001session subjects. Moving along, it is pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence for Greg Borenstein, a teacher at Roy C. Ketchum for over 10 years. And before that, he taught at Orchard View. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. 4.01 public comments on agenda items. Seeing none, 4.02 communication communications announcements received by the board of education. Mr. Lumia First, I'd like to thank the Janj uh PTSA for providing the food and refreshments for the science of Olympiad. The food was excellent. Marie left. I I I had up portions. I also like to thank all the volunt all the judges. It takes quite an effort to put that particular
002I also have to thank the the the advisors for the uh the club namely Miss Mrs. Morris and Mr. Freeman that put a great deal of effort and and for that that effort the students came in first place for the fourth consecutive year. There's a lot of students involved in that program. I remember when it first started I tell you I'm proud of it. So congratulations to all the students and I like to thank all the students that participated. I wish them all luck. That's it. >> Mr. Kapalari. >> Thank you, President Johnson. Uh last Friday evening had the opportunity to go out to uh Van W with the international night out there. It was great. uh as a child of immigrant parents, it's very important to kind of use food and culture to kind
003of bring people together. Uh aside from just Van W putting on an outstanding event year after year there, uh I think uh a special shout out to the uh uh local businesses that continue to provide food and support and just the way everyone came together. I think as a board uh it this is uh definitely something worth celebrating. Thank >> you, Miss Kelland. Uh those of us who attended the pink out basketball games at Van White between our two junior highs uh had a a very uh exhilarating experience. Our teams are very well matched and both the boys and the girls. Uh and then we also were at the senior recognition night for uh for the wintertime uh athletes at at Ketchum. Again, it was the boys and girls basketball teams. >> You miss uh
004[clears throat] Migs. >> Sorry. Yes. This has um this has been once again a very active sports season for our athletes. I would like to um congratulate all of our wrestlers who did well at the section one wrestling championships last weekend and our cheerleaders who um attended a section wrestling event. I believe uh Waters Junior High cheerleading took first place. And I want to say that I really want to and I know we have some of our administrators out here in the audience. I really want to compliment the staff and the administrators of Royce Ketchum and John J High School. As Mrs. Kellen said, there was a triple header basketball game and senior night at Ketchum the other night and the students were well behaved and it was standing room only in that gym. Uh
005so I want to thank our administrators and their staff for keeping everything orderly. They were all very very closely contested games. I keep saying to um Mr. Robert Cypr that when their two teams meet, I have never seen a game between them in my years in the district where the score has been greater than a two-point difference. Same thing happened the other night with an exciting finish. And for anyone who would like to see that kind of athletic competition, there is a rematch this Thursday night at John J High School when the two teams will be meeting again and it will be senior night for the John J varsity basketball team. >> Thank you. Uh I was going to say that uh closing 2.2 two seconds um for catchum. Even the John J parents can
006even say that play was a Steph Curry. If anybody follows basketball, that was a definite Steph Curry play that that happened at the end of that game. As always, resounding. I'd like to recognize some of our Science Olympiads for their win. We have Daniel Lamar, Haley Kim, Jacob Chen, Chung, sorry, I might butcher some of these. Laya Burgerer, Matthew Glasser, Nathaniel Ensley, Eley. I should just have you read these because some of these I'm going no. Um, Nia Nan >> non nonenw [clears throat] >> maybe I should have you read them [laughter] uh because some of these I can't >> nonwen nonwen Vadur Aaron uh >> no [laughter] >> some of these are some really good ones. >> Pani. >> Yes. Era Pani. Oh, I do know him. Yeah. [laughter] >> Um, you know what?
007Can you read them because I'm [laughter] >> Abek Thomas Angeloasi Aunakin Anika Anne Ana Palai Arsh Kamar Austin Survey Ava Davis Ayaka Sukum Sakuma >> Sakuma >> Sakumia >> um Sakuma yeah >> Sakuma yeah John Carlo Jara Michaela Pearson, Nicole Lilo, Nicholas Nasso, Nico Bombay, Rohan Shukla. >> There's more. >> Yes. 10th graders, Anthony Chen, Bennett Eley, Carter Marshall, Erica Lilo, Gabriel Mazada, George Bumis, Bumis, Jackson, Rujo, Maheen Badam, Nathaniel Mara, Veta Kota, Candla, ninth graders, Johnny Price, Lion Oino, Noah Kaplan, Ragav Mur, Stanley Jang, and Sha Glasser. And I admit that Miss Miggots is a university professor and therefore she is much better at pronouncing some of these names than myself. Um, also we are going to have this Tuesday at John J is the girls senior night for cheerleading um during that game
008and it is the girl and boys senior night for John J on Thursday night. Um, so that's what I have. Next up is our communications. Let's see, where am I at here? Student board. So, who wants to go first? >> Hello everyone again. An absolute delight to see you all here tonight. Um, as Jess said, John J recently did extraordinarily well in the regional science Olympiad. Again, I know many of the people that compete in there. Many of them are my closest friends. And I think that the dedication they wake up with every single day and the absolute effort they put towards their academic performance is absolutely astounding and deserves recognition of the highest accord. I believe now they're going to the state competition which again an absolute amazing milestone. They do absolutely excellent every
009year and I cannot wait to see what this year holds. This just goes to show that the excellence that the WCSD community shows in academic circles is unmatched. Winter Circle Club also recently visited Manhattan. again a testament to how much we value other forms of learning like project based learning which as I know is something that we really like to promote here um there will be a college panel featuring admissions experts to address all sorts of questions on the college process I really recommend going to this if anybody's listening here at home um if you are if you have a student that is a rising junior uh that will be taking place at the John J auditorium on February 23rd at 7 p.m. Uh the John J administration works really hard to ensure that services
010and to ensure that activities like this are available to make sure that our students have the absolute smoothest transition and know of all the opportunities they can get. And again um as was brought up again earlier, senior nights are coming up for winter sports and I absolutely encourage you know board members and anyone that can please go to them. student athletes. They are the backbone of the John J community, especially the cheerleaders. I know they work so so hard every year to support and carry on all of John J's sports teams and I think that's really really admirable. Other than that, I do not believe I have anything else to report. Thank you very much. Next, [clears throat] >> um, this second semester, we have new students being interviewed and already starting. Um, student council
011has begun planning and fundraising for our schoolwide trip at the end of the year. OB received a thank you note from the Department of Veteran Affairs after our cards were sent to veterans um, from our participation in government class. And we have a Boseis field trip tomorrow for our prospective students. >> Emma, >> we brought back our winter dance that hasn't happened in over 20 years on Saturday. It was a great night and we had over 150 students attend. We are hoping to build on this for next year. We have our annual bingo event coming up on Thursday, February 12th. The doors open at 5:00 and the event starts at 6:00. In wrestling, we have three students that qualify for states. Gwen Brown, who is a two-time section champion, Ammani Jones and Isiah Vez. Congratulations
012to them and good luck at states. RCK Science Olympiad teams competed at the Mid Hudson Regional Tournament against schools across New York. All members prepared for their events tyrously and we congratulate them on their accomplishment. A special recognition to the following students who placed in their events. Angelie Bosman, Rockwell Bonslin, Amber Carpenter, Elijah Bassu, and Amelio Cordova. We also have our podcast. We had a our first student guest. Great. Um, I did forget one thing on our announcements. Um, Gay had kicks off the season every year with their play and they had Annie Jr. last week and Pinium has some amazing talent that's going to be moving up through the lines. They put on such an amazing uh performance. I did forget about that. Thank you guys for all of your input. Next up is
013our superintendence report. Dr. Bon, your preliminary budget. >> Yes, the preliminary budget which I will present shortly. Thank you, President Johnson, members of the board of education, and members of the Winger Central School District community. You've heard a number of accolades this evening, rightfully so. Uh I had the opportunity to uh attend the uh science Olympiad. I was there later in the day for the awards presentation, as was mentioned, 11 first place awards. And these names, I think, to many of us here are pretty familiar. We've heard these names before. And I think it speaks uh to the the STEM programs that we have here in our school district. Uh I can remember a number of these individuals at the elementary science fairs and then the middle school science fairs and then the high school
014science and science olympiad. Uh as was mentioned, they truly are extraordinary. Um, and I want to thank our teachers and our staff uh, for all of their work in preparing our students not only to do well academically in the classroom, but to get these phenomenal honors. In addition to that, since our last board meeting, we've had school counseling week, and I think it's very, very important to thank all of our school counselors for all of the work that they do with our students and our families. Mr. Zip, I'm going to put you on the spot. Within the last three years, how many school counselors have we hired between counselors, social workers, school psychologists? So, within the last three years, we've hired about 20 individuals uh to coincide with the unfortunate pandemic that uh we all
015endured. And I can tell you that they absolutely do a phenomenal job and they are so important. So, could we give them all a round of applause, please? And with that, I now will begin the uh preliminary superintendent's recommended budget report. >> Engaged your head. You want the microphone and the clicker or just the microphone and you tell me when to click? >> Yeah. >> It's up to you. So, Mr. Lumia just asked me a question. It'll be the same question that I know that our entire community will be interested in. What is the tax cap levy? We'll get into it, but it's going to be 2.61% 61% and for the fourth consecutive year as superintendent, I will be rem recommending a budget under the tax cap levy. And we'll get into that as we
016go through these presentations. So, we're focusing on today and we're planning for tomorrow. Preliminary budget 2627. Members of our board of education, President Marie Johnson, vice president Cheryl Miggots, Trustee Virgil Capalari, Trustee Corin Mandisando, Trustee Peggy Kellen, Trusty John S. Morgan, Trustee John C. Lumia, Trustee Keith ODMS, and Trustee Michael McFarland. Uh, as you can see here, this is a combination uh of everyone here involved in developing this budget along with you, the community. We want to know your priorities. What is it that you expect a Winger Central School District student to be prepared for and what skills and abilities do they have to have when they leave our school district? We all play an integral role in developing uh that. Uh assistant superintendent for administration and information systems, Mr. Darren Loa. He's the man
017behind the curtain. Mr. Loa, can you come out and wave to everybody? Thank you very much. Assistant Superintendent Curriculum and Instruction, Dr. Michelle Cardwell. Assistant Superintendent Finance, Business Development, the Financial Guru, Miss Kristen Dainty. Assistant Superintendent Student Support Services, Mr. Richard Zip. Assistant Superintendent Special Education, Dr. Dan Wilson. Executive Director Human Resources, Miss Renee Harris. The district clerk and secretary to the superintendent is Alberta Pedro. And one individual who is not up here is uh our assistant director of facilities and operations. That is Mr. Dan Asher. So this presentation will be posted on the district in English and Spanish. Wingerschools.org for those of you who don't know our website. The budget vote May 19th, 2026. Once again, focusing on today and planning for tomorrow. What is our goal? What are our priorities? Maximize the resources
018that we have to benefit our schools in our community. And how do we do that? We maintain educational programs providing academic supports, enrichment opportunities, extracurricular activities as well as professional development for staff. We are developing the whole individual inside the classroom and outside of the classroom. What do we need to have as part of our school culture? our top priority. We need to have safe school environments where we make sure that we provide our students with the emotional and mental health services that they need. And that's not only students, but that's staff. We need to prepare today's students for tomorrow's opportunities. They're not necessarily the same ones that were out there 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago. And fortunately, the state education department has moved forward with their portrait of a graduate,
019which is going to change some of the graduation requirements and actually create multiple pathways for people to graduate, which will help to prepare them for life after the Winger Central School District. Whether that's going on to college, whether that's going into a skilled trades, whether that's going into the military, whatever it is, we need to have a plan for each and every one of our 10,578 students. So, the budget is contingent on New York State aid finalization. The budget deadline is April the 1st, 2026. We're hoping that we're going to have a state budget by April the 1st. The last few years we have not. Last year the budget was very late. I want to say it was agreed to just a couple weeks before the actual budget vote. Correct, Mr. Dainty? Okay. So again,
020we need to hear from you. We need to make sure that you go to budgetwcsdny.org or and there's a form there and you need to communicate with us your goals, your priorities again for our students. What is it that they need to possess when they leave here? So that along with the mission and the core values of the district, the values and the goals obviously of our board of education, senior staff discussion and goals, building administration staff, anyone can go to that website and fill out that form. We do look at it. It is important. I can tell you that over the past five years, there have been things that have been requested that we have added to our budgets. So, as I mentioned before, the spoiler 2.61 is the levy to levy tax cap,
021which is reasonable. That's a reasonable uh tax cap levy. But we want to provide our uh taxpayers with even more relief if we have the ability to do that. Which is why I'm confident that the budget that I will be recommending to the board of education, although I'm not sure what it will entail because we're still not sure how much money we're going to get in state aid, but I can tell you it will be under 2.61%. Which again will be under the current rate of inflation, which I think is pretty admirable when you're able to do that and continue to provide the types of services and programs that we provide. I want to thank Miss Dainty. I want to thank the members of the senior team. I want to thank the board of education
022for the careful and deliberate financial planning that we have worked together on over the past 5 years. You know, the last couple of years we've used fund balance. We will be using fund balance again this year to help balance our budget. So, it won't all be on the back of our taxpayers. So, where do we go from here? February 23rd, the presentation explaining the budget process. That'll be in English and Spanish. March the 9th, recommended budget presentation one. There'll be more information there. Hopefully, we'll have a somewhat better idea as to what state aid is going to be. We won't have a final number. We we can begin to identify some priorities. uh the back on uh the 23rd it'll be budget presentation two hopefully by the 13th of April although last year this did
023not happen we did not have a final budget but what we did was we presented what we had based upon what the governor had proposed uh for state aid and last year the actual number was higher than what the governor proposed when the senate and the assembly voted on it. That of course went into our uh budget last year. But again, hopefully we'll have all of this wrapped up by April the 13th. Ballot presentation to the community. That'll be at John J. High School on May the 4th. Statemandated public hearing on the budget. Royce Ketchum High School, that's on May the 11th. And of course, the budget vote is on May 19th, 2026. So again, we remain focused on today, but we're planning for tomorrow because it'll be here before we know it. So I
024want to thank the entire Winger Central School District community for all of their support over the years and supporting our students and supporting our district. I also want to thank our board of education for all of their efforts, the district office, senior staff, uh, administration, as well as all of our building, uh, administrators as well. and of course our faculty. Without our faculty, we wouldn't be where we are. It It takes everybody. It takes an entire community to be successful now more than ever. And with that, thank you very much. I want to en encourage anybody and everybody including our board members if you have any suggestions to please use the website for our budget conversation to submit your requests and that includes the board of education as well. Um, I've already done mine and
025I believe a couple others have also submitted some requests and I do appreciate it. >> budgetwcsdny.org. budgetwcsdny.org. >> Send me an email. That's the that's the email address. So, send an email and we will definitely look into it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Daintine. And thank you, Dr. Bon. >> Thank you. Okay, moving along to the consent agenda. Does anybody wish to remove anything from the consent agenda this evening? Seeing nothing, resolve 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 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 and 6.11 motion Miss Kellen second Mr. Copilari all those in favor unanimous 7.01 1 process for nominations to Bosey's board of education. Um this is information and discussion this year. There are two open seats on the
026board of education. Michael Rick from Beacon and Bryce Holland from Pikipsy have indicated that they want to seek re-election. They will not. >> Oh, will will not. I thought it said will. >> Oh, will not. Sorry. Should probably put the other glasses on. The Winger Central School District Board of Education, if it so wishes, can nominate one or more candidates. The nominations must be made by official board resolution. The nominees must reside in one of the nine component districts. Arlington, Beacon, Dover, Milbrook, Pine Plains, Reinbeck, or Weeatuck. The nominee must not be an employee of any component district in Duchess County. Nominations are due by March 20th, 2026. Any questions? No. 7.02 Approval of the 2627 school calendar. Resolve that the board of education does hereby adopt the 2026 2027 school calendar as submitted by
027the assistant superintendent for administration and information systems and recommended by the superintendent of schools. Motion Miss Kellen second Mr. Copilari any discussion all those in favor? Unanimous 7.03 03 resolution supporting a payment in lie of tax agreement with respect to the Chaplain Hudson Power Express project. Whereas CHP LLC, the company is developing the Champlain Hudson Power Express Project. the project a fully buried up to,50 megawatt high voltage direct current electric transmission line from the US Canada border to New York City and whereas the Duchess County Industrial Development Authority de Development Agency the agency is considering a proposed payment in lie of tax pilot agreement in respect to the portion of the project located in Duchess County, New York, the project facility and whereas Whereas the entire project facility will be buried in the riverbed of
028the Hudson River and whereas the town will be an affected tax jurisdiction as such term is defined in the New York general municipal law with respect to the project facility and whereas representatives of the town have been made aware of the anticipated environmental and economic benefits of the project the long-term revenue certainty that would be created by a pilot agreement for the project facility and the lack of municipal and school district services that would be required to support the project facility. Whereas based on the foregoing considerations, the board of education of the Winger Central School District has determined to support the AY's entry into a pilot agreement for the project facility. And now therefore, be it resolved that one, the board of education of the Winger Central School District supports the AY's entry into a
029pilot agreement with the company with respect to the project facility to this resolution shall take effect immediately. >> Do I have a motion, Miss Kellen? Second, Mr. Morgan. Any discussion? Any questions? Seeing none, all those in favor? Unanimous. [snorts] 7.04 approval of change order 2023 districtwide renovations main garage 1 phase 2. Resolve that the board of education approve change order number GW.2-00003.1 2-00003.1 at a total cost of $16,426.32 as per memo dated February 6th, 2026 from the school district's architect to the director of facilities and operations as recommended by the superintendent of schools. >> Motion Miss Kellen second Mr. Lumia. Any discussion? Mr. Lumia, >> for the benefit of the community, could you please explain why that particular change order is in place? >> Hold on one second. I'm trying to remember exactly. Okay. This
030was a change order. We were we redid the garage over at Wingers Junior High School. We redid the offices over there. And when we started doing it, there was a problem with the chimney on this particular change order. And it was a lot more than we anticipated. So they had to actually tear the chimney all the way down and rebuild it back up. >> And I added soften inside one of the doorways. Is that sufficient? >> Yes. >> It it almost Yeah, it's pretty close. [laughter] >> All those in favor? Miss >> unanimous 7.05 approval of change order 25 districtwide renovations the Van Wick >> junior high phase two >> resolve that the board of education approve change order number GW.2-00004 2-004 at a total cost of $37,7702 as per memo dated February 6th, 2026
031from the school district's architect to the director of facilities and operations as recommended by the superintendent of schools. Do I have a motion, Mr. Lumia? Second, Miss Kellen. And just for reference, this particular change order was ceilings um I at Van Wick and Mr. Shukat, did I say that correctly? >> Van W. Van Wick, whatever. Van Wik. Um, so it was ceilings, I believe, some softening as well as at that school and removal of a few things that needed to come out in the music rooms. >> Thank you. >> All those in favor? Unanimous. >> All right. Sorry. Yeah. 7.06 approval of change order districtwide renovations Van Wik phase 2 resolve that the board of education approve change order number GW.2-00004.1 2-00004.1 at a total cost of $70,485.54 as per memo dated February 6th, 2026
032from the school district's architect to the director of facilities and operations as recommended by the superintendent of schools. >> Motion, Miss Kellen, second, Mr. Lumia. And point of reference, this was additional work that we awarded for completing, I believe it was two hallways and the health suite um ceilings over at Van Wik. All those in favor? Unanimous. 7.07 approval of the revised policy committee charter. Resolve that the board of education does hereby approve the revised policy committee charter as amended. Do I have a motion, Miss Kellen? Second, Mr. Lumia. Does anybody have anything to say? Okay. All those in favor? Unanimous. 7.08 second reading and adoption of policy. Resolved that the board of education of the Winger Central School District hereby approves the second reading and adopts the following policies based upon the first reading
033by the board and the recommendation of the policy committee as stated. >> Motion Miss Kellen second Mr. Capilari. Any discussion? Although >> this is bringing the cell phone policy in line with state regulations and for consistency grades 7 through 12. Thank you. >> I'm glad we have such policy. Finally, we have an excellent policy. >> Thank you. >> Dealing with cell phones. >> All those in favor? Unanimous. 7.09 first reading of policies. If everybody um takes a moment, they'll be um have any questions after reading the policies. If you have any questions, I ask that you reach out to Miss Kellen, the chairperson of the policy committee before our next meeting. That being said, 8.01. Does anybody have anything for the consent agenda? No. 9.01. 01 comments from the public. Seeing none 10.01 German resolve
034that the board of education does hereby adjourn the February 9th 2026 board of education meeting. The time is 8:26. Motion Mr. Capilari. Second, Mr. Lumia. All in favor? Thank you everyone.