001[Music] and Larry Healy pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republicans one nation under God individual with liberty and justice for all right thank you sorry could we just have another moment if everyone could just rise for another moment of silence for what transpired earlier today in Nashville Tennessee thank you thank you everyone [Music] speak 102 superintendent programs phone I would like to introduce Jenny sunella who has been a fantastic addition to the Wappingers team with chanella will discuss the phenomenal achievements of some of our young spellers supercalifragilisticexpialidocious was that one of the words at least the last end of the spelling bee can you can you spell that that's a bundle I cannot missionella fantastic introduction I think I told the students that there might be some
002quizzes so they're ready I have the honor today of talking about the Fantastic students within our district before I do that I want to describe a little bit of the process that they went through since many of you I'm sure are familiar with what the spelling bee has looked like in the past so the Scripps National Spelling Bee in welcome to Central school district has historically looked as though each building has held their own spelling bee and we have a champion from each building in the past the pathway was those Champions then came to the district level there was a district level champion in the capital region hosted and then they went to the national champions scripts changed their process this year it seems as though some of those changes have happened since covid to
003make it a little bit more digitally friendly so this year first I'd like to thank our principals for arranging the first round each building held their individual spelling bee and we have a champion from each building that we will introduce tonight those Champions then had the honor to go to the Scripps online platform and to compete and be there to earn the right to be a part of the regional level we have three students that were awarded that honor in competing at that level we also have one student who has earned the right to go to the National level so we are thrilled to be able to honor these fantastic students they range from fourth grade to seventh grade so I'm going to just jump right in so we can begin I'll just remind the
004students you can come right up these stairs please watch your step as you come across the wires our first student champion from James S Evans is Rockwell Bozeman [Applause] our next student champion from Myers Corners is Amelia Charles [Applause] good job good job Amelia is our youngest champion in fourth grade [Applause] thank you our fourth building champion from Wappingers Junior High School is Eleanor Hall [Applause] thank you our next building champion from Oak Grove is Ryan McCarthy [Applause] congratulations following Ryan our next building champion from Henry Road is Jonas Morgan [Applause] Jones great work great work our next building champion from Fishkill is Elijah petite Freer [Applause] next from Van Wyck Junior High School we have Sarah Webb [Applause] tips okay I will now announce the building Champions that were Advanced to the regional level
005[Applause] our first Regional student is sidratul Mustafa [Applause] congratulations very proud great work great job our next Regional competitor is Ian Van Steve from Fishkill place [Applause] the last student that will call to the stage is the student who will be representing lavender Central School District at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Maryland Noah Kaplan from Brinkerhoff [Applause] thank you great job okay absolutely congratulations this is great I'd like to once again thank all of the families for all the support and providing their children here this evening and I'll just ask for one more round of applause for our students [Applause] foreign [Music] that's a great idea Darren IA [Music] that's good that works probably on the third step get everybody in yeah come on come on in everybody it's important to recognize this is
006[Applause] congratulations everybody all right thank you so much thank you and thank you parents [Applause] Precious Moments that Jay cameras if you need you know any money to photoshop my picture to make yourself halfway decent send it to president thank you thanks everybody appreciate it congratulations very proud [Applause] once again congratulations to all the students I'm very proud of you hope 101 of a comment on agenda items ladies and gentlemen we're about to Solace the public comment over the state law does not require us to open upcoming period we chose this so because we believe it's crucial for us to hear from our community members about their concerns and issues the board is here to listen the public coming period not designed designed to be a debate or dialogue please do not expect the board
007to respond to your concerns and questions tonight we take a conservative question seriously and want to have sufficient time to process the research issue of Liberty any questions from the Republic should be submitted through the use of undercoming form which we obtain online where to test with this important by the time proper staff member to get back to you as a program I also want to point out that under the state and federal privacy laws we are unable to address any comments or questions or specific students or School Personnel we're asking the court to be appropriate administrative channels a total of 30 minutes at the beginning of each word being set aside to allow public comments on agenda items early public comments at the beginning of the many is limited only to the odds of
008the agenda the person who is to participate in a public common portion of meeting a rise to provide their names and a specific agenda on that I wish that we should speak and Sam sheet is located at the desk with the district clerk and there's your comments in the agenda Adams it's literally three minutes and are welcome if you wish to address ions relating to a school district there are not on tonight's agenda the coming period is provided at the end of the meeting for that purpose a second son of shape is available for none agenda items in your disability and respect for different points of view you might be Brewing on any servants during the public company period is not perfect at this time is anyone want to get signed up no one okay
009see you none 4.02 Communications announcements received by the Board of Education sure I guess you do the first one Marie you know this is my favorite time um I would like to thank Bristol Plains Elementary for letting me come in and do Mystery rear I have a bunch of beautiful pictures that the pre-kindergarten class made me before I got in and I can honestly say that the handwriting for pre-kindergarten is phenomenal our our teachers are doing great and it was a lot of fun I was it was the some of the best parts of my job here I guess um also we got to do the Italian National Honor induction at John Jay High School Pi Day celebration was a week late and we missed Mr Lumia terribly but thank you Miss Callen for stepping
010in um this past Friday obviously one of the best Productions and we are not worthy of standing on this stage was Willy Wonka right here at Rock Jr the students are far better at being on the stage than any of us that are here tonight um spring concerts and sports are starting back up so trustee mickets and I will probably be out and about at everything seeing if we could hit everything under the sun yet again maybe I'll get to stay home one night a week again let's make it yes well first I'm in the middle of a very unusual opportunity right now through work where I am spending a few weeks teaching DCC classes to students in a neighboring School District after many years outside the high school classroom and I just want to
011say it's giving me a renewed appreciation for what our teachers do every day um I was able to join trustee Johnson and trustee calend at Pi Day over at van wyk and had the privilege of presenting certificates to the students from Oak Grove who participated in Dr Miller's program I also was here to see Willy Wonka I was just amazed at what the children were able to do and I highly applaud Miss Muhammad on her production and Mrs Daniels on the things that she did as producer to create the whole atmosphere here and as trustee Johnson said sports are getting underway I stopped by today in the rain and the wind at John Jay High School to watch the John Jay boys and girls track teams compete against Mahopac and Carmel and I don't have
012the scores because it was still going on but our athletes seem to be doing very well in this early competition anyone else [Music] have already said uh the Pi Day was a celebration although delay it was a very impressive what the students are doing uh and for uh parents in the audience who might have students uh you should really consider the math program that Mr uh that Dr Miller runs it's very and its children were very enthusiastic the Italian Honor Society was uh was a fair it was really good we had a we had a good guitarist as entertainment and the refreshments as always were very exceptional and also on the Willy Wonka production here at this very was very good and there's stage effects were remarkable for junior high school okay I attend I
013attended the college fair on Friday morning with trustee Morgan was here trustees will shower I seen some pictures of you you too I've seen pictures of everybody Dr Barclays in a few pictures I received a few opportunities for some jobs they were recruiting me but it was a good time a lot of opportunities for students yeah definitely my young girl also I attended the cops versus the staff at John Jay High School which is very good very physical game very physical game it's more like rugby Mr Green Mr Gray was a coach I was actually a referee yeah it was very good very good game and it had a good turnout and I was also able to get to the Willy Wonka concert or played it was very good also every year the lighting the
014sound everything was awesome thank you Mr Morgan thank you president Lumia um the only thing that I was wanted to add to the mention of the college um and career fair at John Jay was that one was held earlier in the year at YC Ketchum both of them are organized by Ms Elizabeth Keaton who does a great job um with those uh both in terms of involving uh the students as well as coordinating with with the colleges and the potential um employers as a representative of Union College that I attended we appreciated the opportunity to meet with our our district students and look forward to again continuing to have um attendees at uh at Union College from both royc Ketchum and uh and John Jay High School which is been the case for many many
015years so thank you to miss Keating great job anyone else well it was like I was the last one to say something yeah first of all congratulations in particular there's those are participating in a regional spelling me there are no accountants from the chief Road and eons then Steve from fiscal Plains Noah Kaplan Champion for advances have been such a scripted National League Championship and Washington State so wish him well I want to thank the Wappinger rotary for recognizing five students from our district for their contribution to their school they are Alma Gabriel from RCA Tariq Riddick from Walker Junior High Gianna Stevens from Evans Alex Suarez Gutierrez from Myers Elementary and then I'm Boris from sheath Road thanks to all the teachers who recommend these students to the Rotary I want to congratulate all
016the students at Changi for being invested into a Time Honor Society I also wanted two particular families number one business a gun and his wife over the past 25 years have actually a contributed scholarship of 500 scholarship to the students to which we think was doing as well as Mr pinach for Friday two father and adults scholarship for both the President and Vice President of the society and president of the particular society may say his name is thank you Glenn Russell Miller is the president and the vice president so congratulations to those two students I want to congratulate all the performers as well as the stage hands and the production of Willy Wonka and Obama Junior High the performers were excellent it's amazing how the actors can recite all their lines flawlessly because she was
017going to jump a play thank you to the advice you've made this way possible lastly I want to thank Dr Urban Miller for working with 75 students from our five elementary schools it's amazing that these students can do mathematics we need they're phenomenal what they can do is it's really really incredible I want to thank the parents for driving their child to school once a week one hour prior to the start of school so the students can work with Dr Miller I visited Dr Miller's office and I tell you I wish I had him as a teacher he is incredible with mathematics so once again thank you Dr Miller and with that report first so the first one on the agenda is coaching Mr slush hour and Mr Big Frog thank you Mr Lumia just
018real quick for some updates I think I mentioned uh we had submitted plans for our phase one uh project for the next Capital Improvement project uh we brought in a third party review which the state allows to accelerate as I also mentioned before it takes New York state in upwards of 47 weeks to approve plans uh utilizing the third party helps expedite the process we once again took that Avenue we received some comments back our Architects are working on that at this point we're still on our timeline looking to go out to bid end of May beginning of June for our summer work also our phase two which we're not waiting until next year to submit our architecture working on just a quick update again for the plan two designs that includes a new hva
019system at Van white Junior High the renovation of the Wappingers Junior High transportation office the home and career classroom Renovations here at Wild Adventures Junior High also the art and surroundings classroom Renovations at both high schools John Jay and rck also the BTS HVAC upgrades at Vassar Road and chief Road elementary schools and also a quick update from the town of East Fishkill just to let the public know April is coming and asphalt plants do reopen So the plan is to try to get the top layer at the new drop off done um the only downside is I'm not sure what the town's time frame is to work with the asphalt company so there is a chance that that will not be completed until the summer they don't want to interfere with the last several
020weeks of school that's not our decision that's their decision but any event we do anticipate that being taken care of by the time School reopens in September another bit of good news uh if no one has noticed the Dome project does not exist anymore we've mentioned that before there is a 500 000 square foot um distribution and Facilities Warehouse that's being built the town has received a partial Grant in conjunction with the new owners of the site that they're developing and we will have a sidewalk installed from the soccer field where students have additional parking where they'll be able to walk all the way into the new drop off so nobody's going to be in the street nobody's going to be up on the side of the road so obviously from a safety standpoint we're
021very happy that there'll be additional sidewalks installed on Route 52. again that project hopefully would be completed I'm not I can't say their time frame is right in September but definitely before the year is out that's the plan together Wellness sure painting good evening Board of Education on March 29th again that was delayed a week as a result of the weather that we received the majority in that meeting was to discuss the surveys that are required from New York State parent survey and a student survey which we send to grade 7 through 12. um I really want to give a shout out to this committee they did a lot of work these surveys have been completely overhauled we are looking to get quality answers so we're really sending another shout out to the community and
022to the students to please complete these surveys Because unless we get enough response and participation we really can't take the data that we receive and make decisions and have good discussion about those so again just want to send out a great big thank you to the committee surveys are coming this week and they'll be open for about 10 days and then we'll start to renew that data we have one more meeting in May and again the committee is they're just a great bunch of people and they're wonderful to work with so thank you very much thank you chair Lindy policy I hate the policy committee went on April 12th we were also doing uh delay because of weather and we had this ranks and revisions to the facilities policy previous year we uh set forth
023a new regulations for renting the facilities and these are mainly you know revisions from experience and we hope improvements and there are the policy today we are on the agenda for today we also we also discussed the code of conduct and consistency across grade levels within the school within the district in different schools and referred that to a solokima and the code of conduct committee the attendance was Mr lokima and represented the administration and district clerk of Alberta Pedro representing also the administration and taking notes for us and board President John wilbia and trustees Marie Johnson Keith Odoms and myself such a School Board Association appropriate revision and thank you thank you yes uh that also I met at the beginning of the month and it was uh mainly an update from the state of
024state budget by representative from the New York State School boards Association who made us a presentation via zoom and uh let us know what the state is of the legislative budget versus the governor's budget which should be uh by law approved by the end of March uh frequently that is late so we will not confine for the time on the definite information on how much money we will get the difference between the governor's budget and the legislators budget is that the legislation is put has money in there to provide free school lunches for everyone and at lunch and breakfast and the governor did not include this in her budget so there will be some reconciliation going on thank you Peggy thank you all the chairpeople uh thanks for 5.1 superintendents recommendation budget Professor bump the
025problem s okay thank you director Sheldon [Applause] [Music] before I begin the presentation I want to reinforce the accolades that were given by our Board of Education to many of our students and staff for all of the positive differences that they've made within our community uh over the past couple of weeks those have been detailed by the Board of Education I'm going to move forward with the recommended budget one I think it's important to read the mission of our school district which is to empower all of our students with the competencies and confidence to challenge themselves pursue their passions to realize their potential while growing as responsible members of their Community we must do that that is our mission so we talked about last year reconnecting with our community this year moving forward together members
026of the Board of Education President John Lumia vice president Peggy Kellen trustee Marie Johnson trustee Keith Odoms trustee Michael McFarland trustee Eddie slow shower trustee Cheryl maggots trustee James Spencer trustee John Morgan members of the senior staff Administration Darren Okemah our assistant superintendent for administration and information systems Dr Michelle Cardwell assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction Kristin dainty the financial Guru assistant superintendent for finance and business development Richard zip our assistant superintendent for student support services and accessible education Renee Harris our director of Human Resources Ronald brois our director of facilities and operations and our district clerk and the secretary to the superintendent Miss Alberta Pedro so some of this you've seen before some of this is updated and will continue to be updated once we get our final budgetary numbers from New York state
027which we hope will be no later than April 1st however there is a chance that that could be delayed hopefully if it's not done by April 1st it will be done shortly thereafter and I will be able to give you a more expansive presentation on April 11th again balancing the health Wellness supports for our students and staff to continue to personalize the educational experience by ensuring that Staffing levels and educational opportunities are available for all students during these most challenging times maintain our current education Reporting Act ing enrichment optional curricular activities as well as professional development for staff again the common theme providing opportunities for all of our students to pursue their passions so what do we know so far well we may not like this number but the Consumer Price Index is eight percent
028we're all paying more for everything since the Consumer Price Index exceeds two percent the district will be utilized to present the tax cap formula and based upon uh the numbers for our school district the maximum allowable tax levy increase to be under the tax cap is 2.05 percent currently the district has balanced the budget using a tax increase of 1.67 percent note that has changed from the previous presentation of 1.85 and I will explain why that has happened so the budget as it stands now based on the money that we believe we're going to get now will increase in a tax levy increase of 1.67 Which is 0.38 less than the allowable tax levy increase and one of the reasons for that is I'm going to make a recommendation to the Board of Education that
029we utilize some of our fund balance New York State Governor's proposal includes the reinstatement of the foundation Aid upk funding remains stable in this proposal and we are budgeting using the full Governor's executive budget proposal at this point in time again as I mentioned April 11th I'll have more updated information how did we come up with this recommended budget connecting with our community the mission and the core values of the district senior staff discussion and goals Board of Education values and goals and Community input budget at wcsdny.org again we value your input if we're going to move forward together we need to be working together throughout this budgetary process to craft this most important budget tax levy I mentioned these numbers before the tax levy increase is 1.67 percent the budget increase from budget to
030budget is 7.86 and again the budget tax levy increase is below the tax cap and the budget to budget increase is below the current Consumer Price Index so what is a 7.86 budget to budget increase mean to our taxpayers again it's our responsibility to provide a budget that continues to support the programs and services that our students need and to be fiscally responsible to our taxpayers so the tax levy increase which is the good news 1.67 percent more good news since the district is proposed to receive increased Aid under the budget and is also utilizing the fund balance the budget to budget increase of 7.86 is not necessarily the responsibility of the taxpayers so this year you know that we have hired counselors mental health professionals nurses we want to ensure that we have people
031there to work with our students who are suffering from the results of the pandemic this year I am proposing the K-8 special education initiative and what does that include it includes that in six of our elementary schools we currently have a shared kindergarten grade one special education teacher and each of them working in that situation and I say situation nicely it's not working it needs to be fixed so what we're going to do is we are going to add six Elementary special education teachers one for Vassar Road one for chief Road one for Myers Corners one for official planes one for Dad and one for brinkoff which will help us to personalize the educational experience for each and every one of those students in the classroom that is important not more than ever also Watkins
032Junior High School in Van white Junior High School they have a shared assistant director for special education for two junior high schools two large junior high schools unacceptable especially with the amount of students that we are seeing that need these essential services due to the volume of students in differentiated needs of the students both Wappingers Junior High School and Van white Junior High School will each have one dedicated assistant director of special education to provide for smaller case loads which again will enhance the ability to provide personalized educational services to our students the caseloads were too high this will bring these numbers down a bit and will allow the programs to be much more effective so how does this all look those additional 10 positions for the K-8 special education initiative which includes teachers assistant
033directors and sports uh and support staff excuse me I'm recommending that they be paid out of the fund balance not by the taxpayer we have an addition of two positions for our upk program and a director of early childhood education and based upon the amount of students that we now have in our upk program which is around over 300. we need to make sure we have a nurse available for those individuals kind of important so we're going to add that as well we're also going to add one special education teacher at the elementary level school security officers and monitors at John Jay High School to assist with the beautiful new drop-off and Patriot Way We want to make sure that it continues to be safe that it's utilized and it continues to relieve the congestion
034that we have seen in the Route 52 Corridor especially at arrival and dismissal times this one's important converting from contract service providers to wcsd service providers so these services were subcontracted out with another agency at one point in time we need these to be part and parcel of what we do on a daily basis with our employees so when you look at this we will now have six staff which will include speech teachers physical and occupational therapy staff these are not new positions we are shifting them from service providers to Wappinger Central School school service staff converting the public information officer from part-time to full-time we need to ensure that we communicate with our community and it has been very very obvious that we need somebody there full-time as opposed to part-time to make sure
035we get the correct information up in a timely and inaccurate manner converting 10 bus driver positions in one Courier from part-time to full-time the addition of one special education counselor to assist with the increased reporting and expenditure processing in that department New York state district level budget um building project work as needed continued funding for junior high welding rooms again we've talked about the importance of technical education and we are committed to that here in Wappingers to the extent that we're able to so if we take a look at this graph and you've seen this before and you look at 17 18 through this year uh I mentioned this last year you you saw last year that we came in under the cap for the first time since the Inception of the tax cap 12
036years ago this year we're going to do the same thing 2.05 we're coming in at 1.67 . where does our Revenue come from 64 comes from the proposed tax levy 64.85 32.53 proposed New York state aid 1.31 fund balance taxpayers fund balance K-8 special education initiative 0.42 and other Revenue 0.89 sure can I add just one interesting thing about this piece you can add as much as you like sure as a result of the increased Foundation Aid that we'll be receiving from New York State you'll see that that amount percentage there is 32.53 in Prior years it averages around 24 so that means that shift in the proposed Levy used to be 72 percent so now the levy is is showing a reduced Reliance on the taxpayer and an increased Reliance on the state aid
037that has been reinstated for the 23-24 year and I think that's important to note and I need to thank all of our state legislators now more than ever for going to bat for Education going to bat for kids and going to bed for schools we have noticed over the last couple of years that the state aid has increased which obviously means that the tax levy for our taxpayers has decreased where do we expend money well we are a people business we work with people we have 10 300 students and we have another 1800 staff 49.71 of our budget is spent on salaries 33.71 benefits 6.60 spent on BOCES programs which are extremely important and we value our partnership with Dutchess BOCES contractual 8.31 supplies 1.59 textbooks .03 equipment and that's an important number to look
038at look how much we spend on equipment it's a misnomer that some people think we spend an exorbitant amount of our budget on equipment .05 again financially responsible and providing providing the services necessary and programs for our students expenses by category 52.67 instruction 33.40 was undistributed and as I always will ask Miss Crandall can you talk a little bit about that sure so as as people business and we are in the business of in uh providing instructions so 52.6 over half of our budget is allocated to that specific purpose the undistributed portion of that budget of 33.4 that includes all the benefits related to our staff whether they are in a union bargaining agreement or under individual contract in addition to that we have to pay um on our long-term debt so included in that
039undistributed number added to those benefits is that long-term debt that we pay for the capital projects in the past and our bus purchases so thank you Miss Crandall and I think it's important again and I stated this last year well some of 0.93 General support we spent six percent of our budget on Transportation which is available to every student if they wish to take District transportation that's extremely important if my math is correct off the top of my head that comes out to close to about 16 and a half million dollars that we spend on our transportation department correct yes sir okay I think that shows the investment that we have in our transportation department and in our employees and we want to see it stay that way because we realize how important it is
040as you do know we are the largest district-owned Transportation uh we have the largest district-owned Transportation Department in New York state the eight districts that are larger than us makes subcontract with another service divider provider our community has been very very vocal and we are in agreement with our community that we want Wappingers Personnel picking up Wappinger students and taking them to school and transporting them home that will continue so what to expect next questions comments feedback budget wcsdny.org presentations of reports are posted to the board of ed section of the website frequently asked questions posted to website within two business days educational updates are sent to the Learning Community when necessary the legislative action committee board approved goal for continued advocacy not to lose any New York State funding and as I thanked our
041local state officials I also need to thank our legislative action committee and the board members and the community members that serve on that for again fighting for kids and fighting for schools community and municipality presentations to share the budget and continue the course to maintain a safe learning environment for all of our students and staff as I mentioned uh the next presentation and again these started back in November uh on the 11th I I fully expect that there will be a state aid update and there will be a recommended budget that I will present to the board for recommendation um based upon the final numbers that we get uh on the 17th there'll be a budget adoption then on May 2nd Community presentation and then we have the community Forum the state mandated public hearing
042on the budget and the budget vote is May 16th so again I want to thank our entire Community for sending in their thoughts and their suggestions in regards to the budget and what you as members of our community believe that the students in our community need and deserve we want to thank you for that and again we look forward to moving forward together and with that that concludes my presentation thank you [Applause] [Music] thank you director y are there any questions on the board member Eddie Miss dainty just a quick question um our contributions to the state for Medicaid is that significantly increase at all Medicare Medicare Medicare contribution sure so we do have um your responsibilities we have the standard payroll deduction and then we also which has not changed but then we also
043have a reimbursement that we do provide to our retirees and that number is included in our health insurance budget lines those numbers have climbed significantly for multiple reasons number one the rate has increased the reimbursement rate that we're required to we have retirees who are living longer and living larger so that's great and that adds to our costs so we pay those semi-annually and those have significantly increased over the past few years we do see a slow down on that rate increase for next year remember that next year means December of 2020 December of 2023 however the numbers are still exponentially growing so that we make these reimbursement payments too and we had a very interesting thing just to just go on a side note we have been reconciling outstanding checks and we noticed that
044we had quite a few outstanding checks of these Medicaid reimbursement Medicare reimbursements excuse me I did the same thing so uh we know we found out actually that there was a couple of past employees as their souls who had passed but their families never notified us so we continue to pay health insurance we continue to make these Medicare reimbursements and thankfully through Duchess educational health insurance Consortium and working with the families we were able to recoup funds that we had paid for deceased past members of our of our district Cheryl I just want to make a comment um even without my having spoken to you I want to thank you for accomplishing two things that I was going to ask you to do one is as a long-time advocate for special education I'm thrilled that
045we are going to have full-time special Educators in our primary grades and also thinking about the taxpayers in this climate and I'm glad to see that you were able to shave a little bit off of what is going to be the tax levy Republican John president and just to Echo what uh trusting me it's just uh just said so since or over the course of the past month um based on an increase in stating the budget to budget increase uh increased by approximately 870 thousand dollars um but the levy to Levy what will come out of uh property taxes uh only increased just shy of uh three hundred thousand dollars so um thank you for that and and if we should be so fortunate as to receive more Aid um than is uh current budgeted
046or anticipated to be budgeted um I I for one would like to see that that Webby shape uh yet further as a as a percentage wherever possible um and thank you for that and for the work that uh that assistant superintendent teachers put into this uh with you Dr Bach I get it yes uh thank you for uh keeping the tax levy increase down to the the minimum considering the Consumer Price Index is eight percent uh uh taxpayers have to face inflation when the whenever you go to the uh whenever you go to the grocery store you're shocked at the prices at uh utility bills are up and so on so this is a way of easing the burden on them thank you I had a question about the uh K uh one special ad
047uh you listed six elementary schools um what is being done at the others at the other elementary schools that have K1 I'm going to bring in Mr zip so much thank you um we're adding another self-contained class of fiscal Flames didn't realize last year we had a two teachers at Henry for the self-complaint language-based class so that was built last year I don't tell them that the six teachers being brought in and having to go to first grade class so each class is going to have a devoted special education teacher So currently in that model there's a teacher that floats between the two grades and the teacher assistant that also supports but moving forward each class is going to have internal education teacher the other three schools you know the other three schools don't have
048the initiative they're just self-contained programs right so that's why I was a little confused and what do I ask yeah so those programs are not are not offered at those schools correctly so I say yeah currently sure sorry sorry Marie basically I I to to finish out that those are ICT classes so in the cave one there it's a Kindergarten class or a first grade class and they're sharing that one special ed teacher for the day and this way they would each have one so that's where that happens so it's not actually a self-contained it's a it's an ICT classic organic yes I was aware of that but I thought in the community should have an explanation as to why Ron that was done at six schools rather than at all of them first of
049all thank you to the superintendent Christian Tory presentation and I too like to commend the superintendent for putting those special ed teachers okay one it's a long time coming sharing special ed teachers two classes today was not acceptable so I'm glad the superintendent took initially put those particular teachers in those positions so thank you if if I can just say the reason that I'm able to do that is due to the support of the sport of education and the fact that we have a fund balance that is in excess of what the state controller says we should have in it well because of our budgeting and the planning that we've done over the past three years we now have those Monies to be able to do these types of things and you can expect to
050see more of this with the fund balance which is monies that are added discretion of the Board of Education in the school district based on what we're hearing from our staff in the community that we need if that fund balance wasn't there and we followed the suggested spending model from the state controller to add those positions back would go in the general budget and would be the responsibility of the taxpayers so I just wanted to explain publicly I know I've spoken about this once before the fact that our fund balance is where it is I think speaks to the planning and the work that has been done to ensure that when we find programs that we need as we evaluate these programs over a period of time and find that they can be more effective
051we have the resources to be able to put into them to fix them so I just wanted to make that statement thank you I'll give you the comments see now 606.1 it says that the resolution does anybody want to quote any audience on the agenda see them thank you result that the board of education does hereby approve the following consent agenda items as stated 6.02 6.03 with addendum 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 6.12 and 6.13 ocean Jimmy anonymous 7.1 approval legal notice for May 223 budget vote and board members election resolve that the board of education does hereby approve the legal notice for the May 16 2023 budget vote and board member election as stated sure and especially all in favor unanimous 7.02 and approval of transfer agreement break off logo whereas
052the board of education has reviewed the proposed transfer agreement for a local design for Brinkerhoff Elementary School and Finds Its terms acceptable to the school district now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education hereby approves the transfer agreement authorizing the transfer of all intellectual property rights at the Brinkerhoff logo to the Wappinger Central School District and further authorizes the board president to execute the attached transfer agreement on behalf of the Board of Education via further resolve that the board of education does hereby approve the new Brinkerhoff logo and does hereby waived the first reading and adopts the revision to exhibit 526081 official marks effective March 28 2023 as requested by principal Dominique okay motion discussion Eddie I just had one little question on the logo itself that was obviously created by an outside
053entity a panic or a Community member that is asking us and is willing to transfer their intellectual property over to us it looks a little bit like the Denver Broncos from the National Football League I was just concerned if that may or may not be an issue utilizing the similarity of it whether that person actually created it themselves or used a little bit of the imagery from the Denver Broncos so I don't I don't know if that's an issue or not I don't I don't know how how that was looked at I just don't want anything to you know if we're accepting imagery that I don't know if it's copyright protected from the Denver Broncos or not or that individual actually created it themselves or not it just looks a little bit perhaps we just
054wait until next time if everyone has had a chance to look at it and then look at what the Denver Bronco logo is I just like to get clarity that we're not accepting something that may already have some copyright Mr lokima you've been involved in this would you be able to speak to this issue thank you it is my belief that it is a unique work of art and it is different than the Denver Broncos logo okay all right thank you I just want to give a clarification because it just caught my eye baby there is going to be some similarity to it it's not an exact country like indicates all those in favor raise your hands unanimous 7.03 second reading you know about your policies we solved at the Board of Education hereby improves
055the second rating on and adopts the following policies based upon the first reading by the board and the recommendation of the policy committee effective July 1st 2023. discussion uh I would just like to mention that some changes were made after the first reading at the policy committee and stated in my report I just wanted to point out that we didn't put that this normally when we do a second reading on a policy it's effective the next day this one is effective July 1st there's a lot of training that as Pedro has to do with staff across the district to implement some of the changes so the existing policy will still be in in effect until June 30th at midnight this will take effect July 1st but then um they'll also be given a copy of
056this much farther in advance so that they'll be able to have questions but I wanted everyone to be aware that it's not until July 1st due to training John it's quite a funny question trustee Johnson is that for all four of the policies or is that for 1500 e okay thank you thank you Ms Pedro for your hard work that you will be doing thank you 7.04 are you all in favor and I was 7.04 approval to retire policy 5100-84 we saw that the board of education does hereby retire policy 1500 E4 rules and regulations so Community use of District facilities as all items of this policy were incorporated into policy 1500r and 150083 after review by The District School District's attorney and is recommended by the members of the policy committee effective July 1st
0572023. motion Maria second Cheryl special John so just to be clear in line with with what I just asked if are are we gonna so this change will also become effective July 1st to line up with the others thank you some of the changes that we're putting into place in the other policies that affect July 1st will then make these two null and void because it's double writing it so they don't become as useful any longer so therefore it's having in two places that's not needed that's why all right all those in favor unanimous 8.01 uh board members May request this for Jennifer Adams discussion any addition to the agenda so then uh has anybody sign up for the comments it's on camera [Music] please dear Wappinger School District board members my name is Karen
058swagoda and I have put my children through Wappingers School District from cage her seniors in high school child abuse and attacks are on the rise they are all around us last week in Hilton New York there was a bomb threat against schools over a book in their Library in Carmel last month a group of students threatened to shoot other students because they were black today in Nashville children were again gunned down by someone while at school at this very moment in Wappingers students who are members of the gay straight Alliance that John Jay are being attacked online by adults in this community and recently a death threat was made to their principal I watched the video of this board's last board meeting and I was happy to hear that we have so many wonderful clubs
059in our schools including the Honor Society the chess club the GSA and praying Patriots I've always been happy to have my children at a place where there is such an active student body today somehow I find myself standing before you asking that you stake definitively and for the record that you support the gay Street Alliance student Club at John Jay and that you understand that the children in that high school club are neither pedophiles nor groomers of toddlers I'm forced to do this because in online website run by portal assembly men cared in Lalor recently published a post stating that the GSA Club had during the winter the school's Winter Carnival decorated their Booth with pride Flags insinuating there was somehow this was somehow to encourage young children to change their gender the message was
060absurd but quickly reverberated online with absurd adult groups specifically orange and Dutchess County moms for Liberty extremist organizations the Facebook pages of these two groups shared identical posts applauding this article I have spoken with several of you privately and appreciate your words of support tonight I ask that you share this support with the other parents and children in this District I appreciate that handful of members of our community are making it difficult for you to take such a stand but it is more difficult for parents in the district to send their children to a school where these children are under attacks by adults within the community I'm asking you to do the right thing again today again not to me privately but vocally in front of the children and parents who need to hear it
061most show your support of all your students and stand in solidarity with your minority students and marginalized students and state for the record that the students in the John Jay gay straight Alliance Club are what they are good people and great kids who should be praised for their excellent work in the Wappingers School District I want to see if there is one of you among you who will speak in their defense tonight thank you [Music] I think hello welcome to Central School Districts I'm sorry um hello welcome to your Central School District my name is Ava I'm an 18 year old high school senior I live in the welcome to school district I'm a member of students defending democracy one of my siblings is in the Gay Street Alliance Club Montreal admission to post on
062social media that said the kids in that club are groomers I would look the board to say out loud that you know that there are no students in this club that are groomers I think it's sad that I have to ask this but I hope you do it tonight thank you very much [Applause] great ER board members tall I just wanted to read a letter from Lisa Papa now to you um with an offer my name is Lisa and I'm a licensed medical health professional practicing in communities for over a decade my work includes providing therapeutic services to youth who have experienced trauma I'm writing to you as clinician and Community member in support of Youth and their families to address the rhetoric the large community members specifically groups such as monitor Liberty and former
063State assemblyman here in Atlanta this group and individual is persistently targeting Youth and Educators by referring to the John Jay GSA club members as predators and groomers as well as supporting hate toward an lgbtq 1A plus Youth and their family members the second language in ideology not only increases the risk of mental health disorders but also self-warm and suicide the sport has been asked for the huge burden at this moment to protect the children within school systems from overgrowing and increasingly aggressive bullying by adults I would like to offer my services again this is Lisa popping up to give a represent a presentation to this board regarding grooming and the effects that such language has on our youth my concern is that this will not stop at the children of gay parents or gay students
064but will soon extend the bullying of students of color students with disabilities and students of differing religions I offer my help to you in-kind in an effort to support you during this difficult time thank you for the good work you're doing my name and number will be sent to you over email so that we can possibly schedule a conversation privately regarding this important issue sincerely Lisa pop Antonio m-a-l-c-a-t ACR BC thank you Karen Hawkins [Music] oh good evening board members my name is Karen Hawkins and I'm an educator and the parent of an lgbtq Plus student in our district and I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you all tonight um we moved here pretty recently uh less than two years and we know this District to be a warm and welcoming Community I've said
065this to you all before we know this because school events like John Jay High School's Winter Carnival include all student groups that wish to participate groups like the gay straight Alliance which is a support group for lgbtq plus students and their allies I appreciate that this group and others like it in our school district are included right just like any other student group like a sports team or an art club or an Honor Society my family my neighbors and I recognize that in this increasingly divisive political climate you as board members may be feeling pressure from some in our community to respond to issues that you may not feel prepared to discuss such as the appropriateness of school groups that exist to support students who may be seen as different I want to assure you
066that you are a community supports you in your efforts to maintain this District as a welcoming and inclusive educational community as an educator I know these pressures are real because I experience them as well although I don't work in this District and I want to encourage you to continue and to strengthen your commitment to serving all students in this District if there is interest among your members and how to respond I would encourage your Educators administrators and Librarians who are on the front lines and helping all students to feel safe and hard and communicated with families Community groups such as defensive democracy and the judges the Dutchess County Pride Center which are both local and Community Based are well equipped to provide talking points on the importance of inclusion and representation in local educational policy
067decisions um thank you for your time and for your ongoing support of all of our children thanks thank you Adam Rubenstein [Music] good evening I'm Adam Rubinstein I'm president and one of the co-founders of the Dutchess County Pride Center I'm a physician of internal medicine and Pediatrics and Wappingers Falls and I'm a father of two lgbtq plus children as a representative of the pride Center I'd like to say that representation is important seeing others who are like you living as a true selves it's not only needed but is necessary for those who say that young children are too impressionable I would counter that with numerous examples and studies that show that even elementary school children are aware of their own feelings about themselves no one can turn someone else gay or make a question their
068gender these are internal processes that cannot be influenced externally as a physician I can cite many studies that show how lack of support for the LGBT lgbtq plus children are harmful transgender teenagers have been up to 40 percent suicide attempt rate if they did not have support at home fully four times higher than that was cisgender heterosexual team of the same age in this time when state governments across this country are actively legislating against the lgbtq plus Community these kids need the love and support of our schools community and most importantly your families and neighbors make no mistake using homophobic hate speech against these students is actively harming them as a parent I can't fathom how other parents or adults can accuse a child of being a groomer which let's face it is a code
069word for predator and insane speech we're supposed to support these kids not bully them especially at a time when they are so vulnerable holding rainbow Flags is not influence sexuality or gender the rainbow represents love and acceptance something we should all be striving for thank you I'd like to also say that the pride Center is more than ready willing and able to come into your schools do any kind of training for administrators Educators we're already doing it in the beacon City School District and we're working on setting it up at the Dover uh District as well please do not hesitate to reach out to us we are having to do this thank you thank you for your comments to support the TSA normally as the second coming period of Germany tonight I'll be an exception
070there will always be individuals or groups that cause Force misleading and hateful statements regarding some group of students and what the property centers occurs stands for the same individuals or groups no matter how strong and one disagrees and find their new support will continue smiling negativity innate to some members of a student body because they are different from them I also take a moment to remind everyone what we do as a district and who we do it for our responsibility to all students of our district and times to be living goes beyond academics school systems are responsible to meet the educational emotional as well as social needs of all our students these are important responsibilities for all of us and there's no other no other choice but to ensure you are serving all our students
071in any way we can we cannot allow we must not allow a student raise religion ethnicity culture place of origin or economic status or their identity to stand in a way of serving them this is important in the classroom and simply important to an extracurricular activities as their partner of the entire package in Regional goals ensure that all our students have access for free and appropriate education it is important that we complete this task that we do it in partnership with parents Guardians family members and the community only when we act together for the time for the benefit of our students no matter their race religion ethnicity culture place a larger for their identity can be fulfilled our mission statement namely to empower all our students with their competencies and confidence to challenge themselves to
072pursue their passion and realize what their potential for growing as responsible members of our community there's no one here on stage with things differently or does not support what I just stated everybody want to add to that any questions Joe I do want to add something every meeting people see us up here vocalizing our support for individual groups of students whether we go to an Honor Society abduction or a team sporting event I would also like to reach out to the JSA and the pride club and please extend invitations like other student organizations to those of us who are up here so that we have an opportunity to attend your events and support you publicly Dr Rubenstein is my child's doctor and he and his wife have issued me an invitation to their uh their
073pasta dinner coming up I intend to be there I also intend to be at the pride parade to support one of my students from this semester at Duchess and I would welcome attending any events sponsored by either the GSA or the pride Club Chad just point point of information that is the is the statement that you just read that you want it on record is the the point of information I have is is the statement that you just read anything different than what has been expressed at the last two board meetings uh since and as a follow-up to the uh the John Jay Winter Carnival which is organized by the John Jay Student Government absolutely John you've been a Leicester that step forward means the specifically of spoken application and so they're not superintendent so
074that's been vocalized before so this is not a change it's just a more explicit acknowledgment that's very good thank you are there any other comments Jim I'd just like to say that I'm proud of the GSA Club and what they stand for and as a recipient of the Lost Ally award 2019 given to me by the law of lgbtq Center White Plains I stand with GSA thank you any of the comments obviously I'm sorry go ahead other organizations that are work are dedicated to an uh acceptance of everyone and greater uh recognition and understanding of the diversity of people's identity uh I certainly agree I have attended a number of workshops and presentations on on these subjects and we can continue I think everyone on this board up here is in total support of all
075our students we are thrilled to have so many diverse clubs and want to give them recognition if whenever they do something that will um would be appropriate for a superintendent Spotlight or for us to come to your events so thank you for what you do and uh I will welcome any invitations as well thank you and as trustee Spencer said I also support the club and I thank everyone on the stage supports the club if you could recall we unanimously approve the club unanimously approve the club no questions nothing so I think we all support the club I think you should feel comfortable with that uh and know that we do support this club at all times and again if you have any opportunities to invite us to support the club where we could be
076present we will gladly do so thank you are there any other comments see none electric motion to a journey meeting second three all in favor you know thank you for coming all right