Board of Education Meeting - January 20, 2026 7:00 PM

001They're two in one. >> All right. Good evening everybody. So item number four, reconvene to open session. Resolve that the board of education reconvene to open session. The time is >> 7:03. >> I'll make a motion for that. May I have a second? >> Second, >> Sandro. And all in favor? >> I. That's unanimous. And if you can, please stand and recite with me the pledge to the flag. >> Flag of the United States of America, >> to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Thank you very much. So, we have a lot of presentations. Before we get to the presentations, we are going to start with item six, which is our student board member remarks. So, welcome to 2026 uh to

002our ex official members and who would like to start making comments this evening. Perfect, Billy. Thank you. >> Hello and good evening. I would like to share a few recent highlights from the student body at Pauling High School. Over the past two months, during November December, the senior AP government class taught by Mrs. Horn participated in a mock election project. Students were assigned a variety of roles including candidates, campaign managers, press officers, political party leaders, interest group leaders, and members of the media. The project allowed us to better understand how each role contributes to the overall election process. I personally portrayed Fox News and worked with my team to develop a website for in preparation for election day. The election took place on December 19th and the website created was officially broadcasted as an alert

003on the school's homepage. It was exciting to see how involved the entire school became, especially since all the students were able to vote. So, if you're a junior and this interests you, I would totally recommend joining the class next year. Later that same day, we also held our annual staff versus senior volleyball game where the seniors defeated the staff. The event created a great atmosphere and everyone involved had a very enjoyable time. Additionally, there was a recent field trip to the Mark Twain House in Hartford. A student who attended described it to me as the experience very informative, unique, and fascinating. Despite raining weather, students were able to learn about the origins of some of the most well-known works of literature, making the trip both educational and memorable. Although I do think Nala could speak

004a little more on that because she was there. Lastly, for seniors and senior parents, this is your reminder to please order cap and gowns for graduation if you're not already done so. Also, on behalf of the yearbook club for senior parents, parent ads for seniors are due on January 31st. So, if you're interested to get those, make those in. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you so much. and Nala would like to go next. >> Hi everyone. Good evening. Bailey said everything perfectly. I would just like to say the Mark Twain House field trip was so educational, so amazing, and I found me and my peers learning so many new things. And I just want to say thank you to Miss Stecker and Miss Horn for giving us the opportunity to have such an

005amazing field trip and I hope we can make it a tradition in the future. >> Awesome. Thank you guys so much. It's great to hear the firsthand account of everything from the AP government to the field trips and everything. That's great. So, thank you guys. Way to start the meeting there. So, we'll go to item number seven, which is our presentations. And our first presentation for this evening is our English language arts K through2 curriculum updates with Miss Jenny Salvage, Darlene Irish Scoffield, and Casey Stucker. >> Good evening. You're going to have to bear with me. I am Feliciano, the assistant principal at Pauling Elementary School. Although I have a pulse on what's happening at the elementary building, I cannot duplicate Jenny Salvage and all that she does. So bear with me. I'm going to

006be reading off of her notes. So tonight we're she's going to be presenting for prek through third grade and discussing the curricular journey and it's going to be off of the district's second goal, innovative curriculum and provide enriching learning experiences. So, in preK, you'll see here students in Miss Antonio's preK class are learning to identify their first letters of their names through a variety of hands-on activities. This is full circle with the foundations program and their multiensory approach and you are aware foundations is new this year. They have been tracing letters using Play-Doh, exploring with shaving cream and building letters with wooden pieces. You'll see that with the first year of implementation with foundations. During this time, students are working identifying letters, corresponding sounds, practicing their letter formations, and also learning foundational skills in the

007writing progression. Our prek students are also learning about characters. They dress up. Miss Malone this year. Let me see if we have that. Here you go. You'll see Miss Malone this year. She brought Pete the Cat to life as students applied their latest learning around characters and incorporating um incorporating subtraction with their interactive readalouds. After the readaloud, students played the game with Miss Malone um called It's a Character. And then we also can't forget about the multicultural learning and experiences taking place in preK. And we can see these pictures from Miss Malone's prek class created lookalike learning. They had festival of lights and symbolism around light over dark. Those are the pictures that they're working in their sensor groups. We have kindergarten. We have them some samples. Student one with the writing progression. This is

008in the benchmark ELA program which we're going to be adopting schoolwide next year. Kindergarten teachers Miss Silbert has been observing the writing progression in her students work. The progression focuses on student writing using combination of drawings, dictating, and emerging writing skills. And you'll see them here in the pictures where they're drawing, then their labeling, and they're making attempts to write sentences. This writing instruction also targets both the fine motor skills through letter formation and handwriting and cognitive skills. So, they're expressing their thoughts and organizing the ideas. And you'll see that last sample there where you have the idea of the picture and then the writing. Student two. This student, they're now beginning to utilize their known site words and sentence starters to write sentences with proper capitalization, space between the words, and punctuations. There are

009other great literacy activities happening in kindergarten classes, including highfrequency words, practicing shared writing. They're using their high frequency words. They're on boards. They're displayed in front of the classroom to refer when students are reading and writing and talking with peers. Students also practice writing, coloring, finding, and circling, tracing, and building these words. These approaches help students better utilize the words supporting recognition when they read, recall when they're writing. We also have some examples here of the students with their high frequency words, the see the go, and how they're using them in their writing. They also have some retelling parts of the story. They're sharing ideas with partners and they're using three-step writing strategies. First grade, you'll see here where the first grade students have been working with the diagraph CK and using oral segmentation. They're

010tapping out words. This is a strategy for spelling. They have oral segmentation. It's breaking spoken words into the individual sounds without seeing the letter to build foundational reading and spelling skills. We have in another classroom, Miss Malone, Miss Melany says the word while students listen and the students tap out the word. They write the letters from the sounds they hear. So, for example, if they need to write the word cap, they're tapping out each sound. Therefore, they're able to write it afterwards. And then there's this warm-up. So, students will read along to a short text while Miss Melany models blending decoding words and reading high frequency words. Afterwards, students work with a partner to reread the text independently and they're beginning to circle the blend words. They're picking their favorite riddles and they're telling why.

011So, there's a lot of work around letter sounds, tapping them out, using those foundational skills um and foundations. Um, and the teachers walking around the classroom as she's begin giving these instructional strategies out, offering corrective feedback as needed. And then also in the first grade, we have some other teachers. We have Miss Palador. Her writers um are writing narrative units, learning all about small moments. We also have in Miss Pyador's class, they're using word detectives so that children get badges in the word detective reading unit from teachers college. Currently, students learn to notice when they stumble on a word and how to solve it. They're learning how to apply word solving strategies like visual cues, letter sound knowledge, and they're using context to tackle difficult words and approaching reading challenges with a detective-like attitude. And

012then now we have third grade. In the third grade, Miss Arnold's class is writing pen pal letters to a fellow third grade class in a capital district. Students wrote their first letters using proper letter writing format, including a greeting, a body where they shared about their third grade selves, and a salutation. Students drafted, edited, and rewrote their letters before they were sent via mail and are currently awaiting a response. Miss Arnold students also used their letterw writing skills to write community cards. These community cards are warm, friendly, seasonal thank you to members of the polling community who impact them every day. We have third graders who have been busy doing so much more. They engage in seasonal activities like during Thanksgiving season such as pie tasting. They were using their five senses to try something

013new and write about it as well as discussing how this activity of pumpkin tasting can build onto our community and how pumpkins and squash are actually grown in the Hudson Valley. In another third grade class, Miss Dipac's class, we have this third grade students. They participated in a super fun culminating activity at the end of their reading unit where the students had to create a a book. It's a post about their favorite part of Frenzil. The original real book is an online community on a social media platform. It's Instagram where users share their love for books featuring reviews and recommendations. So the purpose of this activity was to foster a connection among the readers. So students summarized their favorite parts of the book, making sure they included key events and details, important character interactions and

014significant details that occurred during a specific moment of the book. And then before they submitted their posts, um it was checked. They used a checklist to ensure they included all the components of the assignments in their post. So, as you can see, we have been very busy this fall and still have great things ahead. There is much more learning and growing to come. As always, thank you for your continued support. And then she's going to pass this on to Darlene. I'm Darlene Irish Scoffield. I'm the curriculum leader for grades 5 through 8 ELA. So today's title of my presentation is MTSS in action guided by data and driving new data. We use the MTSS strategies in the ELA classroom. So first of all, what is MTSS? A multi-tered systems of support. It's a framework. It's

015not a program. It helps us meet students academic and behavioral needs through tier one, which I'll talk to you about tonight, and that's high quality core instruction for all students in the classroom. Tier two, which is more targeted small groupoup interventions like AIS. Tier three, which is intensive individualized support like our special class reading. Why do we use MTSS? Um to identify students needs early, to adjust instruction thoughtfully, to provide the right support at the right time, and to monitor progress over time. So, my presentation format to be a little more engaging is going to be something old, something new, something borrowed, and something true. All within the MTSS strategies that are used in the ELA classroom here in the middle school. So, in special class reading, this is Mimi Dickinson. Um, something old that

016she uses is spelling with a focus on word analysis to apply phmic concepts to encode and decode. Again, special class reading is a tier three intervention here. Um, something new, her word relationships via analogies. Something borrowed, her many independent reading comprehension passages with focus onformational text looking at recall, inference, and author's purpose. And some she uses in her classroom. She has a very structured format to her class and activities to foster instruction to retach methods to promote independence in applying skills. in our grade five classrooms. Um something old that they use are book clubs, guided reading, independent reading, word study, cer writing framework. You're going to see a lot of connections throughout the grade levels. CER especially uh claim evidence reasoning or writing strategy used to help students write to literary texts. Um something new

017they use uh just word which is just words which is a new tier 2 intervention brought up to the middle school and it's a small group of students who have mild to moderate gaps in decoding and spelling and that is and they also have crosscurricular reading that is new to the curriculum this year. something borrowed vocabulary building strategies and prior knowledge building from the science of reading and quick writes from Hudson Valley Writers Project are our some of our teachers are very um very well practiced in that and actually do some presenting for them as well. Um for something true writing expert books I presented this last year in my presentation um that is something that they continue to do and really the kids love it. They have the opportunity to share their expertise and

018build on their own prior knowledge while writing and presenting in class. And they use one-to-one reading and writing conferences, which you'll also see as a common theme throughout. For grade six, uh something old, CER, claim evidence reasoning framework to support short response writing, graphic organizers, sentence frames, editing checklists. Something new this year, individualized action plans for ELA based off of students fall NWA data, cross-curricular readings, and we will write. It's a computer-based gamified writing um using AI, and the kids have been really engaged in this, and it's really helped them see what quality writing looks like and helps them to achieve that in the classroom. Something borrowed uh using our district's diff subscription to differentiate reading and writing assignments. Even today, we got an email. It's improving every single day. Um and using diffic divid

019to make uh hard text accessible to all students has really been great this year and grade six uses it with validity. Um something true one-to-one reading and writing conferences to target specific skills. Students receive personalized feedback and progress monitoring and weekly lessons and supports for in the classroom for grade seven. And it of course it's different for some teachers. It's something old, some new. So for something old, analyzing NWA testing results to guide differentiation and to inform instruction. Um something new crosscurricular reading and the most that this is just the most fabulous thing, a new interdisciplinary Hamilton unit um in seventh grade which Mrs. Garcia, Miss Vansston worked on over the summer and that unit is going to culminate in a field trip to Broadway to see Hamilton which is fabulous. They're so excited. um

020something borrowed in the seventh grades um giving real-time feedback providing students with opportunities to revise their writing to deepen their understanding using to retach and deepen understanding of concepts students are learning in class and something true one-to-one conferences during independent reading and writing students self- select books based on their reading level and interests in grade eight something old independent reading routine we read four times a week 10 minutes a day. Um, books of the students choice, modeling and discussion protocols, CER framework for literary responses, and they're expanded in eighth grade to link better to the high school's format, um, which increas includes analyzing um, something new, double-sided journals, um, which we learned about in one of the RPDs this year for, uh, superintendent conference days. um cross-curricular reading and writing for DC, cross-curricular resources to

021support DC. This was all uh summer curriculum work that a lot of my eighth grade team and I worked on and using to individualize vocabulary instruction. Something borrowed um building classroom community through daily dedications. I've been doing this for a few years. Um it's from Edutopia. It's an SEAL tier one support that just starts our class. The kids start our classroom. Um the kids present a daily dedication from person they admire most, person they're grateful for. Now we're on favorite song and it really um increases the ownership of the class and just starts the class in a really positive way really quickly. It takes one minute. Um we also have class jobs in the eighth grade and this also encourages student ownership and accountability and I got Jessica Garcia brought that to me. Um that

022is also an SEAL tier one support. uh for something true uh one-to-one reading and writing conferences four days a week um using NWA data to create individualized AXL plans and the use of audiobooks paired with print text to support comprehension and access to grade level content for students with decoding or fluency needs and that is a tier 2 intervention that I do use in the regular school day. So, it's important to remember that MTSS is not a program. It's a framework. So, instruction comes first. Supports are flexible and students voice do do matter. So, when they tell us they're struggling with something, we create supports for them if we don't already have them in place. Thank you for all of your continued support. Hello. Good evening. Um, there's no way I'm going to be as

023quick as them, but I promise there's a lot of fun stuff in here. Um, I am Casey Ster. I'm representing the high school um, as the English department uh, curriculum leader. Um, not much has changed on our teaching team, which is really a beautiful thing. Um, I just want to highlight that this year, Spencer Goot, um, starting soon will be teaching a dcc public speaking course, uh, half a credit to our seniors. Um, another addition to our, um, already robust curriculum is our career connections class, which you heard a lot about in the fall. Um, and, um, I also just wanted to highlight that, uh, Mr. Marmalelejo is co-eing that career connections class with, um, a special project for his ENL students that will start up soon, uh, in second semester. Um, our English course

024pathways have not changed. Um, we still offer the same levels of support. Um, as of this presentation, the English regent is still required for graduation. Um, and so the pathways remain the same. The only change we did make this year in a response to um the blue ribbon um commission and the potential changes to graduation pathways is we um made our senior electives full year one credit classes. Um so they students this year um the current seniors last year had the choice between career connections dcc public speaking um which is a half credit um so it's backed up against the other dcc classes so they take u many of them took 101 and they can choose 102 or public speaking um so it's a little bit of a um scheduling logistics um they also had

025the option for film making creative writing journalism and film critique and we've built those all to full year where they used to be half Okay. Um any electives for the seniors um are may be open to other g grades um pending space and availability. Um and we have uh have not done that um recently but they're they're still open to them. Um so this year um the presentation focused on innovating the curriculum and providing enriching learning experiences some of which you already heard about. Um and one trend that you'll see um through our presentation across the grades is um the themes of authenticity, ownership, and application, which um is uh similar to what the middle school a lot of a lot of this you'll see is um building on what they're coming to us with.

026Um in terms of the curriculum updates and funding, um we had four uh focus areas all on senior electives um as we built those into fullear classes. So the career connections asynchronous and service work volunteer um course was built. Um we are continuing to align our AP language and AP US history um curriculums in what we call in-house AP humanities. Uh the public speaking units were built for DCC and the senior film making and documentaries were built out to be a full year. Um we are continuing to look at student choice. Um continuing to update the electives offerings. you know, in our department, we have more than we could ever offer so that we get to run the ones that students really want to take, which means they change every year. Um, one thing to

027note, um, the curriculum funding, uh, cycle from the summer of 2025 impacts about 20% of our high school population. Uh, for profession professional development, um, we Herman, our nth grade English teacher, is leading our training and usage of Turn It In. um which most people know as a plagiarism detector. Um but actually it is um a space where we can not only maintain authenticity in our writing um but there is a target targeted feedback programs um abilities to measure growth and um abilities to interact with AI on an ethical level um which Caroline is working on in her nth grade class um getting the students ready to have those conversations. Um Mrs. Pagaci and I attended the um New York State English Council annual conference um on which I sit as an executive board member.

028Um myself, Caroline Herman, and Simone Shook from the history department are enrolled in the Hudson Valley Writing Project AI study group, which is a year-long um study group in conjunction with the Madison writing project in Wisconsin. Um talking about and um reading the best practice and research around um current AI in the um particularly in the ELA classroom. Um I attended the regional conference at Monro Woodbury and I bring this up because um Dr. Kirkus was here um she would uh speak a little bit more about our um curriculum leader work looking at potentially participating in a regional conference next year um to pull resources around the county um and share some of the superintendent conference uh presentations. >> So yeah um >> sorry if I jumped No, it's great. I think it's it's appropo.

029So the board will be seeing um at our next meeting in February the tentative draft calendar and in it is that for next year. So there will one of the superintendent's conference days on election day next year. Okay. So thank you. >> You're welcome. And um you know I went to Monro Woodberry's um as a member of the Hudson Valley Writing Project and then New York State English Council board. Um and it it they they piloted it last year. It was it was very new. Um and so this year, you know, it's just growing and growing. So it's really really awesome that Pauling is starting to participate in that um in the county. Um I also wanted to highlight our work on the conference day on the 10th really led to um thanks to the

030data that came from Carabon at um Duchess Bosey's us f having two focus areas um that we want to embed in our 912 curriculum um and those were our L4 and L5 standards um we notice had the lowest data um they uh focus those two standards are language standards one is vocabulary and context and the other is um analytical um literary devices. So that was really really important data for the department. Um and as a result um you'll see them up there. Um we are um Mr. Goot has already been um using and so now I've uh started to move it into the 11th grade uh program called Mebeam which the district does fund. Um it is a um personalized vocabulary learning platform that uses cognitive science to help students retain words through uh multi-modal

031learning and retrieval practice. I myself did it and I was surprised how um engaged I was in words I knew but still um found it really interesting the way that the material is presented. So actually Nala's um group of AP humanities students um have just started to work on it and it's a daily practice routine. Um, so it's really formative in nature. Um, but, uh, we believe that it really responds right to the data that we saw in November. Um, so I'm just going to quickly run through some, um, key ideas from each of our classes. Again, our our, um, high school English department offerings through the curriculum are really robust. Um, and they continue to grow um, even just in the general classes. Um so in ninth grade there are both um ancient and

032contemporary essential questions. What does it mean to be a hero? And then in a world transformed by AI, what should human writing look like? Uh Miss Herman also leads a writing lab which every nth grade student is enrolled in. Um and that's where she can do some of that um work with AI and authent uh authentic writing. So focus on personal experiences and human voice. Um the writing lab has a boot camp unit where um it focuses on reflective narrative and creative writing to help students really develop their voice um and their art and storytelling. And then she is zeroed in on think critical thinking integrity and building stamina to write. Um and there are multiple opportunities to practice critical thinking muscles um both in analyzing ideas of others and applying narrative and analytic modes

033to creating original work. And you're going to see that across the grades is um that idea of um authenticity, ownership, and application um is how we are kind of responding to um the temptation of using AI in an English classroom. Um her other big unit which we just uh celebrated just before break um is the hero's journey. Um so first we teach the mono myth uh the ancient hero cycle. note how it appears in every civilization um and it how it continues to this day. Uh then uh the ninth graders look at Beaowolf which is one of the oldest forms um of storytelling and follows a hero's journey focusing on honor and strength and care of a stranger. Um then they look at a more contemporary um uh hero's journey in Koko the film um

034and note how the structure is the same even though the error theme language and mood are completely different. and then they write their own um they finally use all these archetypes to write an original children's book. Um and they get to go down and read them um to our elementary school students. And I had the pleasure of being on that trip this year. Um it's one of my faves. Um and the kids really really um were really engaged with each other. Um and I had an interesting conversation um with uh Dylan Malone about how he's seeing what he's doing in the fourth grade. He's like, "Oh, this this leads right to this story." which was a really cool and kind of unintended consequence of that uh trip. Um Mr. Goot is uh really working very

035diligently with writing in the 10th grade in uh really creative and innovative ways. Um he is a newly trained Hudson Valley writing project um teacher leader and so that uh has held a lot of influence in his work. Um he says that the he is trying to get the students to write like a director. And so how do the grammatical structures and skills um how do they how are they the same as um directing? How do we move a story? When do you zoom in? When do you zoom out? Um and trying to really connect to that visual component of storytelling um in reading. And so what you see here is images of the work and study with the story the devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving. um students artistic renderings of scenes from

036the story and others did storyboards with panels of how they imagined the text would tr be transposed into a motion picture. Um, continuing that idea, um, on this slide there are images, um, on the left and right of mem, which is again the district funded, um, website that we use for vocabulary practice, and then Quill, um, which is free. Um, and both of these put together help students learn vocabulary and writing mechanics. Um and then in the middle is a newly added assessment um based on the legend of Sleepy Hollow which combines the creative and analytical writing. Um the students were asked uh they were given a choice of passages from the end of the nolla and focusing on diction. They were asked to rewrite a scene um light-hearted, humorous um changing the mood of

037Irving's more dark and mysterious um uh writings. So they were analyzing the mentor texts and their own writer's choices when they were doing a literary analysis. So what did Irving do? What did I do and why? Um and we're looking to give these students both the creative and analytical experiences together so that they can understand that um the way that that plays out in their own writing. You'll see the same uh oops for 10th grade um Mr. ON has the students um making analytical posters that essential claim and visualize connections between the real world psychology and um William Golding's the Lord of the Flies. Um he says that these students didn't decorate posters, but they argued them visually. Um which I think is a really important component. Um and it helps the students then remember

038that um when it comes time to take the regent exam, which they took today, including Nala. Um and then the um electives, we currently have career connection service work going on at the Brewster Ice Arena, um at the Pauling Library, at the new Cornerstone Cafe, um Thunder Ridge, Duncan, um a family-owned restaurant, um KFC. Um so this has been uh you know, it's it's been a heavy lift for both students uh and me because I am the teacher of it. Um, but their placements are going, they're working through understanding what asynchronous works looks like. Um, how to communicate with a teacher they don't see every day. And I think it's been a really rewarding um, experience for the students so far. Um, and then in film making, uh, the one of the other senior electives,

039you can be on the lookout for a senior film festival in June of 2026, um, which is where they are working on developing a clear artistic voice grounded in ethical storytelling. in our AP um and college courses which are technically all electives too. They can choose any of these. Um AP seminar is a 10th grade choice. Um the students are um doing uh Mr. Goot is responding to challenges he sees in their um writing and writing for the test um through some work with the Hudson Valley Writing Project. again um sharpen the focus has taught students to create concrete con uh concrete concise nouns rather than log abstract sentences. So again using um those writer's moves as we call them um from a structural and grammatical standpoint. Um, in AP literature, we again have uh

040creative synthesis where the students are translating Mary Shel's themes um into original work and answering real world ethical questions about uh medicine and biology um and ambition. In AP humanities, the students gave um should we stay or should we go revolutionary speeches where they were forced to um argue on the side of a patriot or a loyalist um and practice their argumentation skills in the history context. put themselves back in that time. Um, and in dcc, um, that 101 class is focused on non-fiction and rhetoric. Um, so at the end of the unit, they built, um, board games that had to answer to all the seven rhetorical modes. Um, and then Mr. Good's seventh period class came in and played those board games on game day. Um, so we had a Pokemon game, a Jeopardy

041game, um, a completely madeup game. Um, so it was a way for students to apply um their um those concepts of rhetorical modes in a way that wasn't writing because they had already done that. Um and last the as uh Bailey mentioned which Bailey your your class didn't get to go. Bailey's class got snowed out of the Mark Twain trip. Um we went to the Mark Twain and Harry Peter Stow Center um last Wednesday. Um we've gone to Nuclear Lake. Um this year create was the new thing um born of a student asking to go to the zoo and so creative writing went to the zoo um and they're now engaged in u memoir and um film adaptation using the the film we bought a zoo and one thing we are exploring um which was

042kind of born of career day is the idea of in-house field trips. Um so field trips come with a lot of planning, preparation, logistics um and cost. So, how can we bring things into the school or use the school and resources we have? Um, one simple way that we did this year is um creative writing class does it, the film class does it all the time is to take a take a field trip around campus um and apply that and use that in the curriculum. Um, I am working on getting uh Dr. Meg Davis Roberts um from Sunni Newalts to come to creative writing and dcc English as a guest speaker to do some work with um writing and authentic voice. Um and then the career day I think that was that was kind of

043the where the in-house field trip came from. Um this is the data that the students um gave me the feedback they gave me after um attending. 93% of the respondents were satisfied with the event. Um 80% of the respondents found it relevant to their future. Um, and some of the things the kids said, um, that their takeaways were many people go into various fields, however, often end up in varying places that weren't where they started. Um, Mr. Shook's presentation really helped. He was very popular. He's stuck with us. Um, see how flexible the medical field can be and how many opportunities are available. Um, and one other key takeaway was finding out how many different jobs are available in the medical field. Um, on that note, students did suggest we have more variety in offered

044professions. Um, and they wanted a more organized way to eat lunch with the presenters, which I thought that part was key. They wanted to continue the conversations. And that's what I have for you. I think because I'm the end, I open the floor to questions. Would there be any? >> Great. Thank you so much. Anybody want to start with asking any questions? I have just one, really two. Uh, the first one's more of a joke, but I don't know when you guys are going on the Hamilton field trip. If you need a shaper, bro. I don't know. I don't I don't I don't know what day it is, but I'm free. >> I'm free that day. >> Um, my question was related to um, sixth grade about just flipping to find exactly what I wrote

045out. Um, I loved how we said that the individualized EXL action plan for ELA was based off students fall NWA data. I was just wondering if anybody could comment on how is that populated? Is that like teacher populated by looking at the data? Isl reading that data? Like how is that connection between NWA and LL kind of kind of happening? course. So I started this um a couple of years ago and I know they do it in sixth grade and and seventh so seventh grade. Yeah. So I think that's across all four grades. So what happens is when we get the NWA scores we have four scores. We have the general RIT we have vocabulary reading informational text reading in uh literary text and you have there's a place in where you input those four

046scores for each student. So, um when you input it, it puts out um it just it flags some skills that the student needs to work on um and and at the grade level. So, it's really it individualizes it. Of course, our what we see will, you know, will matter also, but it it the kids will be able to go on and see um lessons. There are videos for each lesson and there are so many skills on I mean it's could take you a whole curriculum for the year in ELA for every grade level. So >> yeah. No, I've seen it. So I ask as a parent because uh one thing that came up I think Dr. Walsh asked was um you know how can we help parents at home know what their children need to

047work on and if teachers are self-populating with these skills based on data then I think parents like I open Il even as an educator there's a thousand different skills and I ask my son like Timothy which one are you working on and you know the answer. So one thing I always try to you know the connection between okay here's data that supports Timothy needs to work on enter the skill here I can see that okay the teacher populated that and now I know as a parent how I can directly help my child with a skill that they're lapsing and I know that came up at the elementary level. This I thought spoke to that a little bit and I was just interested as a system in the school district how we can kind of >>

048yeah just build on that and help parents help yeah help students with their lapses are uh I just that stuck out. big parent teacher conferences in the beginning of the year open house. Um those are the places where we could probably do a better job of just giving the parents the information to how it you know how to use it. They would need to depend on their child to show them obviously. >> Um >> and it's it's not it's not hard. It's but it it's it takes time even that's what draws it. I mean it seems very easy. It seems you know obviously once you put the data in that can be a little timeconuming. >> The analytics are really cool too. >> No I think that's great. I think it can really help maybe

049even parents at home with their child and know what they're struggling in and all that. So, that stuck out to me. So, I was really happy to see that and >> just gets my mind going across >> other conversations we had. So, thank you very much. >> Before you leave, can you just clarify what um DFIT is? I've never heard of it. I'm just curious what it does. You mentioned that for >> So, the district bought the different program. Do you want to speak to this, Mark? >> Probably could do a better job. DIFFIT is a program that's online. Um, it allows the teachers to go in and input either a PDF or um a copy of a slide that we're presenting, something even as simple as out of the grade level textbook. We're allowed

050to manipulate the word um number as well as the reading level that the child's allowed uh to get the same information. It presents the same way. So if you're differentiating and you know the kids are reading, nobody can really tell just by glimpsing who has what's different. It also allows us to uh have graphic organizers depending on the questions that we put in that the students are expected to answer. Um they it'll populate questions, slides, it'll set up groups for us. So, it's really a great tool especially when um the reading gets more difficult that the students are still getting the basis and the general idea without necessarily taking away the content. >> Thank you. I just wanted to thank the uh you know the the team for really presenting the importance of vertical and

051horizontal articulation because that's really key right because we talk about assessments and why we give students assessments. There's a reason for it so we know where kids are at. And I I really enjoyed the fact that you talked about guided reading. You talked about small groupoup instruction. That is key to eight. What you also talked about is the importance of the articulation between MTSS which is core instruction and tier 2. So the teachers are dialoguing with one another. Just because a child is pulled out and goes to tier two doesn't mean the core instruction stops. Right? And one of the things that the board is always interested in is that continuity vertically and horizontally. And one of the things that I I think is important is that kind of work that's being done, right? So

052we're doing that benchmark spending a lot of money as you'll see coming up with a budget when it comes to benchmark K to four and then what's that continuum now 5 through eight right that's going to be key uh as to what happens and goes on. So I want to thank the team for all your work and really talking about the importance of assessment and how that flows and I heard that in every single conversation Il we're working on that that's really important because I think the community needs to understand and and and President Jek mentioned it the fact that when our teachers are in these lab groups when our students are being pulled out they're getting resources the other students who are left behind That's when they get their small groupoup instruction. That's when

053they get their guided reading. So if I'm pulling a group of three or four students in guided reading, the other kids are students are doing. So that's that important work that is so vitally important. Something that I think goes missing. So I want to thank the team. You did a great job. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you guys so much. Mrs. Feliciano, for Miss Saji, please send our thank you for her putting this together too. And Miss Scoffield and Miss Decker. Thank you guys. Um, so with that all being said, we're on to our second presentation of the night, uh, which is our world language curriculum update. Hi everyone, welcome back again. Seems like it's been a a short year. I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of the World Language team and I'm going

054to attempt to address three points in three minutes. So here we go. Uh and how do I Oh, here we are. Great. Uh our first step is to talk about our team as growing in our leadership roles. We were really excited this past fall when three of us were able to go to the national conference in New Orleans where we addressed the national audience about some of the innovations we're running through in our classrooms. And if you look, you probably have the picture in front of you. One of the best aspects of being in this national format was getting a chance to connect with colleagues around the country to see commonalities and our challenges, our approaches, what's maybe working for us that isn't working for them and vice versa and to really have a wide

055audience to bounce these ideas off and it was a great experience. Thank you for funding and providing that opportunity for us. Uh I also had a quick experience in India this summer as part of an international group of teachers with the Fulbright Commission and I don't want to take all of our time to talk about that but for me it was a professional highlight to get to connect with educators from all over the world ranging from drastically different classrooms that we have here to what I saw in India and to see teachers around the world struggling to teach classrooms of 75 95 students in a crowded cramped non-electric non-wired classroom and to watch the student motivation pouring from them really was inspiring. Uh more importantly, we're going to talk about our students and how they're

056growing. Ms. Finelli, I almost called her Miss Mela. Mela is super active with, as you know, her French honor society group, getting them active in the community and again focus locally and internationally with our students. At Pauling High School, we focus on communication and fluency. And as we knew was coming, we watched a bubble come up through the middle school the past couple years where students may have had some gaps in education. Miss Myerano and I worked tirelessly this past summer, the previous summer, and really every day to prepare our students for the experience they would have at the high school to really refocus what we were doing to meet the students needs. We knew our students would have some gaps in grammar and vocabulary, but rather than completely dumbing down our curriculum, we wanted

057to separate what was most important for them communicating to meet them where they're at to provide them with the skills they need. And many of our students arrived to us as ninth graders wondering, will we be behind? And my answer was, behind who? behind where another student might be in 10th grade maybe, but you're not behind where you can be. So, we're focusing on one day at a time skill building. It's communicating. It's asking questions. It's maybe a little more reminding that the accent goes this way instead of that way. Or maybe it goes this way in Spanish. But when you open your mouth and have a conversation with someone in the target language, they can't hear where you're putting the dash over the letter. And we're focusing them on what they can do, not

058what they can't do yet. And really focusing on growth mindset. And you can see that in our students. They're opening their mouths. They're speaking to each other. If you go past any of our classrooms, our kids are communicating. Uh Spanish at the middle school. We are delighted to have Miss Arboa with us and having a wonderful time with her students. She's created a project that's super hands-on and mouth on. Although that that sounds odd perhaps. Um it's about them communicating. These are houses that they built. And to me and I think to all of us that's a lot more important that a student can describe a house by looking at it, by visually and then orally, verbally explaining it. There's some great work she has going on there up in skip one and then I'm

059going to come back. There we go. So, taking a look at what students do. Sorry, I'm back to the seventh grade in seventh grade is really describing a home. Skip ahead to the end product of our fifth year students when my students participated in a debate about bull fighting. And the unit that this pertains to has to do with civil rights, human rights, and that's not something that I feel I'm in a good place to have a classroom conversation with, but I am in a great place to have a conversation about animal rights and how it pertains to culture, tradition, and our own point of view on things. uh we progress monitor and by using quick assessments, tracking learning every day in class and by helping students as they need like I said at the

060onset by looking at what they know and helping them grow and for us scaffold lessons could be providing as you see on these crossword puzzles here's some tips to get you there. Now, I showed this to another student who said, "Oh, you're giving them half the answers." No, I'm not giving them half the answers. I'm showing them the spelling and the language patterns that they're able to recognize. By seeing the beginning phmic patterns, the students are going to have a better grasp on how words are formed. If you play Scrabble, you know that Q is always followed by a U, except, you know, when it's not. Um, Spanish has similar patterns. Q is also followed by U in Spanish. So, in short, this has been a year of regrouping, reframing, and moving forward. I've got

061a great feeling about the sophomores. I see freshmen are excited and eager to be in the high school, and I hear wonderful things coming from my students about, hey, guess what my seventh grade brother or sister is doing in Spanish class. So, we're in a good place and good head space and a good language space. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Before we go on to the next part, does anybody have anything regarding uh world language question? >> Just had a statement. I just want to thank you guys because I know we've had some gaps with the teaching and everything, but you seem to have a really positive approach to meeting the kids where they're at. And uh I just want to say I appreciate what you're doing and we know it's not easy and thank

062you for all your efforts. So, thank you. have a good evening. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. >> All right, so with that, we'll call up our English as a new language uh learning team. Thank you guys so much. I'm Megan Cassidy, >> Jessica Garcia, part of the middle school ENL team curriculum, right? Do the math. So, uh we present to you our ENL student data. As you can see, it's um it varies, right? Um an ENL student brings to the table a lot of contributing factors, right? where they're coming from, how long they've been here, what their education was in their home language, were they a scythe student? So, typically here in Pauling, the average ENL student that enters uh is in our program for about 3 to 5 years before they test

063out with the NISLAT. We um when we get a new entering student, we test them the nicatel. This uh allows us to see what their uh language acquisition is as they come to us. Uh side note, it's a very difficult test. Us English home language speakers would probably have a very difficult time passing it, just to let you know. Um we as a district support our commanding students two years after they test out of the ENL program. We uh support them in ways by like an academic study hall um after school with uh our honor society with tutors. Uh this allows them to make the transition to general educ. They get older. Here in the middle school, we created last year a differentiation guide for our teachers to help guide them in their grading and

064in the delivery of their instruction. We're pleased to share that the elementary school has started to uh incorporate this as well. uh just tracking the students using the simple color codings that we have here on the guide is how we know are able to see who's coming up from fourth grade into the middle school and it helps us to have this open communication with the teachers in the elementary the so that you know it's consistent when they come here to us. Um the best thing about this document also um this second page which we don't have on this but it's also um what teachers can do and what teach how teachers can adjust their own assessments. So whenever we have an English language learner who comes in they'll also have a color code. So if

065we have an expanding student who comes in their orange right away the teachers are going to know okay this is what I'm looking for. This is how I'm going to modify the work. And then we're finding that it's really helping with a, you know, providing more scaffolds for the content areas, which are the classes that we don't get to push into. In the elementary school, we have a Friday newcomers club, which is now um very popular amongst all our ENL students. They come up for breakfast and they get to um do some work without making it seem like work while they hang out with their friends. To speak a little bit for our middle and high school, which is nice, we really started a great partnership. Um the lead club, which started about three years

066ago, it was created by English language learners to help English language learners. um it was for our expanding and commanding L's who wanted to provide additional support for entering and emerging students. So they created a club through their 20 time um in the eighth grade. And this is something that not only has really um grown in um middle school. And in fact, we have it's no longer just English language learners, but our entire school, we have students of all different language backgrounds and all different cultural backgrounds now joining the lead club. And it's also moved on to the high school. Um and it's just become a place where we celebrate bilingualism, where we celebrate language development. And um you know we celebrate multiculturalism. So this year we went to the um IYC at Vassor College

067which is the immigrant youth empowerment conference um where we had I think it was almost 40 students from the middle and high school who went and learned about you know the power of being bilingual and the celebration of it. Um we also had our Hispanic heritage celebration which we invited um the elementary school teachers um ENL teachers and then the high school students to come and again just celebrating the culture having great music, great food and just you know enjoying each other's company. And then um over the the winter we went to um a local community where the students sang songs in multiple languages um just to celebrate you know the holidays and spread cheer. Um in the middle school and the high school we do have um multiple ENL providers which is wonderful. We

068have two ENL providers in the middle school. So, we're pushing into um all ELA classrooms that have L's, but also um providing them with extra support in that tier 2 setting where we're pulling out students. Um and it's not just our English language learners, but really we're finding students who need support in that same capacity where we're able to provide that services. The nice thing is we both have ELA and ENL certification. So, we're very comfortable with, you know, providing the students with that scaffold. Um in the middle, I'm sorry, in the high school as well, Mr. Dr. Marmallejo provides a standalone instruction and then also goes into the ELA classrooms. And we also have two teacher assistants that go into the content areas to provide that extra support for our language learners. So um

069in fall of 2026, New York State is going to adopt these WEDA standards. Uh it's worldclass instructional design and assessment is what it stands for. This basically for uh the ENL department means that we will no longer be using the nicotel or the niclat to check to assess our students language acquisitions. Going to switch to a WEDA screener. Um and then WEDA access. So WEDA access will replace the NISLAT. this requires us to join this consortium. We um have no idea what this is going to look like at all. Right. Um so, uh it's New York State that they we were just told that this will be the last year that our students take the nicest lat. Um, so we really looking to uh have some more professional development so that we know how to

070best change what our students are going to be expected to know as well as how to take these new standards and adjust them to what the curriculums we already have in place. Um, another area of growth is definitely um we would love to create some stronger partnerships with community- based organizations. um our English language learners are going through a really tough time right now. Their attendance has um dropped sub substantially. So, you know, there's um different issues on why they're having a hard time coming to school. So, it's creating a lot of gaps in their instruction. Um and there's uh quite a few of our students who are going through traumatic experiences right now. And so by creating stronger partnerships with community- based organizations and even collaboration among our own Pauling um school district of

071our mental health professionals and ENL teachers and social workers, we can help provide the students with the um access that they need to that support in this challenging time in their lives. >> It's a wrap, guys. So we're here for any questions for you. Thank you guys so much. Would anybody like to start with a question or comment? Mr. Tuchi, >> just have a few. Do you have any I like your idea of the uh community outreach. Do you have any ideas about what you're thinking of or are you just kind of in the beginning stages of that or >> um there's one organization that I've worked with a little bit. It's called Camino Alexo and it's it's nice that they um they have a very strong partnership with a lot of our families and

072um it's right now kind of informal like she'll contact me and say hey this is something that's going on and I wonder if if a formal partnership through the school could be beneficial something like that also just local churches that I know a lot of our students are involved in that might be a way to just keep um you know a breast of what's going on in their in their lives cuz unfortunately a lot of our students right now have um home insecurity and um are unac unaccompanied minors. So um it's nice to know how we can support them outside of the classroom. >> So I I think it's a great question um Trustee Chuchi and it's something that we can definitely do. I and and I think we had a little bit of a

073conversation last night last month and so and I think this is important not that it it's you know some people may hear it and I think we have to have a conversation with parents. So there's a big misnomer out there and I will I will tell you I'm speaking from experience. Last year I was the intram superintendent of the East Ramapo school district which has probably the most larners in the mid Hudson Valley and there was a lot of fright and upsetment over ICE and as I said to that community and it never happened it's not going to happen here. Okay. In order for anybody to come through they have to go through my office of superintendent have to would have to give me and show me the paperwork. Nobody's coming in to the schools

074without Mr. D. Carlo knowing that they're coming. Okay? They're not coming because believe me, if they would have came, they would have came last year in droves where I was. And what happens is this. There's a lot of misinformation on social media. There's a lot of scare tactics going on in social media. And what's happening is that students and families are using that not to come to school. Okay? And we're going to discuss this. We have been discussed it for a small little district and this is not just about L's. This is in this community. We have a big issue with chronic absenteeism for a small little district. Okay. Yes. And the L population, but we have to talk about it. Okay. And I have been working with the building principles when it comes to

075chronic absenteeism and lateness and tardiness. I'm working with and we're not rushing this because we're gonna do it right. We're working with the policy committee. The board is aware of it, but I would love to and we can and I I will speak to uh Miss Banano tomorrow. I'll set something up with you and I and that organization. We need to get in front of parents to let them know you're so he I'm the boss. Nobody's coming and taking your children. Doesn't work that way. And again, I I had the same conversation in East Ramapo more or less maybe a month later than than than this year because of what was happening. And that's a really important understanding. The best place for them is here. It's here. It's not to be frightened at home. It's

076not to be scared. They need a routine. They need to have structure. That's really important. So, thank you very much for bringing it up. I will definitely make sure that we get together and we'll set something up with those families. Okay. You're welcome. >> Had one more. Thank you for that, too. And whatever the board can do to support that, we're obviously here to do whatever we need to do to make sure the kids are here and in school. I just have with uh regards to how do you manage the ENL population and know that if a student is struggling, is it a language barrier or is it an academic issue? and and what you know processes do we have in place to to determine that because sometimes it is an academic issue and they

077might need services but because of the language barriers. So do you mind speaking on that? >> Want me to take that one? >> So I think um I mean we're very lucky because we have a lot of uh years of experience with working with language learners and um oftent times it can go either way. somebody can just make an assumption and say, "Oh, you know, they just don't understand the language, so that's what's that's what the problem is." They we have um multiple screeners to see when it is an academic issue, you know, and we can do assessments in their native language to really support them. Um, I would say that the the best way that we just in the classroom in the moment, a lot of times I'm providing both the academic support and

078the language scaffolds at the same time. Almost always the academic information is new regardless of what their native language is. Right? You're if I'm teaching about mitosis in seventh grade, mitosis is new to our English language learners as well as our native English speakers because it's a new concept. So oftent times I I have to teach, you know, through videos. I'm going to show a couple of different pictures. We're going to look at it that way. And then I'm giving the language scaffolds in there as well. Um the best way really to support the kids is through modification, repetition, and scaffolding, right? And you're going to find that your English language learners nine out of 10 times with the proper support, they're going to pick up that academic part as they're learning the language. There

079are times that students do have a, you know, are in need of an IEP or in need of some kind of extra supports and we have a wonderful psychologist and then that's when we go through a bilingual psychologist as well who will, you know, really screen to see if that's something the support that they need and that's usually when they're not progressing. We we know that language development takes, you know, between 3 to 5 years. Uh if they're at a point where it's been 3 years and they're still not progressing, a lot of times there's a red flag there. >> Feel like you have a pretty good also the the system's working and and you feel like okay, great. Weeda, what is the what is because I know the nicest the nicest slat I've heard

080from for years. It's very extremely difficult. Like you said, some of the English students wouldn't pass it. Are they I'm not saying I want a lower standards, but are they you get a pulse that this is going to be a reasonable exam or it's going to be a little bit more >> I think it'll be more unified right across the nation. That's really what goal is. Um we really have not seen anything yet. Have no idea. All we know is that it's used in a they're saying that they're going to be using it in 40 something states. >> So because the it's going to be kind of a nationwide supposedly it's going to be a more appropriate screener to really identify somebody's language development. Um and we're we're hoping >> we're not there yet. Yeah.

081We're looking forward to getting more information which will probably come after the nicest slot. the most part our students are progressing >> really well >> and like Jess said you know our students that remain in this trans transitional stage is really when we start to flag them and identify them right away like if they're not moving out of that then we know that it could be something bigger >> I think Keith what you're seeing is on a national level students are in ENL their entire time and that's part of the issue they become lifers and that's that's part of where I I believe that this program really is going to look at it year to year and to see the kind of progress that is being made and in some cases do they actually belong

082in ENL you know so that's a whole another in Spanish that means that's a whole another case because that's part of it and I think that through the years they've heard from teachers they've heard from administrators that's some right that's something we got to change this you know so I think that's you know to your point >> but I must say honestly polling Um, you know, I worked in the Bronx for 17 years and calling is incredible the amount of support that we provide for our English language learners. The the way that the district provides support in so many different content areas beyond what is mandated and our identification process is quite good. You know, it's not sometimes people say, "Oh, your last name is, you know, from a certain nationality, so you must be

083a language learner." I haven't seen that happen here. And that's incredible. So, it really does speak volumes to our staff and and our support team. >> And then you use both models, push in and push out. Because to your point, Keith, when you are an ENL teacher and you're trying to see progress students are making, if you're in that classroom and you're pushing in, you can see what that connections are aren't. And if you're not there and you keep pulling out, that becomes difficult. So it's important that the the articulation that goes on between the ENL teacher and in this case in the middle school you know team approach or with the high school elementary school individual teacher approach is really important. >> Just had a a quick um the mental health professionals and the

084social workers are they bilingual? I know the psych or psychologist is social workers too. Okay. >> Well, thank you guys so much and thank you to everybody who presented tonight. Um, that was great. So, thank you all for all four all three presentations. And we're on to our last presentation of the evening, which is our initial budget development information by Mimi Hessen, our assistant superintendent for finance. >> Hello everybody. Hey, the season. Um so tonight is um is the first of six consecutive board meetings um we'll be where we'll be having some kind of a conversation around the 2627 budget. Um and just as a reminder um all of the budget conversations that we have are in reference to what we call the general fund or the operating budget. Um, and each year this is

085the budget that the board adopts in April each year and then the voters vote on in May each year. Um, sometimes there's confusion about the capital project and and how that fits in. Um, capital projects have their own separate budgets. That was voted on back in 2020 when we had the uh capital project vote. So, that kind of sits to the side. Um the only thing that you'll see in the general fund budget um related to the capital project is the debt service that's related to the borrowing of funds for that project. Okay. So um this is a list of the meeting dates, those six dates that I was talking about um and the focus for each of the presentations. So tonight basically we're going to look at some of the initial information that we

086use in planning for the 2627 budget. Um we're going to look at the expected outcomes from the current year and then um factors that are going to impact next year's budget. On February 10th, you're going to hear from our instructional budget managers about where they're focusing uh to budget their resources and their plans for next year. Uh you'll hear from our building administrators, our pupil personnel services, and athletic department directors. On February 24th, um you'll hear the same type of information, but that will be from our budget managers of our support services departments. On March 10th, uh we will roll out the superintendent's recommended budget. And at that point, we'll identify the dollar amounts that are being proposed for both the budget and the tax levy, um as well as how those dollars are allocated

087across our different programs. And on March 24th, um the board will have a chance to uh another review of the superintendent's recommended budget and an opportunity to ask any questions. And then on April 7th, um we will hopefully finalize any questions that may still be lingering. And ideally, the board will adopt the budget on that evening. And that will keep us um on track to meet all of the the deadlines that the state puts forward. Okay. So now for tonight, um we're going to dig into a little bit around the planning process around the budget. So um we are our business is all about um educating students. So of course uh our instructional needs are the first thing that we we think about whenever we're putting a budget together. Um but we also need to

088look at our support services um areas. So that's technology, facilities, transportation and food service and all of those things um come together and uh drive our plans for our uh how we allocate our resources. We also have to look at enrollment um because it's important that could have a positive, a negative or a neutral impact on the budget. Um we look at our projected enrollments and how that may impact class sizes. Do we need more teachers, less teachers? Is it just right? Um, we also consider the economic climate of course and the public's ability to support our instructional programs and operations because ultimately the bulk of our funding comes from our taxpayers. Um and if we are talking about a purely fiscal standpoint, um we have to look at fund balance and how we use

089that fund balance um to actually balance our anticipated revenues against our anticipated expenditures. So fund balance is really an important tool um that we we use to support the financial stability of our district. Um, and when it comes to budgeting, we look at two different types of fund balance. Um, we look at appropriated fund balance and appropriated reserves. Um, so our district has a variety of reserves um that we've had in place. Some of them new, some of them have been in place for a while. Um, there are a variety of purposes and they're all used for very specific things. Um, and some of them can be used to help support our annual budgets. We'll talk a little bit more about that as we go along. Um, but in in summary, basically it's really important

090for us to look at the details of what's going on now in the current year um so that we can identify trends um that will ultimately help us plan for next year. So, we're going to look at that a little bit now. Um so for the current year um on the revenue side of the budget um one of the things that's been a big uh a big number for us over the past few years are interest earnings right once interest rates started going up our interest earnings became quite substantial. Um even though rates are starting to come down we do still project that our interest earnings are going to be in excess of our budget although certainly to a lesser degree than what they've been in the past. Um we have uh we're looking at

091our our current state aid for this year uh runs and that's they're basically in line with um what we anticipated what we budgeted. They they change a little bit here and there but for the most part we're on target for that. Um and the area that we're really clo that I watch very closely is um the use of the appropriated fund balance. both the um appropriated fund balance and the appropriated reserves. So each year um we build some flexibility into the budget because we legally cannot overspend our budget. So we have to have some room in there so that if unanticipated things happen, we have a way to pay for them. Um ideally we hope that we don't have to spend those extra funds, right? So we appropriate um $2.6 $6 million of appropriated fund

092balance each year. And ideally, we would underspend our budget by $2.6 million so that we have that money to carry forward to help us balance the next year's budget. Um, and I would say that at this point and unless something unforeseen happens, it looks like we will have that $2.6 million to carry forward for next year. So, that's a good thing. Um, on the reserve side of things now, we also appropriated $850,000 from our employee retirement system reserve and 500,000 from our teacher retirement uh system reserve. And at this point, and again, we're trying to project something that's 6 months away, right? So, a lot of things can happen between now and then, but at this point, it does look like we're going to be using a portion of some of those reserves. So, um,

093one thing to really think about is that when it comes to appropriations, whether it's fund balance or a reserve, if we use that money, it's gone. Okay? It's it's one-time revenue. So, um, as as I always do, I'm going to be monitoring the budget very closely to try to get us to the point where we're using very little, if any, of those appropriated reserves. Okay. So, then we talk about the expenditure side of this year's budget. Um, as is usually the case, we we do expect again to realize some savings in some of our instructional salary lines, mostly because we're able to um cover some of those expenses with grant funds. Um, we also have, you know, there's some leave replacements. Uh, as people come and go, there's little lapses temporarily. you know, we we

094have unfilled positions um and um and sometimes honestly we have trouble finding substitutes, right? So, uh those do in fact result in savings on the budget side of things though. Um however, on the transportation side, I would say that um we expect to spend more transportation salaries than was originally budgeted. Um, and really, you know, it has mostly to do with the fact that we have to transport special needs students that maybe weren't in the in the uh in the district at the time we set the last budget. Um, we have increased athletic trips and there's overtime to consider as well. And then of course, anytime that we have a decrease in salaries, we have a decrease in the other benefits that are related to that, right? So, retirement costs, social security costs. So, we'll

095have some some savings there as well. Um, and we also expect some savings in our health insurance costs overall for this year. Um, special ed is another area very difficult to budget for. Um, it's because it's so dependent on the needs of our independent or our individual students. Um, sometimes their needs change midyear. Uh, sometimes they'll change programs. We have students move in, we have students move out. It's a constantly moving target. Um so, you know, we always budget for um for contingencies in that. Um we, you know, we want to make sure that we're accommodating uh programs for all of our students with disabilities. Um and like I said, sometimes those programs change midyear. And so that means that sometimes we may underspend in a particular line but overspend in another one. you know,

096sometimes they're in a tuition program, sometimes they're in a Boseies program. Um, so those things those things happen uh across the the course of the year. Okay. So, now we're going to take a look forward and we're now going to look at revenues for the 2627 budget and what we're thinking about at this point. So, um, we do anticipate that interest rates are going to be coming down and so, of course, we're going to have to account for that in next year's budget. Um, in reference to the tax cap calculations, so there's some information that we know, there's some information that we don't. Uh, some of the pieces that we do know about so far, uh, there is a, um, one of the steps in the calculation is the taxbased growth factor. It's a multiplier.

097Um and that's actually increasing which um allows us to raise more revenue um on the from the tax levy. So it's changing from 0.00 51% to 0.77%. Um and that's a that's a number that the state gives us. Um and then another of the pieces of the formula is the um the allowable levy growth factor. So this is the whole thing about 2% right. So this is where the the tax cap gets its misnomer. Um basically uh what it boils down to is that the the tax cap legislation allows for the lesser of inflation or 2%. Right? So again we get the numbers from the state. Currently the uh the inflation factor for 2627 is approximately 2.63%. That's more than 2% so we go with the lower number which is the 2%. Now this does

098not mean that the tax levy increase is going to be 2%. Uh it is only one one step in an eight-step formula. Um and again we will talk more about that as we as we roll out the superintendent's budget. But um you know there are there are other pieces that will um impact the tax cap calculation that we don't have all the information for yet. So we're using um some estimated numbers at this point. Um we have very preliminary state aid information for next year. Um Governor Hokll has has started using the November databases to release state aid information. Uh it's very preliminary and subject to change. Um hopefully by midFebruary we'll have additional new runs and we'll have some updated figures. Um but one thing uh that it's showing right now is that um

099we are no longer going to be receiving any type of large increases in our foundation aid. Right. And we've we've talked about this last year as well. Um we all are already in what they call the hold harmless category. Um so they're actually going to she the governor got rid of hold harmless last year and did allow for very modest increases in state aid and we expect uh and sorry in foundation aid and we expect the same to be true for this year for next year. Um and again you know hopefully we'll have better numbers on that midFebruary. So, um, and as mentioned earlier, so again, the fund balance, right? We do expect that we're going to be able to roll forward the $2.6 million in appropriated fund balance. And we also expect that we're

100going to need to appropriate some of the reserves from both the employees retirement system and the teachers retirement system again in order to be able to balance our budget. Um, how much of that will be left from this year, we don't know yet. Okay. And then looking forward for expenditures. Um so from the perspective of staffing, we are this year going to be negotiating our contract with our CSEA unit. Uh their contract expires on June 30th of this year and we hope to have that settled before uh that date so that it doesn't expire. Um, and in addition to any CSEA uh requirements, we of course have to include adequate funding for all of our collectively bargained units. Uh, in reference to health insurance, so our district offers health insurance coverage to all employees who

101work more than four hours a day. Um, and we also offer coverage to retirees. So, in general, our active employees pay um approximately 20% of the cost of the health insurance. Um and then the district pays the difference. With our retirees, it's a little bit different. It depends on the agreement that was in place when they retired. So, some of them pay 0%, some of them pay 20%. Um, another thing to think about, we are part of a health insurance consortium. And when we refer to it, we call it DHICK. It stands for Duchess Educational Health Insurance Consortium. Um, DHICK uh negotiates with Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield when it comes to determining what the rates are going to be for the the next school year. Um, that negotiation process has really just started and

102it will not be complete by the time we have to adopt a budget. So, um, you know, we will pretty much have to, um, budget according to where they are in the process, where they think the rates are going to fall at the time that the budget gets adopted. I will say that we are expecting a large increase in the health insurance rates for next year. Um, and it will have a substantial impact on our budget. So, be continued as we get more information. Um, also as a public school district in New York State, we are required to contribute to two different New York State retirement systems. There's the teachers retirement system and there's the local employees retirement system, which is basically civil service employees. Um, and New York State determines the rates that we

103have to contribute for our employees in those retirement systems. Um and just sometimes there's been some some misconception about this. Our district does not manage the retirement systems. Um the only involvement that we have is that we are required to make contributions and the rates that the the retirement systems tell us. New York State is the one who is responsible to manage the funds um that are in those retirement systems and then they also manage the distribution of pensions when it's time for employees to retire. So the only thing that the district the district does is contribute funds on behalf of the employees. Um for the teachers retirement system we are expecting actually a slight decrease. Um the current year rate was 9.59%. They always give us a range at this point. The high end

104of the range for next year is 8.75%. So that actually helps us, right? Because we'll it'll be a lower number than it's been uh or than it was for this year. Uh the employees retirement system though um is looking at um a blended rate increase of just under 2%. depending on the tier um that that employees are in, they it's a different contribution rate. So that's why we call it a blended rate for the employees retirement system. Um and you know, we talked about this before, the special education needs, you know, we do our best to project what those costs are going to be. Uh but it's always subject to change and um you know, it depends on the number of classified students we have and the level of their needs. Um, and we also

105need to consider the fact that new students could move into our district and we have to be prepared for that. Um, and then next on the list, the elementary school literacy program. Um, so this is an item that's going to impact our budget quite substantially. Um, but it's certainly needed. So, it's it's money well spent. Um, but something that we have to work into the whole formula. And um of course, you know, as always, we work closely with our budget managers um to try to accommodate all of their needs um by also balancing uh balancing that with fiscal responsibility. Um and you know, it's it's very nice because our our building administrators and our our program directors, they they reach out to their teachers and their support staff to find out, you know, what they

106need and they incorporate those needs into their budget requests. Um, I will say though, um, that at this point, um, the expenses that we are required to fund, plus those additional great ideas that are coming from our building administrators and program managers, uh, do show that we are going, this is similar to last year, we're going to need to make some cuts, um, in order to be able to balance the budget. So, those are conversations that we will be having starting tomorrow morning. Um and um you know so basically at this point we're still um re we're in the process of reviewing all those budget lines and uh determining what will ultimately be included in the superintendent's recommended budget. And as I said earlier that will be released in mid-Marchch and I think that's it

107unless there are any questions. >> Anybody have any questions for me? there's a lot more conversation to be had. So, >> no, I think this is a great um you know exactly what it is preparing for it. So, I think it's a great start. >> We'll have to do it tonight, but can you make sure I think it's important to talk about the the fund balance and how that can be dangerous if you're using it for this year because of the carryover for future years. So you don't have to do it now, but maybe just >> Well, like I said, once we spend that fund balance, it's >> it's in the budget and Right. >> Yeah. So we have to be very careful when it comes to that. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank

108you. >> All right. So again, thank you to everybody who presented tonight. Obviously, tonight was kind of two meetings in one with the postponement of our first January meeting due to inclement weather. So, thank you to everybody sitting up here for um asking great questions and uh with those presentations. So, on to our next item. Uh number eight's not really an item. I just bring it up every meeting because I think it's uh a good source of information. So, item number eight is administrative reports and there are admin reports from a number of different building principles and directors um athletic director and food services and transportation and pupil services and facilities. So, anybody that's watching at home or anybody that looks to wants to have some more information about uh you know, some updates related

109to the happenings of the school district and all of our different departments, I think item number eight, administrative reports, is a great thing to look at every week. Um there's a bunch of PDFs that you can click on and again all these different reports from our different um you know, directors and stuff and and supervisors of our different departments. They put a lot of time in those reports and I think uh you know, clicking through them is definitely something that everybody should be doing. So, um that's item number eight. Item number nine, our agenda order. I have the pleasure of turning it over to our new district clerk, um, Miss Stephanie Gerardano. So, Stephanie, I turn it over to you to speak to the agenda order today. >> Thank you. Um, so as of uh

110tonight, there are no addendums. Um, there are four uh retirements, four resignations, three uh appointment amendments, 16 appointments. Um, a leave of absence and appointment. Uh, two amendments for a leave of absence, two student student teacher placements, one student fieldwork, and 10 financial items be voted on and one special education item. >> Great. Thank you so much. So, I'll read this before we uh move ahead. So it says 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. And a reminder, a consent agenda is one vote which approves all asterct items which have not previously been removed. So seeing that nobody wishes to remove uh resolve to approve the filing additions, deletions

111changes and order of the agenda as presented. I'll make a motion. May I have a second? >> Second, >> Dr. Walsh. And all in favor? I. And that's unanimous. Okay. And now we're on to item 10, which is our visitor comments. Uh it's agenda agenda items only. And and there's none. Okay. And on to item 11, which is board remarks. Would any board members like to make any comments this evening? >> Happy New Year, everybody. I just want to make a couple of comments that um happy new year sorry I had to steal my idea but I'm really looking forward to the year with all of us. We have a lot of great work ahead of us and I'm really excited. Um just as a parent um the science national honor society ceremony was fabulous

112and the science department should really be proud of the presenter and everyone who was inducted. It was really a wonderful evening and um I also have an 11th grader that went to the Mark Twain House and I I got an an earful from an 11th grader and it was he he absolutely loved it. >> He really was so happy that they all went and that the students engaged. He learned so much. He shared it with us. It was really remarkable. So, thank you. >> Great. Anybody else would like to make any remarks this evening? All right. So, I have the pleasure of turning it over to uh Dr. Walsh for board vice president comments. >> Good evening and happy new year. It's actually been uh six weeks since our last meeting between breaks and snow

113cancellations. So, lots of great things have happened. Uh I do want to go back to December just to acknowledge the wonderful concerts we had. In particular, after our last meeting, we had the third and fourth grade concerts. And if you've never been to one of those, you're really missing out because the amount of excitements you see in those kids is really just amazing. Miss Chazinoff does a great job preparing the students not just with the songs but with choreography. She partners with Miss Payeyton for them to make props. Um, and the kids really, really take pride in that night. The elementary school had several math and reading challenges for the students to participate in over the holiday break. Last Thursday, our PTA hosted their annual parent teacher basketball game. Several people sitting here with me

114participated. Um, it was a great turnout. There was a really a wide variety of staff, including coaches that participated. was a close game. Um, the teachers did get the win at the end. Thank you to the PTA and some community partners for all they did to organize the event. Thank you to the varsity basketball team that stopped by. I think that was really exciting for the younger kids. The middle school also had their holiday concerts before the break. Um, I've really been paying attention to the growth I've seen in our music programs. Seventh and eighth grade band, they were fantastic. It's really impressive to see what, you know, if I think about um, you know, six, seven years ago, it's the growth is wonderful. We have a strings program. We have an orchestra that's ready

115to perform. Um, similar to what Bailey talked about, the middle school ended the year with their annual student teacher volleyball game. That's always a fan favorite. Modified sports are well underway. The boys and girls uh, modified basketball teams have had several games. The boys play at home this Thursday and next Tuesday. The girls are away next Tuesday. Uh, Modified Wrestling is home this Thursday. The indoor track team unfortunately did not get to have their first meet last Saturday due to the snow, but they'll be away this Thursday at Hen Hud, uh, which has one of our a local few local indoor tracks. Bailey, uh, and Nala did a great job talking about all that went on at the high school. I will echo that the, uh, mock presidential election was amazing. I have never seen

116my son so engaged in a project. Um, and I loved hearing about all the different stakeholders, all the different participants. It was really awesome. And I think back to they presented to us last year about this election. It was really nice to see the growth and I really can't imagine how awesome it will be next year. Um, all three buildings had spirit weeks leading up to the holiday break. Again, congratulations to everyone inducted into the science honor society. College acceptances are rolling in for our seniors and the second quarter actually ends next week, which means we're halfway through the academic school year. Um, varsity sports are also well underway. Snow has definitely caused some hiccups and cancellations, but uh those will get made up. The wrestling team held their annual tournament the first weekend of

117the holiday break. There were many strong performances from our wrestlers and first place finishes. I saw many, many pal uh parent volunteers there all day helping with concessions and supporting the team. Uh, Junior Hudson Garberino has beat both the first and second place wrestlers in his uh, weight class in section one, which is very impressive. I believe they were away today and they'll be home on Thursday. Varsity basketball is having a fantastic season with some big wins against Haldane and Brewster. They're away tomorrow and home on Friday. Next Wednesday, they're going to have their senior night at their game against Croin. The girls basketball uh, program is growing with a dedicated JV team. They're away tomorrow. Our boys varsity ice hockey team is doing tremendous if you have not been following. They had a huge

118win uh last Friday against Gley and they are away tomorrow at Clarkston. They have G Clark Clarkstown, sorry. They have a game Friday and next week. Uh their senior game is Monday against Byron Hills uh which I think will be a great game. The varsity indoor track team has been hit pretty hard with winter, missing both of their uh meets at the armory so far, but they hope to be there this coming Sunday, although I will not tell them there's more snow predicted. Um, they did have strong performances last Friday in Bethl. Thank you to the Tiger Club. They make contributions to every team's senior night. They make snack bags for away games and we do appreciate that. Remember to always check the athletic calendar. It is the best place to get your information. There

119are lots of changes with weathers and weather and buses, but all the games are on there. It's easy to search and I know the kids love to see um people cheering for them. So, with that, have a great rest of your week. >> Thank you so much, Dr. Walsh. And we get to turn it over to uh Mr. Anthony Daro for superintendent comments. >> Thank you, Mr. President, and I'm again, happy new year to everybody. It uh it's been incredible uh that almost half the year has gone by. It's just, you know, and I have to tell you, it's uh been a great experience for me getting to know the community, the people, students, the community. Um it's a great place, and I'm sure whoever takes this position come July is going to realize the

120same thing that I did even though I've been here for an interim. With that being said, um I just want to congratulate a couple of people that uh tonight um the board is accepting their uh retirement for the purposes of I mean their resignation for the purposes of retirement. Um that would be down at the elementary school, Mrs. Scoffield, who will be leaving us on January 30th. And then we have our elementary school principal, Miss Rivas, who will be leaving June 30th. And of course, uh, you you heard their wonderful presentation by our assistant superintendent for business, who will be deeply missed, uh, Miss Hensen, who is going to be leaving us on the 30th. And I'm sure Miss Rever and Miss Heslin will be celebrating as we get into June. U,, but I want

121to let the public know that I will be sending something out uh, to you on an update of what those uh, searches will look like um, as we uh, try to fill those two positions. Um the board will be working closely with myself as well as whoever the new superintendent is to make sure that he or she also has input um on who those individuals will be who will be leading um both the uh department of business as well as our elementary school. So um keep an look out um for that. A lot of this was already echoed. I mean you know all of these games and honor societies I was a part of um great great evenings. I want to thank our teachers for their participation in the volleyball games and the basketball games.

122Um you know coming out and and participating and make it a great experience for our students to watch both um their parents uh their their their colleagues, their classmates and students participating in in friendly games. Although sometimes it gets a lot of a lot more competitive than you would think, but it it you know great fun and I want to thank all those involved the PTAs, PTSAs, entire club for helping um sponsor those events. Um as uh Miss Hen talked about the budget process and I think I just want to uh talk to the public a little bit about this. Um as you will see in the next number of weeks um we're going to tell a story really tell a story a lot of what we've heard. so far during the course of this

123year when it comes to the needs of the building, the needs of the students. Um, so the public can really get a better understanding of what goes into the budget as well as the board of education because part of the responsibility is to present the best possible education, but yet be uh fiduciary responsible to the public. So, we'll be doing that over the next uh couple of months. We heard about field trips tonight um and how important that really enhances the experience of our students. Um, I want to thank the board, the community for sponsoring these field trips. We're doing a lot of work, K12, especially on the elementary school to make sure that our students are participating um, you know, in field trips during the course of their their time both at the elementary,

124middle, and the high school level. And on the subject of weather, um, again, it has been a very interesting winter. We've been spoiled over the last 5 years because we haven't had cold winters and snow, but it seems to be happening. And I just want to just again echo what I said a couple of months ago. These decisions are not taken lightly. Um we work very carefully, myself, transportation um director, our highway department to make sure that we are making decisions in the health and safety of our students um and of course our staff. Our staff does not all live in Pauling. they live in other areas and we have to make those decisions um as they come up. So again, I want to wish everybody very healthy, peaceful and happy new year to you

125and the families and I look forward to the second part of a great school year. Back to you, Mr. President. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Carlos. So, uh now we're on to item 14, which is our consent agenda. Um so I'll read it. Resolve that the board of education approves all aster items as the consent agenda. I'll make a motion for that. May I have a second? >> Second, >> Michael. And all in favor? >> I. And that's unanimous. >> Okay. Now, we're on to item 15, which is the minutes. Uh, so this goes back a little bit. As Dr. Walsh said, it's been a while since we had our last meeting. So, uh, resolve that the board of education approve the minutes of the following meetings. This is the business meeting for Tuesday,

126December 9th, 2025. So, I will make a motion for that. May I have a second on the minutes? Miss Kazaka and >> abstain. Nobody was >> say yeah >> I believe I was not there. >> Would anybody like to abstain from that? So Michelle and Mike abstain. >> I'll go. So Michelle and Mike uh abstain and all in favor um I so okay there we go. Um, so now we are going to scroll, scroll, scroll. I think that brings us all the way to make sure I'm not missing anything. Item number 19, which is the board of education. Um, this could go here. This could go in unfinished business. Uh, I'm going to speak to the superintendent search during the board president comments. Just let everybody know. So, um, that'll go there. But other than

127that, anything in board of education this evening? I think we're good. Uh, unfinished business. Want to bring up any unfinished business? Good. Number 21. Any new business anybody would like to bring up? >> Yeah, I would. Perfect. So, just only because this is going to be happening and it is something that um was brought to my attention literally probably the second week on the job. So, um I'm we are going to be meeting with uh myself, the PTSA, um the PTA administration, um athletic department. We're meeting with both the village mayor as well as the um super I mean superintendent, that was a fraud, as well as the supervisor of the town and um looking at homecoming for next year. There was a lengthy conversation. And I did share this with the community in the

128fall of wanting to go back old school and having a a parade and a bonfire and I explained to the to the organizations I I we can't do that in a month and a half. This is a lengthy conversation. I did have a lengthy conversation in the fall with the administration with the students because once we have that initial conversation with the village mayor and the town supervisor, we're going to have the students at the table. We're not making decisions about how we think the students want to interact or or not. Although I will tell you, I've met with them. I do student circles at the high school and they definitely are interested. So, um, we're going to have those conversations. If the will is to move forward, we'll move forward. It'll be planned out

129because when September and or October come next year, depending on when the homecoming falls, things will be ready to go and operational. So, I just wanted to give that as new business because it's here, believe it or not, and it's a lengthy conversation and uh you know, we'll we'll we'll talk about it and see what the will is of the group and we'll move forward from there. >> Great. And kind of to piggyback off that, I know one thing we talked about in the summer was having a calendar nice and early for next year in this spring. So, I know that's a a focus and that's a priority. Um so, we have next year really well planned out. So, that's great to hear and thank you for that for sure. >> Okay, any other new

130business? Think we're all set there. Um, so we move to our second visitor's comments pertaining to the district, which I don't think there's any. Perfect. Okay. So, no comments there. So, then last, we have our board present comments. Um, I'm just going to read through this. Two items I want to talk about. One being our superintendent search update on that and another to echo the sentiment of our interim superintendent, Mr. Carlo, with uh a couple of really valued members that are uh resigning for the purpose of retirement at the end of this school year. So, first regarding our superintendent search, um our application window closed on Thursday, January 15th of last week, and I'm pleased to share that we received a total of 30 um 30 applications for the position. So, in sharing that with

131our legal council, our attorney, Mr. Ryan Mlehey, was ecstatic. He said that's a great number. Um so, we're really pleased with how many uh applications we got and it shows, you know, what a great place and what a meaningful position this is. Over the next few weeks, uh, Districtwise Search Consultants, our search firm, will conduct initial screening interviews with candidates, a process they've already started. Um, these interviews are guided by questions developed after a thorough review of community input that we kept talking about in the fall, such as our survey that we try to get people to fill out and so many people did. Um, feedback with forums, with members of the board, with staff, with students, and um, and community members. So all of that work that we were promoting and that was done

132um to try to hear everybody's voice is directly helping um the search firm look for the candidate that this community values or the traits that this community values most and it's an ex educational leader. Uh the next milestone will take place in February as far as the work that we will specifically do. The board will meet with the search firm uh to review the candidate pool and we will determine which applicants will move forward to the interview phase. We already have first round interview dates scheduled which will occur at the beginning of March and we will have second round interviews the following week. We're extremely encouraged by the number and the quality of applicants and we are excited to continue this important process and as always we will continue to update the community as um

133as we reach new milestones. The second item uh that I like to mention is the retirements approved by the board earlier tonight. Uh Mrs. Michelle Rivas, our elementary school principal, and Mrs. Mimi Helund, who will both be uh retiring at the end of the school year effective June 30th. Um each has contributed immeasurably to our district for many years, leading with warmth, positivity, and an unwavering commitment and focus on students. It's always about the students, and it's always a pleasure to um to work with these individuals. And Mimi, I know speaking for myself and really speaking for everybody that every time we're in the same room, it's positive. It's it's just you're just a great person to be around. And um I know there's a lot of work ahead and we just have to cherish

134those moments that we have this spring and the work to be done. But um but everything you've done for the district, I mean there's no words I can write or say that measure even a millionth of it. So um just thank you and and thank you to Mrs. Michelle Rivas as well for all the years just dedicated to the students, the community, the schools and uh you know education's a people business and uh when you have people that wear so many hats and have been in the district for so long, you realize like you know you're not losing an assistant superintendent, you're losing, you know, much much more than that. But we wish you all the best in your retirement and we know that there's a lot of work to be done still. So this

135isn't goodbye yet. But um just know that everyone sitting up here appreciates you tremendously and uh you know and and there's nothing we could say but all the best to you and a well-deserved retirement. So um so I'll leave it at that for now. Um so yeah, so uh our heartfelt thanks and best wishes um to Mrs. Michelle Rivas and Mrs. Mimi Heslin. And uh and those are my comments for this evening. So with that we can journ the meeting. Um so resolve that the board of education adjourn this meeting. The time is can't read these. >> 8:53. >> Uh I'll make a motion for that. May I have a second shell? And all in favor? I that's unanimous. Have a great evening everybody.