assessments and what that means I can tell you and many of you know from some of the projects that you'll see in some of my board reports that our teachers have been putting those types of uh that type of work already and they have to continue doing that. So that's where it is. You look at the next

056thing is our multi-tered systems of support. Just like the middle school, our assistant principal, Mr. Titus, takes the lead role on that. He collaborates with teachers. They look at assessment data. They collect data from teachers to look at students who may need additional support. And so again, we are continuing to keep our writing lab for ninth grade students. And we're continuing to keep our study skills, our academic management, and our AIS classes at the high school to support those students who need it. Also, we're continuing with our ENL support, our one full-time ENL teacher, one teaching assistant, and a 1.6 teaching assistant. I think it's important to note that predominantly the second language is Spanish at the high school and all of those individuals are fluent which really helps some of our students who are

057new to this country who may have interrupted instruction before they come here. It really helps make them more comfortable and to actually understand and make smarter and uh quicker gains. We also I want to just take a look at again our seal of civic readiness. 74% of our class last year achieved the seal of civic readiness. That's again testament to our advisor and our teachers all the way down to middle school because they start gaining points all the way down in seventh and eighth grade. Our seal of biiteracy, although it's only 5%, that's another area that we're hoping to grow and have more students. We're going to continue to administer the PSAT, the preACT, and then the PSAT in 11th grade. Just wanted to give you some data on that, which is over the last

058couple of years, 54% of the 11th graders elected to take the PSAT. 52% over the last two years, these percentages are of our 10th graders elected to take the PREACT. And for the PSAT89 over the last three years, 45% of the class roughly elected to take that. So we think that's also important. When we offer it to interested students and the district supports it, it takes away the idea that maybe somebody is not able to afford taking it and it also puts people on a level playing field. We also find out that sometimes some students who may not have thought they could do well actually do. So that's been important for us to do. We now are Pauling High School library continues to be open till 400 p.m. Would I like more students to take

059advantage of that? Yes, I do. And I keep wishing, hoping, and praying that they will. I will tell you it's probably about less than 10 students, maybe between 5 and 10 where it does it offers a place for students who may be having extra help that doesn't go to 400 p.m. So, it does offer a place for them. There really is not a budgetary implication at this point because what I do is I flex the schedule of the teaching assistant who handles the library. If ever, for example, we needed or I thought that that TA could be better placed someplace else, I could always make a shift. So that's something that we always look at. I think it's important when I say I'll stress again the continued professional development for all our staff allowing teachers

060to go on professional developments to improve their craft to collaborate with teachers in other districts. That in itself is important professional development. So they are very thankful for that. our continued emphasis on guest speakers and field trip opportunities. Our teachers do try as best they can. You'll see again if you go through my board reports throughout the year, many of our field trip opportunities are free. Our teachers spend a lot of timeing out the best opportunities for students and they don't always come with a big price tag. But I will tell you that they are always intimately involved with the curriculum that the teachers are teaching. Uh we're also continuing to support our life skills program and I know that you'll hear about that more with um Dr. Sweeney and we currently have extracurricular offerings

061besides all our athletic programs that are prolific and Mr. Beluchcci will speak about we currently have about 14 clubs and four honor societies. One of the enhancements that we're going to try next year and again that depends on student interest. Our counselors have spent the last month going into all our classes. They've also collaborated with the eighth grade counselor who will be talking to our current eighth graders again our rising ninth graders. they are they've students have chosen what they want to take next year. Once we have all that data, we look at what our students want to take. That's where we really make our decisions on what electives will end up in our um in our schedule next year. One of the electives that we're going to offer if students are interested is in

062financial accounting. We thought that we didn't have anything maybe in the business realm. We thought some students might be interested. And so in this budget is monies for new textbooks if enough students are interested in taking financial accounting. And then also summer region support was another enhancement particularly with our living environment regions in 8th grade and our knowledge now that it is really a reading test. We felt as though there were many students who were right on the cusp. And if we offered perhaps summer region support right here in district a couple of weeks right before the August regents, maybe we would be able to have students who would get over the hump would pass it and then they could start 9th grade with Earth Science without having to have an AIS in their schedule,

063which would free up time for either a study hall or for another uh class that they want to take. So, we've put that in there, but that's our thought. Now, I will hand it over to Dr. Sweeney. Good evening. So, and for our budget and per pupil personnel, we also are an evolving department and that we have students move in with different needs. We have students who move out who have different needs. So we're constantly taking a look at uh sustaining um appropriate cohorts and supports of students. So the first thing we are sustaining up there um again addressing the multiple pathways that students can take adjusting our instruction here at school. So for example next year we have a particular cohort of students who will be 2122. So we're bringing in job coaching in

064addition they've been going out in the community with their uh class this year and this year they will be going out with a official job coach and that will hopefully lead to employment. So we're sustaining that look at how to best prepare our students and that is one of the ones that we will be uh sustaining. In addition, we will be sustaining our BCBA support. This is our behavioral support. These are experts that come into our school that help our teachers really low uh learn and support our most vulnerable children. Students with autism, students who are non-verbal learning those communication devices, students have significant behavioral difficulties that really need a more ABA or behavioral approach. our teachers are quite savvy. Um, but it's important to sometimes have an outside consultant to help us make sure

065we're doing our very best keeping our students in district programs. So, that has been uh a very helpful thing to help us do that. We will be continuing that next year. And in addition, we are going to continue supporting identifying and addressing our reading deficits. So, just as the elementary school is making the commitment to a tier one solid reading instruction, we also in special ed are need to make sure we're really good at identifying students who aren't making the mark, who are dyslexic early and providing interventions, whether that be tier 1, two, or three or special ed with the um greatest practice, the researchbased practice that we now know, whether that be Wilson, our teachers are now trained in PAF, some Orton Gillingham training. So we will continue to be uh refining our special

066ed approach so that it is very uh very uh research driven or excuse me data driven and making sure that our students are closing that gap. Another part of our budget next year will be the development implementation in training for our special class programs our students in pride. Again, as we develop our tier one instruction and our general ed classrooms, our mo our most different learners or most challenged uh learners need something different. They may have different pathways to what's going to help them be successful in life. This year, we trial two programs. We found a program that really seems to work. So, next year, we would like to keep that inhouse and we would like to continue professional development to help our teachers really understand the necessary developmental progression for our students. then articulate

067with that with our parents to make sure that we are helping them learn and grow. We'd also like to continue next year again professional development we've all said it right we are definitely seeing different learners in our classroom this year and the recent years that we have before so um we really need to collaborate and work with our teachers how to address the decreasing attention spans the increase of ADHD the really trying to capture our learners who need to be taught in different ways so professional development is really essential in that regard uh in addition we have uh students students who have h been out more than ever this year with different medical pretty significant medical needs. So, we've bolstered up our home instruction program and hired a tutoring consultant and we're anticipating that needing

068to continue that for next year because we are required by law to provide instruction for students when they're out because of medical or um when they're waiting for CSE placement or when they're in hospital settings. So, we need a portion of our budget to be allocated to make sure we're meeting those uh necessary requirements for our kids. enhancements. So, um, now that I've been in the district for for a year now, I've, uh, beginning to get a nice idea of where our students are, what their needs are, and what supports we have in place for them. We've identified some gaps that we would like to address next year by the hiring of a 1.0 in the middle school. This will allow for us to offer integrated co-eing in social studies and in science. Currently, we

069do not have co-eing opportunities for in that at our middle school for our mo for our learning disabled and students with IEPs. We have it for living environment as that is a region's class. That was an addition this year to get a full-time specialed teacher to have two teachers in that class for our students with IEPs. And we really saw the benefit of this and we're seeing students really struggle particularly with the reading and the comprehension. So we felt that increasing our continuum of services to integrated co-eing for social studies um was really essential. So that's the position we're proposing to add. Um in addition, we're proposing to realloc uh reallocate resources in order to chair uh increase the chairperson from a 0.5 to 1.0. I have some data for that just to kind of

070say currently we've had 48 referrals for special education and 504 so far. Um and that's a large number. A lot of parents are referring their students. A lot of teachers are referring their students. Um and so manning those meetings, chairing those meetings is is a big task. In addition, we have over 200 classified students in districts. So that's a lot of annual reviews, program reviews, things of that nature that a chairperson is particularly savvy at. Excuse Mrs. Hery. In addition, we have 48 students who are out of district, whether that be CSE placed, parentally placed, parochial placed, private school placed. the chairperson and myself are responsible for not only visiting but talking with their educators, collaborating with those team members, uh having program reviews and annual reviews to ensure that when students are ready to

071come back to district, we have a thoughtful plan and to make sure we're maintaining our uh regulatory requirements for students when they are in private schools. We still have to maintain those IEPs. we still have to understand who those students are and make sure that we are uh working with our families to keep those IEPs in process. So that's a large number of students. We have over 80 students with 504 plans and uh and as I said to date we have over 47 referrals for cse 504s and over 60 program reviews that have been held for CSEP students. So the the increase into 1.0 O would help our department manage some of those requirements and allow for uh me to be more in the classrooms as an instructional coach and leading more professional development and

072really supporting our teachers, especially our new teachers and understanding what the integrated co-eing model is and offering professional learning opportunities. That's where I'd like to do more of my work currently with a 0.5. Um I'm I'm doing a lot of meetings. So that is where if we reallocquate resources, we're anticipating that being a big help for the development of our program. And in addition, we would like to uh partner with the Anderson Center um and be able to provide our parents um more uh supports. And there is a question about what types of offerings they offered this year. And I have a list to to show you why I think this would be helpful to our parents. Help. Why does my child do that? An overview of functionings of behavior and strategies to address challenging

073behavior. Homework survival skills. I haven't started yet. Helping parents understand and improve their child's executive functioning skills. Let's get visual. An overview of creating and usual using visual supports. Supporting individuals with the autism spectrum disorder. A training for parents and caregivers. We're exhausted. Sleep strategies for individuals with autism. So these are things that families really need support with. We have the children for six and a half hours, seven hours, then they go home. So students who have differences, parents need support. And so this is an opportunity they have uh webinars that parents can access at their leisure um to really support our parents in understanding and supporting them at home because when we have a full team approach, the students come to school more ready to learn and parents are able to help their child

074be more successful at home. And that's all I have. I will turn to uh the exciting part of the night, sports from our athletic director, Mr. John Belaluchcci. >> But I'll try. Where's the glasses? Okay. Um so to start we um we have over 40 teams every year for uh fall, winter, and spring seasons. Uh modified JV and varsity. Um we don't have as many v uh JV teams as you know we do modified and varsity but overall we have uh somewhere between 40 and 45 teams depending on on the programs. um about 600 students not unique but uh 600 participants over those uh three seasons. Uh some are you know one sport athletes, two sport athletes, three sport athletes. So overall uh you know that number 600 is the cumulative total of registrations. So

075what we are sustaining uh in large part are all those teams, the uniforms, the equipment, the supplies. Um big cost there is also the officials um that we uh contract through Boseies with uh tournament fees. We don't often say no when coaches want to go to an event, a cross country uh invitational, wrestling invitational, basketball tournament. Um, you know, we typically go to wherever the coaches think is the best experience for our kids and we often uh host those as well. Uh, so that's all encumbered in the uh the fees uh including the Boseies fees and officials fees. The uh entry fees are uh separate from Boseies. Um, as most people have said, safety is you know one of the number one things. So we have to train our coaches. We have uh you know,

076contrary to uh or as opposed to years and years ago, we have our own athletic trainer. Um the trainer has an unbelievable uh facility that, you know, is relatively new to our district. Uh compare compare that to some bigger schools and I think it rivals, you know, rivals anything you see out there. Um so with that the the staff training uh the supplies for the uh the trainer and the daily supplies for the coaches uh is also uh one of the things we have to sustain. Uh we've improved over the last couple years the uh spirited celebrations we have we're constantly talking about those things with uh parents the tiger club the PTA PTSA trying to coordinate as much uh community involvement as we can in those those events. including every year we do 18

077or more depending on the number of sports but 18 senior games uh for each of the uh teams and um you know again that's a nice community involvement thing because the parents really play a big role in that. Uh we've upgraded our huddle if you don't know what huddle is. a uh uh company that came up years and years ago, but over the uh course of the last few decades, they've increased their uh mark on sports with not only just live streaming, but they also uh have game breakdowns for coaches in many sports. Um as coaches um learn the the system and the availability of those breakdowns, they can diagnose things. for example, my wrestling coach has been using it, but uh I think going into next year, this is just one of the features.

078They can break down how many takedowns a wrestler has and uh accumulate that information over the course of a season, how many escapes, how many pins. Um it's way more detailed than some other sports because the with the team play, they actually track a player's number in volleyball. they can tell how many uh spike sets or bumps or all those things that volleyball people know. Um but across all sports. So that's um really just constantly improving uh what they do. And that's what we used to live stream. So even if you're just a you know a relative or a friend and you're across the country and I'm guessing across the world, you can uh watch some of the games we have at our stadium as well as in our gym. Um at the middle school

079we are continuing our intramural programs and uh some of the coaches will find a few weeks between seasons to run different intramural programs uh whether it's four weeks 6 weeks they try to find out when they can get space in the gym or in the nice weather outdoors and run things for really all the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth graders. But that's more often focused on the fifth and sixth that can't participate in intercolastic sports until uh seventh grade according to New York State regulations. Um the professional development of coaches is ongoing. Um it's been a couple years now where every season a coach has to uh choose and I let himself choose. That's been actually um sometimes you know they say a blind squirrel finds a nut too, right? Well, um I didn't know

080how nice that would be for them because they choose courses in the NFHS learn system and because they choose courses that are focused on what they would like to learn, whether it's about their sport or about, you know, I'll just make this up, but there's a course on the uh ACL injuries in women and how to maybe um uh preempt that and and be proactive so that you can strengthen their legs differently uh based on physiology coaches have told me it's been excellent. So at first when you tell them they have to do something before the next season that's not a good message but when I say you know when I said you can pick the course you want because they're all very good um the feedback's just uh gotten better and better so turned

081turned into a very good thing. Um, we did complete the replacement of the high school gym scoreboards. So, they don't, you know, don't necessarily jump out at you because scoreboards are, you know, something you look at and watch the score, but you don't realize they are nice. Um, you know, they're uh Bluetooth enabled. So, just uh happy to have those. And the shot clocks are in sync with them. We did not have to replace the shock clocks, which was nice. Um, I learned you need a transmitter for the 8000 and 9000 series. So, one of the things you do as an athletic director is you find out things you didn't need to you didn't know you needed to know. So, the transmitter was an add-on and that's made them sink. um the um uh cooperation

082with deploying wreck, youth organizations, and even parents who are looking to build programs to feed our our high school teams. Um not just for that purpose, but that's a big deal to me at the high school level. when kids learn how to play things in uh you know K through four or five through eight by the time they get to the high school it makes a huge difference especially when we're competing with schools that you know have similar uh feeder programs. So we're continuing uh that cooperation with uh those organizations. Um and we also are continuing the open skills. Um coaches uh often are looking to start the season early. many many years ago you could not do that do that. Uh New York State wouldn't allow you to do that. Um but you are

083allowed to do open skills and more and more coaches are doing that. So it's um that's another way to get a little bit of a jump on a season especially imagine trying uh to start the spring seasons right now outside kind of hard. So, uh we make uh full use of our indoor spaces. Uh the enhancements we um are right now in the process of re uh I'm actually looking over the proofs of all uh the banners and the the high school gym. Uh excuse me. Um I'm hoping that is complete cuz installation is another piece. we'll get them and then we have to install them and we have a design on that but uh we're hoping to do that by the end of the summer and uh with that we also are replacing the

084New York State uh 2012 cross country championship sign. I believe we've uh agreed to put that right at the stadium so it's more visible and where more people are, you know, just to see it and probably on the press box. But uh I have to talk to Gary about the other things you learn uh the hurricane uh uh is it safety, wind safety and all that. So uh that'll look nice. We uh haven't seen the proof on that yet, but we're getting a brand new sign. >> All right. Okay. Well, thank you all so much for all that. That was uh informative to say the least. So, I will open it up. Does anybody have any questions for anybody in particular? >> Um yes. Thank you all for your thorough presentations. They really give a

085you know a good um overview of what everybody will be focused on for next year. Um I did have um a question specific to pupil services. Um actually more more than one. Um but you know Dr. you you talked about um out of district placements. What do we envision that? What are we budgeting for for next year? Where are we currently? What are we budgeting for next year? >> So it um there's several categories of students that are considered out of district. There are students, for example, who are in private schools like Trinity Pauling or Bizanttop. So when they have IEPs, they're under our jurisdiction. And the only thing we're responsible for for students when they're in private schools are comparable services, related services. So we do have our related services speech OT and PT

086currently servicing students at Miz and top. So that's part of their salary that we're budgeting for that. Students who are homeschooled, they come in for related services if that's determined to be required. Then the CSC place out of district students, you know, that's a tough one. We um started this year I think with 21. Then we had two students. This is the fluidity of it, right? We had two students move. We had four students move in. And so right now we're currently at 22, but typically the the uh business person and myself, we project like we hold another two spots in anticip anticipation of students becoming extremely disregulated and needing an out of district placement or students moving in with a pretty significant neurological complex uh and diagnoses that require a special class out of

087district placement. So, we have seen an uptick this year. Um, and part of that is due to some of the families moving in from the different sections in the community coming in with pretty significant needs. Um, and so that's part of the discussion also, how do we build capacity to keep them in district, which is why our BCBA support is essential. Um, and then taking a look at students when they require out of district placements. Is there anything we can do for the following years to build more capacity in-house? So, we're approximately 22 students who are in CC placed out of district placements. >> So, ABA supports would be behavioral, right? Therapeutic. So, we're not we're not placing students out of district for cognitive or LD supports strictly. >> Correct. Correct. This typically the profile

088of students that polling requires an out of district district placement for are students with uh medical needs, fragile medical needs who require the Boseis programs for that. Students who are so tremendously disregulated that they require small small classes in therapeutic full-time therapeutic with with crisis team staffs. Um, we have some students at our, for example, at our high school that really require an alternative high school, no homework, very flexible class schedule just to get through those graduation requirements. So, we have uh several students up uh in those programs as well. But for students with learning disabilities, we are typically able to manage them and support them with appropriate supports. That is why I'm proposing to increase supports at the middle school because we don't have special ed supports in social studies and science and I

089believe we do need that in order to help our kids be better prepared for high school. >> Okay. Um All right. Thank you for that. Um and then I did have a follow-up question on the Anderson Center support. understand if those would be available to all community members or just parents that are registered with students that have ASD or um executive functioning deficits. You know, >> it's a great question. So, the the proposal from Anderson, it's a couple thousand dollars and it allows for us to have access to those webinars. families who are on our radar as needing those supports are typically students with IEPs where um where parent training and counseling is part of their IEP andor we learn through our team meetings that the parent really needs help with a particular thing. Um

090so we're in I'm envisioning it being able to support parents of students um with IEPs. However, if we have different parents who need those types of supports, you know, it could be a general ed thing as well, but sometimes it's specific like sleep disorders and students with ADHD and autism that may or may not be relevant for the general population. >> Do they also provide any learning or supports for ADHD? >> Yes. Okay. >> Yes. There's a couple programs specifically for executive functioning. >> Okay. So, but then the district decides who can take those classes like so you can give access to correct families. Okay. >> And we have a pretty robust SEAL team at each level built of the middle school uh elementary school and high school and that perhaps could be part of

091the referral process as students who are identifying this and parents who might need that support. >> Great. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. >> Can you stay up there? I just have a question. Sorry. Two things. one um the referrals you mentioned when you said there were 48 referrals is that 48 on top of last year's or 48 >> beginning in September from September to February we have 48 referrals by now for 504 and CSSE. >> Okay. And how many of those are actually percentage-wise receiving the services that the referral is for? >> Would you say? >> Can you explain? >> Sure. So a 100 kids get referred but not every kid receives the services. Some of them after the meeting don't reserve this don't receive the services because of their >> whatever they're not

092eligible. >> Exactly. >> Okay great. So currently we're operating um I did some calculations today and I don't have them off the top of my head but for the most part the referrals are eligible. We have a lot of students with a lot of big gaps and while we enhance our MTSS process and improve our tier 2 and tier three instructions, we have to have a place for students when they're two or three years below. So, our classification rate is climbing. They say it should be at 11 or 12. We're about 19, but we have a lot of students with a lot of needs. So, what are we going to do? We have to support them. There are um what I'm seeing the trend is is students who are ineligible those referrals are parent generated.

093Again a parent is concerned about their child. They have a right to refer but perhaps the student hasn't gone through uh enough RTI interventions per uh first. So we're not allowed to classify per the regulations. So those that are ineligible are typically the parents who are really seeking additional information where they're not eligible once they're tested. So you're feeling like the process is is like if kids are getting referred then the process seems good because they are for the most part receiving the >> 100% of the school IST referrals to cse have been eligible and they're classified. >> Second question um do you think and I think this goes along with what uh Audrey presented too with adding the staff. Do you think it would be possible for you guys to break down the responsibilities

094of what you're doing now and then why you feel we need the additional staffing and what those responsibilities would be for those additional staff? >> Absolutely. Absolutely. So in terms of meeting needing additional staff for the chairperson, I presented some of that, but I'm happy to do so in a written form if that's more concrete for you. >> I mean, I tried to keep up with both of you in writing all of it, but I was not successful. So, if you don't mind, I think it would be good for every board member to have that. >> The biggest chunk to take away if if you would like something and the public would like something is that the only people that chair meetings in our district are myself or Audrey and other districts, special ed teachers

095or school psychologists help to share the meetings because that's a big lift. Again, over 200 kids, over 40 referrals, over 704 students, just the meetings is a heavy lift. let alone development of programs, instructional practice, monitoring and helping with student behavior. So the the the biggest need for me myself is until we have other people chairing meetings, I need I need a 1.0 to help chair the meeting so we can get the other functions of the whole department complete. >> Could we do the same for the assistant principal position because we're looking to increase that as well. >> Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Sweeney, I have a question. >> Who who supervises the BCBAS? >> I do. >> You do. So, you do that? >> Yes. Not necessarily supervise, but I'm in contact with the

096director and we have weekly meetings where we consult about what the BCBAS are doing, their progress monitoring. They give tips and tools for the teachers. So, then we can walk into the classroom and see those uh being implemented. So yes, I have direct contact with the director and the providers to uh make sure that we're all on the same page. >> And I don't know if this question is for you or or Miss Kellen, do we I think you had mentioned it once maybe at a retreat. Do we offer executive functioning support for regular ed students as part of MTSS? We have uh something called academic management. And so if a student is having difficulty who does not have a document, because generally if a student has a document like an IEP or um a

097504, they can get what we call study skills. Uh if they do not, we've coined the term academic management. So if a student is having difficulty organizing their assignments, keeping up with their work, what they should do first, having really just somebody looking over to speak with them on a daily basis or an every other day basis, where are you? What did you do? That would be that would be what we would have academic management. Thank you. You're welcome. >> I asked one question of you while you're up there about the financial accounting course. Is that similar to the financial literacy? Are they going to be taught the basic skills of investing, debt, okay, >> all those things or totally different? So, it's totally different. And again, remember financial literacy, we've had it as an

098elective for a number of years because even before New York State, financial literacy, I think we can all agree, is probably one of the most important classes that a student can have as they go to postsecary. So, we've had it, but however, starting next year, the state has said that you must take it in order to graduate. It is a graduation requirement. So my counselor, the counselors have already started telling students every senior next year if they haven't already taken it will be taking financial literacy which is a half a year course which talks about loans which talks about compound interest student loans which talks about all of those financial dayto-day living skills that I think we should all have. Financial accounting totally different course. It is going to be a fullear course and that

099really is geared for the bill business realm. Really again if somebody thinks they might want to become an accountant that's what that course is going to be. So they're really two different courses. Financial accounting if it runs I'll know early March if many students want to take it. That's a fullear course full math credit taught by a math teacher. Financial Literacy is a half a year course also taught by a math teacher, but it's just a half a credit. You're welcome. I just wanted to uh quickly comment. I heard both uh Miss Gleason and and Miss Ken use the words maintain when they talked about their programs and I think it's really important to acknowledge that because our our programs are really tremendous and um as someone who pays a lot of attention to what

100happens in other schools, we offer a lot. if you look at the number of students we have in our AP classes, in our dual enrollment classes, going to Boseies, we've seen improvements in our technology program. So, I I applaud you for maintaining that and I'm really thankful that that we have that in our middle school and high school. We have so many offerings. Um, you know, I think we've used the phrase we punch above our weight class, but um we have a lot to offer and I'm really glad that's being able to be maintained. So, thank you. else. Thank you all so much for presenting this evening. So, moving along on the agenda, we are on to item seven, which is our administrative reports. I know I say this every meeting, but I think it's

101super important. A lot of our admin team, a lot of which you just heard from tonight, spent a lot of time giving updates about their buildings, updates about their departments. And I think anyone at home that just wants some more month-to-month information about what is going on in all these buildings and in all these departments, these admin reports that are attached to the board uh agenda would be a great place to look monthtomonth, meeting to meeting. Um so definitely take a look at that. And that brings us to item number eight on the agenda, which is the agenda order. So for that I will turn it over to our district clerk, Mrs. Stephanie Judon. >> Thank you. Um so tonight we have one uh addendum a letter of intent for um the Benchmark Education Company.

102>> Great. So as a reminder, the items with an asterct are items the superintendent recommends for the consent agenda. If any board member wishes to remove an item from the consent agenda, please do so at this time. The consent agenda is one vote which approves all asterct items which have not been previously removed. So with that read and seeing none, I will read the resolution. Be resolved to approve the filing additions, deletions/changes and order of the agenda as presented. I will make a motion. May I have a second? Mrs. Kazaka and all in favor? I. And that's unanimous. Okay. And that brings us to our first visitors comments on agenda items only, which I imagine there are none. And next we are on to our board remarks. So we'll start with our student members this

103evening. Ifa or Bailey, anybody want to start with uh some remarks? Thank you. >> Good evening. I would like to share a few recent highlights from the student body at Pauling High School. As winter sports season come to a close, varsity sports are beginning. On behalf of the girls varsity softball team, we are currently welcoming any high school girls who are interested in participating in this season. No prior experience is required and equipment can be provided if needed. A skills and drill session will be held this Thursday in the high school gym from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. with additional sessions continuing every Monday and Thursday afterward. This provides students a free and supportive opportunity to try a new sport and become involved in the school community. In addition, senior due packets will be distributed in

104class last Thursday by Mrs. Plesi. Seniors are encouraged to complete this and submit the forms as soon as possible. For students who are absent, packets are available outside of Mrs. Plesi's classroom. All permission slips and dues must be submitted by April 24th. Lastly, prom packets will be distributed next week, so students should be sure to watch for additional information. Thank you. >> Okay. Well, thank you guys so much. Um, all right. So with that, uh, would any board members write like to make any remarks this evening? Thanks. So we'll go to item 11, which is board vice president comments. I'll turn over to Dr. Walsh. >> Good evening. I'll be brief tonight. Um, thank you to our PTA for hosting literacy night last Thursday at the elementary school. As usual, they did a great job.

105There were also many other community partners involved as well as several staff members. the students always have a great time and it's a great way to bring families together. Uh the PTSA held their annual book fair a few weeks ago. They had uh record sales which means that they are able to bring in uh money for their organization and then also they uh get a certain amount of money to donate in books to the school. There was a lot of parent volunteers who put in a lot of time for that. The Tiger Club hosted um a pizza party for all modified sports together here in the cafeteria last Friday. It looked like a really nice um afternoon of community. The PTA and PTSA are uh partnering together with the new um ice cream shop in

106town. They'll be having a fundraiser in the next uh couple of weeks where you can stop by, get some ice cream, and part of the proceeds will go to those organizations. In sports, we are wrapping up winter sports as Bailey said. Um signups are open for our spring sports for both modified and varsity. Our uh varsity basketball team finished up their season last Thursday. Uh they had an unfortunate loss in their first sectional game, but the team did battle quite a bit of illness as they went into those last few weeks. Our hockey team was supposed to have their first sectional game last night. I believe that's postponed till Friday if I'm correct. Um the track team will be competing in the state qualifiers this Friday morning. Want to wish uh good luck to Hudson

107Garberino. He'll be representing us at the state wrestling championships. And um just a quick note that uh since our last meeting, the middle school steam fair took place. That's when our fifth through eighth graders present their science projects and our high school uh science honor society and science research students act as judges. It was a really nice night and lots of very impressive projects. Have a great rest of your week. >> Thank you so much, Dr. Walsh. Should we turn it over to Mr. D Carlo for superintendent's comments? >> Thank you very much, Mr. President. Uh and just quickly again I want to just reiterate the board said it very well and just thank all our presenters tonight that presented on the instructional the support service budget. I also want to thank both our assistant

108superintendents, assistant superintendent for business, Miss Heeslan and our superintendent for curriculum, um, Miss Girkus, uh, their work behind the scenes and, you know, sitting down looking at being a part of, discussing, questioning, uh, modifying, collaborating. It really truly is a team effort. and uh you know over the next couple of weeks um we'll sit down and look at it and and come up with uh what we think is a fair budget. Uh but I think it's important for the public to understand the board that that's always in the back of our mind. So when we're putting the budget together and the presentation today, there's always that discussion of what we're putting together and what you're seeing is fiscally responsible. We are very cognizant of the tax cap and the importance of um staying either at

109or below that because we're always looking to be fiscally prudent yet continue as was mentioned by our vice president with the great programs that go on here. So I want to just reiterate and and thank everybody. Um couple of just quick updates. As you know, we continue to have probably um one of the more difficult winters in a long time. uh aka what happened um you know yesterday and then uh I know this was said but it's important for me as a superintendent to say it um and I've said it before to everybody these decisions are not easy right um especially when you know everybody looks at social media and what other districts are doing as I mentioned to you we're going to always do what's best for our students in a very safe manner

110not just for our students but our staff and a lot of time and effort goes into making these decisions. For example, I walked in tonight and of course the question is Mr. D. Carlo, what do you think about tomorrow? And it really is, ladies and gentlemen, it's all about the timing. It it's just when these storms hit, what part of the day we're in and what we can or can't do. And I know sometimes it's frustrating because when we get a storm that comes in at 5:00 in the morning and leaves at 11:00 and then all of a sudden the sun comes out at noon, it's like, well, why didn't you do a delay? Well, the issue is the delay is for 2 hours and it could still be snowing and it stops an hour

111and a half later, but you know, we can't jeopardize putting, you know, students um you know, on on these roads. So, I'm cognizant of it. Um hopefully, you know, there won't be a lot of storms in the next two weeks, but I hate to tell you that it probably is not going to come true, but we'll do the best we can. The only right nice side of things is a week from this weekend we go into daylight savings. So we get an additional hour which hopefully will make everybody a little bit more reinvigorated. Um last week um actually a week ago tonight I went um with myself and our athletic director uh Mr. Belaluchcci and we presented at the village hall with regards to homecoming for next year. It was and I I want to

112thank the PTA, PTSA, Tiger Club for coming out and and supporting the conversation with the town board. Um it was a great conversation back and forth. We gave them some history behind it. We talked about, you know, when or more or less this would happen and what we would need to do. It was great collaboration and actually in that collab collaboration we realized that it may not be the best um manner to to start to pray from the church but maybe at miss and top so now I'm miss I'm could be meeting with missing top this week to see what their thoughts about it is I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to do this and put it together and then we can start our our planning process and also don't forget next week on

113and I believe it is on Thursday the 5th Can't believe it's March will be the PTA spring dance down at the elementary school for all of our students. I believe um you know prek to 1 is 5:30 to 6:30 and then there's a break and then from 7 to 8:30 is the upper grades, grades 2 and 4. So please come out. I know the students enjoy dancing. There was a whole little dance group of students dancing during the literacy night. So uh I look forward to that evening. And uh that's my report for tonight. Back to you uh Mr. President, >> thank you so much. So, on to lucky item number 13 on the agenda, which brings us to the consent agenda. So, I'll read the resolution be resolved that the board of education approves

114all asterct items as the consent agenda. I'll make a motion for that. May I have a second? Dr. Walsh. And all in favor? I. That brings us to item 14, which is the minutes. This is for the Tuesday, February 10th meeting. So, be resolved that the board of education approve the minutes of the following meeting. Again, this is for Tuesday, February 10th, 2026. I'll make a motion for that. May I have a second? Dr. Walsh. And all in favor? I. That's everybody. So, now we are going to flip a little bit. And this brings us to item number 18 on the agenda which is board of education. Uh number one underneath that is the second reading and adoption of the following policy. So it says be it resolved that the board of education wave the

115first reading of the policy regarding limited authorized use of physical restraint and the policy regarding timeout and go directly to the second reading and adoption of this policy. So we ready to go for a vote? Anybody want to talk about that? Anybody need more information? Whatever anybody would like with that. Okay. So, with that said, I will make a motion for this resolution. May I have a second? Shall. And all in favor? I. And that's everybody. Okay. And we go to item number 19, which is unfinished uh business. Is there any unfinished business that anybody had from >> Just a quick thing. I also just want to we we had some shout outs this evening and so I want to shout out Mr. Kinones because communications is also a big component um of what we

116do even on snow days. And so thank you and your team for your efforts. I didn't hear your name so I wanted to just make sure that >> I recognized I'm guilty. Sorry, Chris, but Chris has uh been great. When I give him the phone calls, he's he's done an absolutely great job and a lot of just so the board knows, a lot of positive feedback on uh Parent Square. So, and thank you, Sandro, for uh echoing that. I appreciate it. Um, Zach, um, the the presentation we had at the last meeting about the the LED sign, are we going to when are we going to be discussing that as a group or what's our plan? >> Um, I will update that at the March 10th meeting. Gary's got some more information and we'll update

117it. Thanks. Just one other thing I wanted um just to remark. We talked about name tags for the interviews for superintendent. Can we use these? Can we borrow these? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Anybody else? Any unfinished business? >> All right. We'll go to number 20, which is new business. Mr. Mr. Tuchi, >> I just wanted to bring up one uh concern about the athletic trainer and I'm I'm sure Mr. D. Carlo, you know about how the athletic training world, my wife is an athletic trainer and there's so many positions open and so many limited athletic trainers and now the new requirements are they're required to have a master's degree and and things of that nature. So just throwing it out there that maybe we should as a board or when we get a chance to

118discuss possible options as to how we can bring somebody here. The job really entails late nights and uh long hours and uh you know with their degrees of education. Just throwing it out there as possible discussion at a later date since that's personnel item and the like. can talk about that also coming up at the next meeting. >> You're welcome. >> Um, for new business too, I don't know, unfinished new business, whatever. Uh, we had a curriculum committee meeting that I don't know if Much if you want to talk about it all, I'm happy to talk about a little bit too, but really just the main thing is still still working to see um, you know, who exactly is on this, what exactly the goal is. I think there's a lot of positive outlook in

119that it could be really a good benefit to have moving forward and and it could do a lot of good work. Um but again just really ironing out what exactly the focus is, making sure that the conversations are tailored to specific goals and needs and um but I think that on the meeting we had um forget the date off the top of my head, but last I was going to say last Tuesday was what I was in my mind. Um but I I thought it was really positive and just trying to um again have conversations. I think that's one thing to Danner's point about communication just trying to be proactive in these in these discussions and and being communicative in in you know in any way just to have as much information as possible and

120um and yeah so I thought it was a really good meeting and I'm looking forward to seeing um what that involves into and big thank you to Mr. Carlo big thank you to Dr. Kirkus for all your time and effort and uh and again I hope you felt as positive as as Mr. Tuchi myself uh did it was it was really good. So okay. Um also with that I guess too do we have a date for the for a policy meeting or next policy meeting by any chance? >> March 9th. >> All right. Good. Just to make sure you have that. Okay. So March 9th sounds good. And anything else? New business. Good there. So, that brings us to item 21, which is our second visitor comments. I'm gonna assume that's empty. Uh, and then

121item 22, which is board president comments. I'm going to go very, very quickly. So, first just want to say thank you to everybody for their flexibility. Dr. Walsh and I were on the phone with Anthony quite a bit yesterday just to try to figure out what tonight would look like. How would we reschedule if we needed to, but thank goodness the schools were open and we were able to have our meeting and we're able to not have to worry about all those changes. But we appreciate both your flexibility and your time and uh and everybody here trying to find dates and times for everything that we have going on. Uh just a quick thing with the superintendent search. Um that's really about to kick into high gear in March. We have our first round interviews

122with candidates set for the first week of March. And then from there we are going to have uh certain candidates obviously advance to the second round which will be the second week of March. And then right after that we have a planned meeting with our attorney to start talking about the contract so we can really get into that and we can get moving. Um, so March is definitely going to be a very busy month in terms of our superintendent search. As a big thank you again to everybody here for your time and the community's time. Uh, one thing that the search firm stressed to us is that a lot of the work that they did um was based on what the community had to say and what the stakeholders and staff and students and parents

123and community members. That is where they got their information to figure out which candidate candidates are the best fit for this school. So, everyone that participated in that, that is uh definitely appreciated. and your work is a big part of um how we're going to find this next person that's going to lead our schools into the future. So beyond that um I also want to read one little quick thing about our budget season and board of board of education uh election coming up. So we are entering the budget season and with the election of board of education members uh this year we have two board seats that are expiring. Each seat is a three-year term starting on July 1, 2026 and expiring on June 30th, 2029. The election/budget vote is Tuesday, May 19th, 2026. Prospective

124board member packets will be available at the district office at board meetings or you can call I'm going to read this number twice 8456257772 and Stephanie our district clerk Mrs. Gardaniano will be able to mail a packet to you. So one more time that phone number if you were wanted to call and take this route is 84562577772 and again Mrs. Jer down and we'll get you a packet um digitally or via the postal mail or postal mail. Perfect. Okay. And due the amount of material and information the package not available online. So postal that would have answered my question right there if I just kept reading. So thanks so much. All right. Uh so with that those are my comments uh this evening. Uh again there's a lot of datesformational items uh on the agenda

125frame by looking from February 24th tonight's meeting all the way into late April. Um so definitely take a look at that. So with that said, uh we can adjourn this meeting. So be resolved that the board of education adjourn this meeting. The time is >> 9:15. I will make a motion for that. May I have a second, Liz? And all in favor? I. That's unanimous. Have a great night, everybody.