001Please stand for the pledge. >> 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. >> Apologies for starting a little late. We always seem to have a little extra work to do. We got through it and I think we can get to this famous I mean famous uh district-wide celebration. Um Does anybody have any board announcements? Um well, I'll just share. It's It's such a pleasure to see these kids uh running out of Cottage Lane and being so excited for this weather and getting uh ice cream down at Buddy's and pizza at Giovanni's and uh and knowing that, you know, this year uh we've all come a long way. A lot of work
002has been put into uh this year, a lot of hard work um from all of you out there, a lot of volunteering. Um so, I just want to thank you all for that. Uh we can move on to superintendent's announcements. >> Good evening, everyone. Thanks for all being here. So, normally at board meetings I do superintendent highlights. I do have some highlights to share. Um I have to cuz it's important that we highlight all the stuff that the kids are doing, the great things that are happening in our district. I also want to thank Dr. Joe Lloyd, our assistant superintendent for human resources, for putting this night together and his entire department. They have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to make this night happen. So, thank you, Joe. So, our spring concerts have been
003a huge success. We're looking forward to the last concert, which will happen uh by our fifth graders this Monday evening. Last night's sports grade concert performance was outstanding. Thank you to our talented students, by the way, music teachers and Al Green, Ken Harper, and uh uh Maheed Collie, uh our orchestra teacher. Travis High School hosted their spring concerts, which were well attended by everyone by the way. Um huge uh thank you to Travis High School music department, uh Robert Bennett, uh Douglas Kent, Russell Wagner for all of their hard work. Our SoBots uh robotics team, 6911, during the last week of April traveled to Houston, Texas for the first robotics championship, showcasing showcasing their technical skills and teamwork on a global stage. This year's robot, Icarus, and the team achieved their best score of the
004season, ranking 40th out of 70 teams in the Galileo division with a high score of 538. While they didn't advance to the final playoffs, their overall performance demonstrated demonstrated their hard work and communication. The team's success wasn't just measured in rankings. Their outreach shared their passion for STEM by presenting details of the 45 various STEM events they hosted or participated over in over the past 3 years. Their efforts earned them the engineering inspiration award at the Hudson Valley Regionals in March, which is an honor contributed to their qualification to the world championship in Houston. This award recognized their outreach, teamwork, and commitment to promoting STEM education. In addition, one of the team's mentors, who's been mentoring the team for 9 years, was awarded the prestigious Woody Flowers Award for his dedication in mentoring the team,
005and that is Joey Badway. So, congratulations to Joey. So, this time of year, we have a lot of honor society inductions, and last night the Somers French Honor recognized 45 new and returning members. The Spanish Honor Society hosted their first-ever induction ceremony, where they recognized 110 7th and 8th graders. The Tappan Zee High School Tri-M Music Honor Society inducted nine new members and honored its 31 existing members during during their annual Honor Society induction. The South Orangetown Middle School Excelsior Chapter of the National Junior Honor Society recently inducted 75 new members and honored current ones in grade 8 during its annual ceremony. And the Tappan Zee High School Computer Honor Society last week recognized 24 new inductees and returning members during their annual ceremony. Additionally, SOBAHS celebrated their seniors' post-graduation plans during their annual first
006signing day. It was really great to be there and see how many of our seniors are going on to pursue engineering and computer science majors and jobs after high school. Moving on to athletics, Tappan Zee High School Girls Track and Field are the Section 1 Class B champions. Congratulations to Head Coach Pat Driscoll and Assistant Coaches Trish Arny Gucci, Bob Faber, Raul Madera, and Anne Marie Gerolla. Also in athletics, we had our annual signing day at the end of the year. We had a record-breaking 33 senior student athletes from our Dutchmen athletics program that we celebrated on signing day. And they are all going on to play sports in college. 33 student senior athletes. So, congratulations. Recently, I had the pleasure of attending Cottage Lane Elementary School's annual character education assembly, which focused on Memorial
007Day and honored Gold Star families. Every year, Cottage Lane Elementary School partners with Vetiquette, which is a program that teaches children about the sacrifices of veterans with Project Patriot assemblies, during which Gold Star families tell their stories. Leading up to the assemblies, each class learned about a fallen service member, and they created a quilt honoring their memory as inspired by their life story and character traits. Uh one of our teachers also made an American flag in honor of the 250th anniversary, which was presented at the assembly. The quilts were gifted to the respective Gold Star families following the assembly. I just want to give a shout out and thank you to Maureen Kelly. She created this program many years ago at Patchogue Elementary School, which then moved to Cottage Lane. Thank you to Dr. Strough
008and Dr. Page for continuing the the help the program. Um every year, it's just amazing to go and and to be there. So, thank you for that. The Metro Awards uh were just held. The Patchogue Players' spring 2026 musical Grease is now a two-time Metropolitan High School Theatre Awards nomination nominated production. So, congratulations and best of luck um to Anna H., who was Marty as outstanding comedic performing performance by a female-identifying performer, and Max B., Patrick B., and Eugene Page for outstanding performance by a student orchestra. We also had Project Invent in Manhattan, um which is a part of our computer science program, and students from the computer science science capstone class attended uh Demo Day in New York City. They had three teams present their projects, including Sew 'n Vents with Way to Go,
009which is an application for helping with transportation, uh Team SO with their product Reach and team Synergy with their product SEA cards. Um and team SO Solutions won the product pivot award at the graduation, so all of them. All right, so I have some um comments that I'm going to make at the end of tonight's meeting, but there are two people here that I'm going to speak about that are students and they have to get up early tomorrow because they go to school. And they're sitting at the table. I was going to wait and tell you at the end of tonight, but to say something about each of them, but I want to make sure you guys get out of here at a reasonable hour, so I'm just going to do it now. I'll start
010with Jaywon Che, who's sitting almost at the end of the table. I already introduced everyone to Jaywon. So this year, I don't know if you're all aware, it was the first year that New York State, in every school district across the state, and that's over 700 school districts, has student board members as a part of the board of education. And this is the first year in South Orangetown that we've had student board members. It was a welcome opportunity for us, and I will just say that it has exceeded all of my expectations. We have learned so much from both from Jaywon and Miriam. I'll just say a little bit um about Jaywon. He has done an amazing job representing the voices of more than 2,800 students. We have gotten to know each other pretty well,
011and I'm forever grateful for the time he has volunteered, and even more grateful for how he motivated me to be at my best for our students and families. In the fall, Jaywon Jaywon will be attending Yale University. I just want to wish him good luck and to thank him for his service on the board of education. All right. I'll take a picture. him. And our other student board member, we are George. Standing at the end of the table is a junior. And I want to thank Miriam who has also served on the South Orange Town Board of Education this year as a student officer. Miriam is a junior and plans on continuing serving on the Board of Education during her senior year. So, thank you for all for you to do that. I've also gotten
012to know Miriam and she's been an inspiration to me and many others to do our very best for our students and family. Miriam addresses the forces shaping our schools every day, always funding and the future. Earlier this year, Miriam spoke at our Board of Education meeting about federal and state aid for our district along with the challenge to close the budget gap when we face a 2% tax levy every year and she shared how um reductions can negatively impact staffing programs and bullying student support. She wrote to Governor Hochul, to Congresswoman Lawler, to tons of politicians advocating for public education and proper funding for New York State public schools. And we are very proud of Miriam. Want to share her voice with those who can make legislative changes that puts students first. So, thank you
013for supporting student participation on the Board of Education and for ensuring that student voices continue to be heard across our state. And I have a plaque for you also. Let's take a picture real quick. Oops. You guys can get up real quick. Should we come out on the floor? You got to come stand up. You can stand up. >> All right, so one more round of applause for Bayonne and Board. I have spent many nights at board meetings, so I'm really happy that they get to go home a little bit earlier tonight. All right, so sorry for that. I know it was a little long-winded, but I think one of my earlier than that includes my superintendent report. >> Okay, so we can just finish up with this meeting. We just have our consent agenda,
014so I will make a motion to approve consent agenda categories 6 through 9. >> So >> And I have a second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Tracy. All in favor? >> Aye. >> Excellent. Motion