001We had some extensive stuff going on and in executive session. I do apologize for that. Can everyone please rise for the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence for Elizabeth Sherico Grace Shartier and Mary Broda 4.01 public comments on agenda items Seeing none 4.02 communications and announcements received by the Board of Education. Does anybody have anything they want to say? Mr. Lumia At the bank I'll keep it short. >> [laughter] >> Last week I attended a curriculum committee meeting curriculum and I'll tell you there was two presentation by two teachers of John Jay High School one on financial math and one on course offered by Dutch Community College. I hope that every student in the Wappingers School District takes those two courses. Very important that they come up with some knowledge about investments and
002so forth. I'd like to thank President Johnson for allowing me to to address the 20 students for the math honor society. I wish you well and also congratulations to 80 students who were inducted in the national honor society at Ross J. Kellish High School. The last 2 weeks I was fortunate to attend the performance of Mamma Mia at RCK and Shrek at John Jay. Both performances were ex- exceptional. The district supported both Maschio and Mine and Presidium. Their performances were outstanding. Over the years I've attended many, many, many performances. Mamma Mia, in my opinion, was one of the best. I mean, I've seen a lot of performances at Ross J. Kellish High School as well as John Jay, but Mamma Mia was really outstanding. I'd like to congratulate both the Presidium, the advisors who picked
003these students. They're really exceptional, in my opinion. Some of those kids could be on Broadway. Not some, most of them could be on Broadway. I mean, they're they're They're exceptional. This past Sunday I attended the along with President Johnson, Michelle Mickens, and Peggy Wood. We went to attend the the senior prom at Ross J. Kellish High School. There wasn't any food left for me at the end. Everybody Marie Johnson took all the all the food, and there was very little left for me. In any event, I'd like I'd like to thank the performers who performed Mamma Mia who were there to perform as well as as well as the uh What do you call it? The uh So, something else in the What was it? The step the step the step team from Ross J.
004Kellish High School along with the singer. They really entertained the the us four us four geeks. The food was really good. I'd like to thank all the local people that contributed to the food and everything else. So, thank you, and special thanks to the the administration for having this particular event every single year for the last 17 >> to echo everything Mr. Lumi has said. I also attended those events, but in addition, uh the performance of Shrek included a dragon created by the robotics club, and it was just the robotics club at John Jay, and it was just spectacular. It was I can I could go on and on just saying all the things that it did, and our students are very talented. Ms. Meggett Yeah, spring sports season is in full swing, and over
005the past couple of weeks, I've been able to see both the John Jay and Ketcham uh track teams compete in dual meets. I've been to several baseball games back and forth across the district, caught a softball game or two, and saw our uh district girls lacrosse team play. I had on my schedule to go to the um unified basketball game this Thursday, but unfortunately, that has been canceled, so I'll be looking to get that back onto my schedule. The last couple of weekends have been very busy. As Mr. Loomis and Mrs. Callan said, we've been very busy with the plays, but we also had two big events at John Jay the past two weekends. Uh two weekends ago, the Winners Circle Project held their car show, which was a great event. The Duchess Cruisers came,
006and um their members displayed their cars, and they made a significant contribution to the Winners Circle Project. And then this past Saturday was Spring Fest at John Jay, where there were animal adoptions, and there were farm animals that um families could interact with. There were a number of vendors there. Um the J Bots and the FFA and several other student organizations had fundraising booths and they didn't let the rain outside dampen the atmosphere. They were having a lot of fun inside the John Jay Gym. Anyone else? Mr. Morgan. Good evening and thank you, President Johnson. Um congratulations to our students and their advisers and and coaches. As as it's already been alluded to, I wanted to make a make a statement that's consistent with something that I've said before during the current board term and
007comes on the heels of since we last met the shooting in Washington, D.C. at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Um while my intent is not to be political, I do condemn political violence and in the past I've spoken about school violence and school shootings. Um and I condemn that as well. Many people may be surprised to learn that through mid-April at K-12 schools, colleges and universities in 2026 there have been 21 school shootings in the United States of America. I don't think there's anybody within the sound of my voice here or on the internet that was aware that the number was that high because it doesn't even get publicized because unfortunately we've become numb to this issue in my opinion. It is time for a serious national conversation about this issue. This is not a
008Wappingers Central School District only issue. Although, I will say that Dr. Bong has been both effective and vigilant in increasing the security presence at all of our schools within uh within the past uh handful of years. But, more needs to be done. Um as I said, it's not a Wappingers Central School District issue. It's not a Dutchess County issue. It's not political violence. is a drone-proof ballroom with bulletproof windows are not being serious about that issue. Unfortunately, since the shooting that I began speaking about, the President of the United States and the Speaker of the House of Representatives have both offered the construction of an addition to the White House as the answer to prevent political violence. And in my opinion, that's not a serious answer to that issue. Okay. Um I was able to
009attend Mamma Mia. It was an outstanding performance. There was almost sold out shows for all three of them. Uh I believe Sunday's was sold out, and Friday and Saturday were very close. Like less than a handful of seats left. The cast had the audience members up dancing in their aisles and singing, and I felt like ABBA was all there. John Jay Winter Circle had their car show, and I have to say I'm a sucker for really old cars. Char- Challengers, Chargers, Novas, they're they're just still cars to me. I want to thank Mr. Lumia for speaking at the math honor induction at Roy C. Ketcham. And I had the pleasure of speaking at the Roy C. Ketcham National Honor Society as we ran vigorously um to get over to John Jay to see the amazing
010performance of Shrek where donkey did steal our hearts. Um there was also the John Jay FFA Spring Fest um even with the rain uh the rain it was a great turnout. They had some wonderful vendors and the food truck that I love and can't wait all year round just to see. This past Sunday, Ms. Meggett, Mr. Lumia, Ms. Callan and I attended the senior senior prom that the staff and students do each year. It's an amazing time that has been a tradition for us Mr. Lumia said 17 years and they had provided it. Each year I'm just more and more impressed with the theme and it was a lot of fun and I'd like to remind everybody tomorrow night is the English as new language night at John Jay High School starting at 5:30. Um
011next would be our 4.04 student board members. Ash, why don't we start with you? Oh. Oh, sorry. I had missed the committee reports up top. Um Ms. Meggett for capital improvement. Let me just bring up my notes. The capital committee met on Wednesday, April 8th. Board members Marie Johnson, Peggy Callan, Karen Mondesando and myself were in attendance. Uh we invited Dutchess County Legislator Kevin Giles to attend and he brought with him legislator Rob Faust, Town of Wappinger Supervisor Joseph Cavaccini, and Town of Wappinger Town Clerk Joe Pellone, and we discussed the traffic situation at the Myers Corner parking lot. Um and so we are going to move forward working with the county to try to develop temporary solutions as well as long-term solutions to the problem. Uh one thing that we're looking into is making
012that turn right turn only starting at in the fall uh at drop-off and dismissal times. Um there were also discussions of traffic lights and traffic circles that the um the county will be looking into and discussing. Um we can give input, but the decisions are up to them. We also received a report that the um final closeout paperwork is pending for the 2023 capital projects phase one and phase two. Some of the remaining work um will be done over the summer. Mrs. Johnson and Dan Asher and um the architect and I met following this meeting with um audio visual to discuss plans for um how we can improve the sound system at Van Wyck Junior High School. We also discussed the John Jay and Ketcham High School field systems and what we Department um has
013approved our 2025 capital projects and the project labor agreement plan is under review. Um, and Felons are engineering is going to review drawings from day automation um, to prepare documents to submit to SED for us to upgrade the alarm system at Myers. And we discussed uh, the technology room upgrades that will be started this fall for the LGI room or for the technology wing rooms at John J and Ketchum High School. And we also went over the architects plans for the additions to the two junior high schools. And we will be meeting again next week on Tuesday for our monthly meeting. Yes, Mr. Capellari. Yes, uh, thank you for the uh, update from the uh, capital committee. In order to ensure that uh, maximum stakeholder eyes are kind of reviewing this, do you think it
014would be uh, prudent to uh, bring in the safety and security committee as the impetus kind of driving this road issue was a safety concern? Mr. LoKima is a member of the capital committee and he brings us the information from the district wide safety committee and their input. Okay, uh, uh, would you mind sharing that with the uh, uh, board members of it of the uh, safety and security committee of the information that was brought? He didn't really have anything other than the general discussions that we had. Mostly we were listening to the elected officials and giving them the district's viewpoint and trying to come up with ways of working with them going forward to try to ease the situation at Myers. All right, thank you. Okay. Next will be Dr. Cardwell. >> make a
015Can I make a Can I make a comment? I think it's extremely important issue gets resolved. And so far as the traffic light I've been I've We're working on it now. It's out of It's out of our control right now. >> forever for second this is not not I don't think it ever get done. It's out of our control. It's the county road. Dr. >> I I just want to I just want to support the capital campaign cuz there's been more done this year than going, you know, looking back. We never met with the the dish with the the county legislator in the town regarding this issue. Unfortunately, a study was made that light was not needed. I think it's crazy whoever did that study, but I hope something gets done in the near future.
016Yeah, it takes time. I think the Just the first second here. Okay, everyone. Um just to let you know, there has been traffic studies. Everything is being reviewed. It is a county road and we have to go through the proper procedures. We are working on it. We're not sitting back on this. Trustee Migliore, Dr. Bonk and I have been in in constant comment And I And I will say we have plans that we're working with with the architect for redesigning the traffic flow within the Myers Corners parking lot because that is within our control and our purview so that we can along with limiting left-hand turns, uh be able to keep traffic moving smoothly and make it safer for families to travel through the parking lot those two times. Okay, moving on. Dr. Cardwell. Good
017evening. The curriculum committee met on April 15th. We were very fortunate to have two presentations that evening. Both presentations were made by the business department. We had one presentation on the financial math course and a second presentation was on the Dutchess Community College economics course. Thank you. Code of conduct, Mr. Lokima. Hi, good evening. Thank you. Uh the code of conduct committee did their annual review ahead of the draft 2026-27 code of conduct. Our goal primarily for this year, other than ensuring that the code is still in alignment with district and board policy, is to just sort of work on the readability of the document. So, we did a lot of edits in streamlining different sections of the document and hopefully improving some of the flow as people try and read through it. Thank you,
018sir. Ms. Kellen for Dutchess County School Boards Association. Yes. The Dutchess County School Boards Association's um April meeting uh was on cybersecurity and we had an update and a presentation by Mark Stein, the director of technology for Dutchess BOCES. The um next meeting uh the on the first Thursday of May will discuss uh school budgets for the different districts and uh share problems or uh solutions that we found in a difficult budgeting year. Thank you very much. Um Mr. McFarland uh was unable tonight, so we'll move that to the next one. 4.04 Now, we can get to you, Ash. Thank you. [clears throat] Um the Council on Addiction Prevention and Education or CAPE gave OVE students a presentation on the dangers of vaping last week. And two course advisors from Dutchess Community College will be
019coming to OV on April 30th to help our seniors out with planning to register with them for classes. Thank you. And now, winter. Hello everyone. Again, an absolute pleasure to be out here tonight with you all. Uh John Jay Model UN yesterday, Monday, went to the Dutchess BOCES Model United Nations competition at Vassar, where John Jay took home three of the four awards given. And I believe this is a multi-school competition, at least 100 people in that room, if not more. I'm very, very proud to say Aaron Puani was actually in our audience tonight. Uh very excellent public speaker. Gentian Bukovany and myself. Um it's really been excellent uh just to see how much we grow and advance throughout the years. Because John Jay Model UN is one of those heavy hitters for getting the
020school awards, for getting our district out there in terms of our prestige and our ability to prepare our students for actual real-life matters, like politics. So, I think Model UN did absolutely excellent there. John Jay Presinium also recently performed its play Shrek, and it was an absolute hit from what I've heard so far, at least. I was unfortunately unable to make it, but for one of my dear friends, it was their last show, their senior show. Um including Donkey, who you were talking about earlier. Um but it's really excellent to see Wappingers Central School District prepare these for bigger and better things and their potential being accurately used. Uh because their potential is so, so much. On to slightly gloomier matters, uh AP exams are next week. >> [laughter] >> And our district and my
021high school have been increasingly preparing, and the effort of these teachers is absolutely impeccable. Staying after school and doing all these meetings to make sure that their students are prepared for uh exemplifies a certain level of dedication, which is also prevalent throughout our district. Uh many of our students are practicing and not getting much sleep, but as our district has had increasing AP scores for the past 5 years, we hope to continue that trend. Um again, Springfest, very, very uh large turnout, very, very excellent. Um but overall closing comments, senior events are coming up. You know, the year is coming to an end and you know, if I could say one thing to all the seniors and all the families of seniors, we're in the home stretch. Um it's now is the time above all
022else to treasure the memories you have made and make the few new ones you have as you advance this new chapter of your life. Thank you. Thank you, Winter. 5.01 Superintendent's Report, Dr. Bonk. Thank you, President Johnson, members of the Board of Education, and members of the Wappingers Central School District learning community. I also had an opportunity to see both phenomenal productions, Mamma Mia at RCK a little over a week ago, uh 2 weeks ago almost, and Shrek at John Jay this past weekend. Phenomenal presentations. So proud of our students. The music was tremendous. The acting was tremendous. The lighting was tremendous. I want to thank all of our advisors and all those involved in our theater programs. As Mr. Loomis indicated, it definitely is Broadway in Wappingers and I had never seen Mamma Mia
023or Shrek before performed. Um I was absolutely floored. And again, the talent in this school district, we should all be very proud of that. So they were extremely well attended and I want to thank the community for coming out and supporting our programs. Today happens to be school bus driver appreciation day. So, I would ask the Board of Education and the senior team to please join me in a round of applause for our school bus drivers. An extremely important job every day making sure that our students get to and from school safely. It's extremely important. It's how they start the day. It's how they end the day. And we're very thankful for our employees and the work that they do on a daily basis in ensuring that that is done. In a school district that
024has the largest district-owned and operated transportation department in the state of New York, that is no small task. So, in addition to the bus drivers, I would like to thank all of the administrators and supervisors for their efforts. Especially over the past couple of weeks where we've had to make some alterations to the normal schedule at some of our buildings. They have been absolutely phenomenal, accommodating, on task, professional, and again, I thank them for that. So, please join me in thanking our school bus drivers for school bus driver appreciation day. And that's all I have this evening. Thank you. I'm going to throw in all our bus mechanics cuz they keep everything running. >> [sighs and gasps] >> 6.01 consent agenda. Does anybody have anything they wish to remove from the consent agenda? Seeing none.
025Resolved that the Board of Education does hereby approve the following consent agenda items as stated. 6.02, 6.03, 6.04, 6.05, 6.06, 6.07, 6.08, 6.09, 6.10, and 6.11. Do I have a motion? Mr. Loomis, second Ms. Callan. All in favor? Unanimous. 7.01, approval to attend Nisba Leadership and Education Event. Resolved that the Board of Education does hereby approve board members Marie Johnson, Cheryl Meggett, and Karin Mondesando to attend the 2026 Nisba Leadership and Education Event on July 24th and July 25th at the Crowne Plaza, the Desmond Hotel in Albany at the cost of a $105 registration fee, member rate, and any reimbursement for hotel accommodations, mileage travel, tolls, parking, and meals per board policy. Registration for the purposes of securing a hotel room is being requested at this time due to the limited availability of hotel accommodations.
026This resolution would permit the district clerk to register an attendee in order to gain access to the link for the room block. So, again, just so everyone understands, this is just so we can get reservations. Otherwise, this hotel usually books out within about 2 hours. Do I have a motion? Mr. Morgan, second Ms. Callan. No questions. All in favor? Unanimous. 7.02, approval of revised Personnel Committee Charter. Resolved that the Board of Education does hereby approve the revised personnel committee charter as amended. Motion, Ms. Callan. Second, Mr. Capellari. Any questions? I'd just like to compliment People who worked on the charter. The rest are I think it was yourself, Cheryl. I think John Morgan and Mr. Capellari. So, I'd like to compliment you guys with doing a great job. And just so everyone understands, this this
027charter has not been revised since Um the original was original revision was 2018 and then we did a very minor thing just removing two words back in 2022. Our charters are supposed to be reviewed and uh re-accepted every year. So, this is be uh bringing us into compliance. All in favor? Unanimous. 7.03 approval of MOU with Winners Circle Project 26-27. Resolved that the Board of Education of the Wappingers Central School District approves the memorandum of understanding for the 2026-2027 school year with Winners Circle Project MOU and authorizes the superintendent to execute such MOU subject to and conditioned upon final negotiation of suitable terms and conditions by and review and recommendation of the board attorneys. Motion, Ms. Callan. Second, Mr. Lumia. Anybody have any questions? Seeing none, all in favor? Unanimous. 7.04 approval of the 2026-2027
028BOCES administrative budget. Resolved that the Board of Education of the Wappingers Central School District casts its one vote to approve the Board of Cooperative Educational Services administrative budget in the amount of $7,142,000, and further authorizes the district clerk to certify that a board resolution has been adopted and to complete the ballot by placing an X next to approve, indicating how the vote has been cast and by completing the certification contained on the ballot. Do I have a motion? Mr. Cappellari, second Ms. Callan. Any questions? All in favor? Unanimous. 7.05 vote on BOCES Board of Education candidates. Resolved that the Board of Education of the Wappingers Central School District does hereby cast its vote for the following candidates to the Dutchess County Board of Cooperative Educational Services, BOCES, and further authorizes the district clerk to certify
029that a board resolution has been adopted by completing the ballot and placing an X next to the name of the candidate candidates for whom a vote has been cast, and further by completing the certification contained on the ballot. How many are? Yep. The nominees are Mark Fleischhauer, Rhinebeck, Judy Moran, Webutuck. Do I have a motion? Mr. Morgan, second Mr. Cappellari. All in favor? Unanimous. Any additions to the agenda? Seeing none. Communications from the public, 9.01. Seeing none. 10.01, motion to adjourn. Resolved that the Board of Education does hereby adjourn the April 28th, 2026 Board of Education meeting. The time is 8:31. Motion Mr. Odums, second Mr. Cappellari. All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you, everyone.