001Hey everyone, meeting call to order at 7:31 p.m. Roll call. Myself, Diana Corbel, Katie Graino, and Rob Coleman. All here. Please rise for the pledge. >> 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. Well, once again, good evening everyone. Um, very excited to have our student members on the board tonight uh for their first time. Um it's it's it's really exciting because um over the summer I got the chance to speak to other districts that already had students on their board and the way um the students get to contribute and the way that um it really supports the district was amazing to hear and I'm really excited for it. So are there any
002board announcements? Okay, we can move on to superintendent announcements. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you, Mr. Finn. So, I'll begin with superintendent highlights starting with South Orangetown Central School District, Tapenzee High School, and South Orangetown Middle School have all placed first in the county in their respective categories of the recently released 2026th niche best school rankings. We were also ranked number 11 in the entire Hudson Valley. So, we're very proud of those rankings. I also want to echo Mr. Finn sentiments in welcoming Jaywan Chay and Miriam George to the board of education as exofficio members. Jaywan and Miriam had an opportunity to attend a training session at Rockland Boseies with superintendent and board members from around the county. They also had an opportunity to zoom with students and districts from across the state. We had
003an opportunity to meet a few weeks ago at Tapenzy High School just to talk about their role and also Mr. Brady and I met with them again this week to further define their role, answer some questions they had, and they will be very involved this year in helping us create and implement the student survey for the school community survey we're administering this spring. So, welcome Jaywan and Miriam. We're really happy to have you aboard. [Applause] We had our 2026 National Merit Scholarship Competition. Congratulations to Tapenzy High School seniors Lucas Wittk, Kaen Yei, Thomas McKenna, and Shaun Hang. They were semi- finalists in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Competition. Over 1.3 million students enter this competition every year by taking the preliminary SAT National Merit Scholarship qualifying test during their junior year of high school. Semi-finalists,
00416,000 are the highest scoring entrance from each state and represent less than 1% of graduating 12th graders, advance in the competition for merit scholarship awards, and are considered for finalist status. So, well done and congratulations to those students. An additional 13 Tapenzy High School seniors were also recently recognized in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Competition. Congratulation to Congratulations to Sophie Baranti, Thomas Campanella, Jaywan Chay, Benjamin Deia, Freya Ferrari, Esther Wang, Elise Quan, Dominic Masiello, Grace Moresy, Emma O'Keefe, Ferank Valz, Julia Joerger, and Aaron Yun. They were named commended students, and of the 1.3 million entrance, these individuals contribute to more than 2/3 34,000 of the high school scorers in the competition. Congratulations to all of our students. [Applause] Moving on to music, we had our NISSMA Allstate and Area All State uh competition and six
005Tabenzy High School students along with one alternate have been named Allstate selections in the upcoming December 4th through 7th New York State School Music Association's Winter Conference in Rochester. Congratulations to Allison Latimer, Luca Daro, Neil Oza, Delia Spiegelman, Lucas Wittk, Esther Wang, and Sha Han. Additionally, we have 16 Tapenzy High School students who've been selected to perform in the upcoming 2025 New York State School Music Association's NISMA Allstate Festival in New Windsor on November 21st. And these individuals from Tapenzy High School were chosen based on their high-ranking NISMA scores. Congratulations to Shan Han, Esther Wang, Lucas Wittk, Elise Moon, Haley Jung, Neil Oza, Dillia Spiegelman, Emily Lee, Ella Adamo, Natalie Apante, Miriam George, Vivian Schustman, Luca Daro, Sabrina Guzman, and Allison Latimer. See Jaywan and Miriam, you get to hear your names now now that
006you're at the meeting. We also had uh as we do every year the Blavvelt Sons of Italy Italian feast and on September 21st we had 32 South Orangetown Middle School and Tapenzy High School Italian Club and Honor Society members along with advisers Christina Nielsen, Maria Bruno and Victoria Conway dance the Tarantella at the annual Blavvelt Sons of Italy Italian feast. Something that I've done many years ago. The recent performance marks their 15th performance at the annual festival. It's always nice that we're represented there by our Italian club and students. I'm glad they had the opportunity to go. It was great weather. We also had last week Tunnel to the Towers 911 never forget mobile exhibit. And Tapid High School students in grades 9 through 12 visited the Tunnel to Towers Never Forget Mobile mobile exhibit
007during their social studies classes. Upon entering the 1100 square foot space, students guided by retired members of the New York City Fire Department and other first responders who were at ground zero on September 11, 2001 had the opportunity to interact with history. Moving from room to room, they viewed artifacts and videos, listened to dispatch audio, and bore witness to the retelling of countless stories of bravery and sacrifice, including that of Steven Siller, whom the Tunnel Up to Towers Foundation honors. This visit was made possible through a generous donation from the 911 education foundation. I had the opportunity to go and visit with some of the kids. It was an amazing experience. Awesome to have that come to our campus. We had over 900 students throughout two days be able to go through that uh exhibit
008and I know Mr. Finn, you had an opportunity also to come over and I want to just take this opportunity to thank Dr. Arietta because if it weren't for him and coordinating all this and reaching out uh we wouldn't have had that exhibit here this year. So thanks Rudy. It was really a great experience for our kids. And finally, our field trips are underway. Cottage Lane Elementary School fifth graders recently visited the Hudson River Field Station on the Piermont Pier with Lamont Darity, Earth Observatory Scientists, to study the river's water chemistry and the diverse species for which it is a habitat. Our next trip will be William O'Hafer Elementary School students are headed to the Maritime Aquarium in Norwok later this month. And now I'm going to move on to our presentations. So our PTA
009president's uh report, they couldn't be here tonight, although I think I saw someone um just come in, but this this came from Laura Schwab. So I'll just read it. Uh and she says, "Brian, if you wouldn't mind sharing." So, please save the date for Sosi's Fall Fest. That will be held on Saturday, November 1st at William Osha Elementary School from 12 to 3:00 p.m. Again, that's Fall Fest Saturday, November 1st at William Osha from 12 to 3. Please join the PTA. All members will be entered into a raffle to win a $25 Rail Trail gift card, and the winner will be chosen at the October 16th PTA meeting. All right. So, at this time, we're going to transition to our district goals presentation. >> Do you want to do public? Go ahead. You can do
010that first. Sorry. I apologize. We're going to go to public commentary and then the presentation. >> No worries. No worries. All right. So, we'll move to public commentary and then we'll get to the presentations. Public commentary. Make sure we have someone signed up. >> Yep. Sorry. >> No worries. There's lots of good news coming up in those presentations. >> All right. >> Okay. Protocol for public commentary is as follows. All opinions are heard. Everyone should be an active listener. Each person is responsible for his or her behavior. Respect diverse perspectives. Be conscious of your speaking time and tone. A limit of three minutes is an appropriate time frame to state your issue. Speakers may not give unused time to other speakers. Issues of specific personnel, either positive or negative, cannot be discussed at board meetings.
011References, comments, or discussion that does or may identify a specific student or students by name or situation, will not be discussed publicly due to FURPA law. Issues pertaining to specific students should be addressed privately with the student's teacher, principal, or school counselor in accordance with policy 1400, public concerns, before bringing the issue to the superintendent's attention. The board reserves a right to close comments on an issue if residents become unruly or disrespectful or if the topic is something that the board is legally unable to discuss in public. If an unusual number of people are attending to bring forth a specific issue, the number of speakers could be limited. Depending on the number of people wishing to speak during public commentary, the board reserves the right to reduce the time limit on each speaker until everyone
012is heard. The sole purpose of public commentary is for the board to actively listen to the community. Meeting protocol requires that questions presented to the board during public commentary will be responded to when possible. At the board's discretion, questions requiring investigations will be referred to the superintendent will be responded to in a timely fashion through future board meetings electronic mail, mail, or telephonically provided the contact information is supplied on the public commentary signup sheet. >> Candace Varian. >> Hi, good evening. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight. I would like to bring forth my increasing concerns regarding the safety of our children on the 10 bells bus. In less than one month, unfortunately, I've had to file two incidents reporting rev um involving my 5-year-old son who just started kindergarten. The second
013um the second week of school, a little boy hit my son across his mouth and also hit two other little girls he was sitting with completely unprovoked. The ch child was running up and down the aisles, jumping into other seats while the bus was in route. I called William O'Hafer, filed an incident report, and emailed Miss Beglin and Miss Gavin Galvin, who quickly called me back. Mr. Galvin met with my son, the other boy that hit him, and reached out to the parents. Mr. Galvin also had the boy apologize to my son. For the following few days, Mr. Galvin also assigned a bus monitor to 10 bells, but informed me that this was only temporary. I sincerely did appreciate Mr. Galvin's quick and proactive response to the incident that occurred on the bus that day.
014As an overprotective mom of an only child who's in public school for the first time and riding the bus for the first time, I did chalk this up to kids being kids. Unfortunately, little did I know that that incident was only the beginning. Last Wednesday, October 1st, I met my son at the bus as usual, and he walked off the bus holding a blood soaked paper towel to his forehead just above his eye. The bus driver was calling for me from the driver's seat with a panicked look on his face and informed me that my son had been hit with a sweatshirt and the zipper cut his eye. The other children coming off the bus were visibly shaken up and yelling out the child's name who had done this. I quickly put my son in
015the car and rushed him home to get ice on his eyebrow and assess if he needed stitches. My son explained that the first grade girl had been hitting and squirting him with sanitizer from the seat behind him. He repeatedly asked her to stop and she wouldn't. She came around while the bus was in motion, clenched her teeth and fists and started swinging her sweatshirt, hitting him hitting him repeatedly when he was cut with the zipper. The bus driver pulled the bus over, gave him a paper towel, and radioed the incident into the school. I followed procedure and called William O'Hafer, emailed Mr. Galvin yet again. Mr. Mr. Galvin met with my son, the girl that hit him, and reached out to the girl's parents. Mr. Galvin again had the girl apologize to my son and
016informed me that he was going to assign a bus monitor, but it was only temporary. So, as it stands now, it's less than one month, and there have been two incidents where my son was hit on the bus. The second incident resulting in an open wound and scar on my son's right eyebrow. Imagine if the zipper hit my son in the eye and caused permanent damage. Incidents of this nature could easily open the school district up to significant liabilities. It's safe to say that we need a plan implemented immediately that ensures permanent adult supervision on the bus as well as disciplinary action to prevent further misconduct. The behaviors on the bus are just not limited to the incidents I have reported, but also include and are not limited to the daily name calling, bullying, spitting,
017throwing items at others, running and pushing while the bus is in motion. The bus driver is now trying to manage these children while driving the bus, which is not only a safe unsafe, but also not her responsibility. The bus driver's only concern should be getting our children from point A to point B safely. From my understanding, based on the code of conduct which we all are required to sign, riding the bus is a privilege. So I ask you, Mr. Kulot and the board to please take immediate action with administration to not only hold these children accountable for their po poor choices in physically hurting other children as well as implement a clear defined bus safety plan moving forward. I know for a fact that I do not stand up stand up here alone tonight. Thank
018you. >> Thank you. Just uh to let you know I was at William O'Shea today meeting with um Miss Beglin and we are addressing the issue. >> Thank you >> Mara Laza. Hi, good evening. Um, I come here tonight with some questions for the sitting board members and their leadership going forward. I really truly welcome the student members. Um, I think your your your position is more vital than ever before is truly valued. My comments are not for Miss Gino, for Miss Gravino and her family. I express only my deepest condolences. It is tough to show up tonight after experiencing the September 16th meeting where members of our community mocked, taunted, and bullied people they didn't see as one of us even before they started to speak. You, the sitting board members overseeing this meeting,
019did not intervene according to the policy that we just heard. that as elected officials, all residents of the district are your constituents, including those who were shouted down. Did you reach out to them afterwards? I came to that meeting because when I heard about Dr. Savage's post, my first thought was, "We all need to do better." I understood why there would be calls for resignation, never mind that the post was private. But the social but then the social media campaign that targeted Dr. Savage and his family made clear how national politics had hit home. Still, I thought local connections matter. We in South Orangetown can choose to use this moment to have really difficult conversations, to reach out to people we don't understand. To do that is a consequence. We're so concerned about consequences. When
020I came to the meeting on September 16th, I expected anger and frustration, but I also expected the board will listen to all viewpoints and follow the processes outlined by the New York State School Board. There are processes for removal as outlined on the website. Instead, that night, a room full of adults shouted down their neighbors. You, the sitting board members, supported the anger in the room with your comments and actions and failed to ensure a respectful environment as outlined in board policy 12:30 on public comment. Quote, "At board meetings, speakers and observers may not engage in behavior that disrupts the meeting such as shouting, interrupting others, blocking the free movement of others, or obstructing the views of others. In that event, they may be removed." Yes, public officials should be held accountable for their actions.
021That applies to all public officials and it's the long-term consequences that matter. What did September 16th meeting teach our children and show our community as more than 8,000 views have now um have now visited that site? If you are angry, you don't have to listen to others. If you are angry, it's okay to bully. That same week, SOCSD had its Start with Hello programming whose goal is to quote, "Build a strong and resilient school community, empower students to embrace empathy and reject bullying and social isolation." How did that meeting on September 16th help teach these values? So, I conclude by asking the board, what is your plan? concrete steps to rebuild trust and build all the stakeholders in SOCSDA together. More than the presentations that you sent out in that email. According to board policy
0221000 on community relations goal six is to quote promote a spirit ac cooperation among the board, the schools and the members of the community. Unfortunately, this is not the first public display of cooperation. I continue to believe that there is more that we share than divides us. We have an opportunity here to reset and to recommmit to our local community. This will require an enormous amount of of opting for goodwill and work. I will continue to hold myself accountable for doing the work of showing up and reaching out. I hope you're committed to doing the same. Thank you. >> Mike Ward. >> Hi folks. This is my first board meeting. Um I have a uh a first grader at William O'Shea Schaefer, a three-year-old and a seven-month-old. And the topic I'm here to talk about
023is less weighty than the previous two public comments. So, I just want to acknowledge the fact that what they shared was very difficult and I can appreciate that and I'm maybe shifting tone a little bit and I just want to say that out loud. Um, like many parents, I've been reading Jonathan Height's work and other people about the dangers of social media. My daughter's only six, but I am a firm believer in working towards things much before the problem presents. Uh I in addition to having concerns about personal tech use and social media use, I also believe that by the time my daughter's in high school or middle school for that matter, AI is going to have changed the educational landscape rather dramatically. And so my primary interest is to do some parent organizing and
024I'm working on that. I'm not yet a member of the PTA, but I'm talking to people who are members of the PTA. Um I'm also interested in learning about at the schoolboard level or you know within the official institution of the education uh of the of the school district what who is leading the work on you know implementing the new uh state law who's leading the work on the future impacts of AI on the education uh environment particularly for middle school and high school students both the positive potential and the negative impacts that we might see uh and I if can if I can be, you know, introduced to some folks or plugged into some of those things. Um, I would appreciate it. And that's it. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> So, I will
025say you picked a really good night to come because we are going to be doing a presentation on our district goals. One of which is responsible use of technology. >> Great. >> Sure. >> Is that it? >> That's it. >> Okay. >> All right. All right. Back to presentations. >> Yep. Oh, yes. If they're here, sure. >> Okay, we're going to do the uh external auditor report first. Sorry, you guys are ready. Thank you. Hello, my name is Melissa Zot. I was the engagement partner on this year's audit. So, fiscal year ending June 30, 2025. With me, I have here Carolyn Coff. She was the manager on the engagement as well. So we'll be presenting the results uh of the financial statement audit. So today we are going to go over some required communications. We
026have the general fund results. So we'll do like a high level first. Then we'll dive into a little bit more detail on the revenues, expenditures. We have a five-year history of your general fund fund balance. The school district operates other funds. So we'll go into what those funds are and the results of those as well. And then you have some debt service. So we've provided a summary of those as well as the grant activity. So part of the required communications is the responsibilities both responsibilities of us and the board as well as the audit committee and management. Making sure the accounting policies are selected and implemented appropriately. ensuring that the financial statements which you should have a copy of are presented fairly in accordance with the United States generally accepted accounting principles internal controls very
027important and part of the organization. So establishing those making sure they're maintained doing a periodic review of those regularly compliance with all laws and regulations um and any provisions of the contracts that you enter into. So the school district should in be in compliance with those. The financial records that we request as part of our audit process um is quite voluminous. So just making sure that we get everything that we request for the samples. Um and then most importantly is setting a proper tone at the top, ensuring that there's high ethics um at the school district and that's communicated and trickled down. I do want to point out that we did meet with the audit committee um at the end of September. We went through this presentation as well as other information really in detail.
028Um we talked more in detail than we're talking today and I just really want to uh say thank you for their time because it was u a great conversation. So thank you. As your external auditors we also have certain responsibilities. The deliverables you have are the independent auditors report that's going to be the opinion in the financial statements. We have issued an unmodified opinion. Sometimes you might hear a clean opinion. Um it is the best opinion that the school district can receive. The yellow book report is going to be in the back of the financial statements. That's your report on controls and compliance. Your extra classroom activities report would include any of your student clubs. So the activities within those. And then in one document we have your required communications to those charged with governance
029as well as the management letter. We're happy to report that there were no fraud or legal acts noted as part of the audit process. We did not encounter any difficulties during our audit. Uh no uncorrected misstatements. So every anything that we have found was corrected and then no disagreements with management. Uh the timelines provided for you and then we did have to wait for the New York state to release their pension information for their non uh TRS employees and that came out on September 8th. So just going over high level here, your general fund is your original budget. The original budget is the budget that was adopted by the voters. It also includes your prior year purchase orders. Those purchase orders budget gets transferred into this year. Your final budget would include any budget amendments
030or budget transfers made during the year. your actual results and then your current year in encumbrances or your current year purchase orders that have not yet been fulfilled. And then we have a variance here to show your budgetary variance at year end. Your revenues came in about 4.2 better than what you anticipated. We will go over uh the detail. Caroline will go over that on the next slide exactly how we got there. And then on the expenditure side, so the money going out, you actually uh had a budgetary savings of about 1.6. If you look at your other financing sources and uses of about $4 million, that would be the transfers between your funds. So going from general fund to your capital projects fund and then general fund to your special aid fund for your
031match on your grants. Most important line here is your net change in fund balance. the 1.17 million in your original budget. That's going to be consisting of two items. The first item is 672,000 that was already included in your 2425 budget. So that's what you anticipated using to balance the 2425 budget. In addition to that, to make up the 1.17 million is your prior year purchase orders. So last year you had 500,000 that got rolled into this year and that's part of using uh the fund balance or your net change in fund balance. So at the start of the day you anticipated using 1.17 million that did increase slightly to one almost 1.5. The increase was related to a taxert settlement. So you did utilize some of that taxert reserve. Um, you also used a
032little bit of your liability reserve for a settlement as well. So that was about 190,000. So final budget at the end of the year, you anticipated using almost 1.5 million of your fund balance, but you actually added almost 4.5 million. So if on the budgetary side, if you look at the last column, your budgetary had a favorable variance of almost 5.9 million. So you started out the year with 32 million of fund balance. You ended at the year of 36.5. So I'm going to hand it off to Carolyn to discuss uh the details of that. So I'll start with the 2025 revenues. So this year the district had total revenues of 114.2 million. That's about 1.3 million higher than last year and a budgetary surplus as Melissa mentioned of 4.2 million. That surplus is mainly
033in three categories. The first being use of money in property which has a surplus of 2.5 million. That's where the district records their interest earned on investments and cash due to the interest rates remaining high. And also the district move money into NLAS which also has higher interest rates than regular bank accounts. And this is typically budgeted conservatively because of the uncertainty of the fluctuations in the interest rates throughout the year. The next category is state aid which had a surplus of 500,000. This is determined by a New York state formula that fluctuates throughout the year. So the state ended up adjusting it into basic aid and lottery aid having a surplus. Miscellaneous was the final category which had a surplus of a million dollars. This was due to refunds of prior year expenditures in
034the Boseies billings that came in less than the district had originally recorded. Next are the 2025 expenditures. So, the district had total expenditures of 109.7 million, which was 500,000 less than the prior year, and a savings of 1.6 million. The majority of the savings is in the employee benefits, which fluctuates based on how many employees the district has, including the teachers. And this year, there were savings in the social security, the teachers retirement, and in the health insurance. And although it doesn't contribute to the savings greatly, I want to draw attention to the transfers out which are comprised of two small transfers to the school lunch fund and the special aid fund and then $2 million to the capital fund for various projects and 1.9 million to the debt service fund for bond principal and
035bond interest. So that talks about your overall summary in the general fund of exactly how you had that savings. Next we have for you is your general fund fund balance. This is going to be a five-year history. Uh we like to provide historical analysis of the fund the general fund fund balance that you have. There are um currently three categories or three buckets of fund balance. Restricted is your largest. That would be legally restricted by education law. general municipal law. Your tax certiary reserve uh dropped a little bit from 7.5 to 5.9 million. Your tax certiary reserve is intended to be used for tax uh settlements as they come through. So you're not really burdening the taxpayers in the current year. Um and so that is fully supported by potential pending claims outstanding. Uh your
036ERS and TS retirement contributions, those increased due to some interest. you were able to allocate interest to each of these reserves as well. Your liability can be for any claims that come through that increase due to interest. And your insurance also increased slightly to about 461,000. Small balance in your unemployment benefits. That would be for any unemployment claims that come through. And then your employee benefits, that's going to be for uh to support any payments for your retirees who get paid out. um a a portion of their unused time. So that would be fully supported by that calculation. Your future capital projects is going to be a reserve that's approved by the voters. You can see that you started in 24 at 11.8 million. You increase that to about 15.8 million. What's good about utilizing
037your future capital projects reserve is that you get to utilize the uh funding like your um unexpected interest income to help fund these capital projects so as not to go out and um go out to bond in the future. You can instead save up for projects that you have at the school district. So overall your restricted fund balance increased to 30.9 million. Uh you have the next bucket is assigned that would be internal assignments. So, your purchases on order that we talked about, 81,000. Um, so there was a lot more due diligence on kind of getting those purchase orders closed. So, next year that 81,000 when we come back here again will roll into next year's budget. And then the 886,000 should be relatively familiar. That would be included in your 2526 budget um to
038balance that budget. And then your unassigned 4.6. Your unassigned is free and clear to be spent on school district purposes. Um you are maxed out at the 4% which is where you really want to be um as far as a school district's required. Like I had mentioned the school district does operate other funds as well. Your special aid fund would house your federal state and federal grants that are specific to uh restricted populations. So the revenue sources are state grants, federal grants, and some local grants as well. You have a transfer in for a m a local match for your summer handicap. And then your expenditures would essentially support all of the revenues. It's on a reimbursement basis. So we do anticipate that fund to be a zero uh zero fund balance. For your capital
039projects fund, we do have uh starting off at 16.2 million. Your revenues of 795,000 were your smart school bond act monies. Those generally do take some time to come in. So I'm happy to report that they that they did were received in the current year. You had transfers in of $2 million. Those were budgeted transfers to fund uh current capital projects. And then your expenditures of 15 million or capital outlays that would be all related to current ongoing projects that you have. Your school lunch fund would uh be to benefit the cafeteria, all of the funding that goes within there. Uh the funding inside of there would be your state federal aid as well as your food sales. So the sales that happened within the cafeteria. It should be a self- sustaining fund. So as
040you can see, your fund balance beginning and end was relatively flat. your special purpose fund that would house any donations that you have or scholarships. But a majority of that activity, both the 555,000 in revenues and the 544,000 in expenditures is mostly related to your student club activities. So your extra classroom report would mainly be reported in there. And lastly is your debt service fund. Anything within your debt service fund can be used for future principal and interest payments. So the ending fund amounts of 1.5, you could help utilize that to relieve some of the the tax burden in the future and apply that towards future principal payments. Um the increases were related to um some transfers in to make the payments and then you had small interest as well. Here's the current debt service
041summary that you have. Uh currently as of June 30, 2025, there is about $3 million of long-term debt outstanding. Uh the 2011 bond is about 5%. So it's only 590,000 left on that bond. And then the 2016 is going to be uh 2% at about 2.4 left. You do have a ban currently. It's a bond anticipation note of about 7.5 million. That's to help fund current year projects as well. And lastly, I wanted to present the grant activity. Um, this would be about 1.6 million of federal grants. These grants, I put the reporting fund here for you. So, like I said, some of your school lunch fund has federal and state grants. For your federal portion for your child nutrition, it's 518,000. your specially fund reports the various grants, your IDEIDA grants, it's your special
042education grants, all of your title grants, um English language, and then your ARPA, your American Rescue Plan Act, that would be kind of coming to a close at this point. Um so we would anticipate that to be um eliminated next year. Um, currently, generally speaking, when you get your financial statements, you would see a single audit attached to the back of that, um, because the federal government has not yet completed their compliance supplement, we are on hold in submitting that until it gets completed. Um, we are on top of that and we're kind of following up on updates as soon as possible. We have completed all of the work, so there are no compliance findings. It's just a matter of getting that document finalized. So that does conclude our presentation on the general fund results
043um as well as the activity. So any questions we're we're happy to take. >> Thank you so much. >> Any questions? Questions, comments? >> Uh just one thing. I was I'm actually on the audit committee. It's a party. But um in seriousness, there's one sentence that I just want to read from the audit report. I think it should just maybe dictate how we think about our budget for the coming year is districtwide expenditures exceeded district-wide district-wide revenues. Okay, so that did that does mean we actually spent more money than we than we than we took in. We had to use essentially our savings account to do that. You know, the auditors just did a very good job detailing how we were able to do things with our savings and interest rates that will not remain
044as high as they are if if we listen to the Federal Reserve. Which means the the what we did to not spend not have the delta between expenditures and revenue be so large this year will probably not persist in the in the coming years which means there will be an even wider gap between us spending more money than we're bringing in. So when we we should really be thinking about that all stakeholders that we're kind of on somewhat of an unsustainable trajectory and we have to roll up our sleeves quote unquote and figure out how to at least get those two things to equal out and that's obviously not your role. You're you're our wonderful auditors but like this one sentence should just be in the back of everyone's mind when we start talking budgets
045is we're spending more than we're bringing in. So, just wanted to sort of not to be, you know, a downer on it, but just wanted to put that in the record. Thanks. >> Thanks, Rob. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you so much. >> Have a great rest of your meeting. >> You, too. Good evening everyone. So tonight I have the pleasure of presenting along with our cabinet members on our goal setting process. And I just begin with our um district vision. Before I do that, I'm here with Miss Espanel who's our assistant superintendent for business and operations, Dr. Arietta, our assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, Dr. Lloyd who's our assistant superintendent for human resources and Mr. Brady our assistant superintendent for technology and innovation. So our vision is to elevate,
046engage and inspire students and we elevate students by setting high expectations to prepare them for post-graduate opportunities or the real world. We engage our students by fostering meaningful relationships with students, staff and parents and our school community. And we inspire our students by offering them an array of opportunities aligned with their passions so they can reach their full potential and be successful once they graduate. Our district's mission statement is to elevate, engage, and inspire students through personalized and exceptional educational experiences again to ensure students can achieve to their full potential. And so this year our cabinet is reading, we're reading a book together and it's called History's Greatest Leaders in You. there's more in common than you think. And just this past week, we were uh reading chapter one together and it's it's principle one
047is called singularity of purpose. And there's a quote from Dwight Eisenhower that says, "We succeed only as we identify in life or in war or in anything else a single overriding objective and made all other considerations bend to that one objective." In South Orangetown, everything we do supports our district's vision, mission, core values, and doing what's in the best interest of students. Another quote from that chapter that resonated really with with all five of us was a quote from Winston Churchill. I'm going to read it just because I know you maybe can't see it all from there. And he's talking about uh looking at the waves and a ship, navigating the waves from a bridge. She says, "Yesterday, I was on the bridge watching the mountainous waves and the ship, which is no pup, cutting
048through them and mocking their anger. And I asked myself, why is it the ship beats the waves when there are so many and the ship is one?" The reason is the ship has a purpose and the waves none. They just flop around. Innumera, innumerable, tireless, but ineffective. The ship with a purpose takes us where we want to go. A singularity of purpose aligned with our vision, mission, and goals enables the ship to take us where we want to go. And we really um go by the motto that leading change in schools is like turning a cruise ship through unpredictable waters. So each year we engage in a cycle of continuous improvement. We have an extended leadership team in this district that has been in existence for 17 years. It's made up of administrators, central office
049administrators, school leaders, and teachers from every school. And each year we get together the day after the last day of school. And typically we go various places. We've gone to the IBM Center over the years, more recently to Bare Mountain. And as you can see from some of the pictures I'll show you, there's no technology. It's all low tech. We have markers and chart papers. And we go through a process of highlighting all the successes from the year before by school and by district. And then we go through a goal setting process. And this year we actually did a crosswalk with the New York State education profile of the graduate and our profile of the graduate. And then we had a work session on creating smart goals for each of the district goals which I'm
050going to share with you. So here's just a quick picture so you can see some of the work that we did and some of the highlights. One of them being the budget passed by over 70%. We were really happy about that. Um, and you can also see that we talked through some of the challenges that we were facing throughout last year and moving into this year. So, the district goals profile of the graduate is actually a goal that Dr. Harietta started when he was the principal back at Tapenzee High School and it's something that we all anchored into um at the district level over the past few years and I think we're in year three now and it has permeated all of our schools K through 12. We have created rubrics in each of the
051buildings. Students are familiar with them and I'll talk to you a little bit more about uh how we rolled out that goal. So we started with asking these essential questions of of our teachers and staff. What would you want the students to be like? What would you want them to know? And what would you want them to be able to do upon graduating? And when you walked in tonight to South Orangetown Middle School, you may have noticed in the entryway or all over the building, you will see the profile of the graduate will be a contributing community member, an engaged and empowered learner, an innovative and critical thinker, a responsible and collaborative achiever. And you will see with the rubrics, age appropriate, William O'Herford Cottage Lane all the way up to the high school. and
052I'm not going to share them all because you'll see them when the schools present in the coming weeks that they are age appropriate. And really the goal, this is an aspirational goal, is for children to be able to self assess where they are at the end of grade 2, end of grade 5, end of grade 8, and when they graduate from high school. So this is what we did at the at the central office district level a smart goal template to talk about how we would implement the profile of the graduate in all four schools across K through 12 to help students improve both academically and socially. We talk about the extended leadership teams and leveraging those teams to create developmentally appropriate rubrics which has been done developing activities to reinforce the elements in those
053rubrics. A communication plan to inform all stakeholders groups. It's part of what we're doing tonight and have done um over the past couple years. And then of course methods to assess students on their school's respective rubric and for kids to self assess at the high school level. The profile of the graduate has now been embedded in the school report card. And then you can see how we're going to measure um success. This is an example of the great student rubric created at William O'Hafer. And you can see they really adapted it so that the kids can relate to it and assess how they're doing on the rubric. All right. And here's an example of the rubric from Cottage Lane. And children are familiar with this just so you know from other work that we've done
054with rubrics as far as being a novice apprentice practitioner or expert. So that language is familiar to our kids and I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Arietta who's going to talk about our districtal literacy. >> Terrific. Sure. Um so I had the opportunity to talk about uh literacy. Uh it's something I have talked about a little bit in the in the past uh at board meetings. That was that was a joke. Sorry. Um so as as we all know the district has undertaken a comprehensive review of our ELA and our foundational skills program and just as a you know recap last year we chose IMSC um as our foundational skills program at both William Schaefer and Cottage Lane. So this year we're in, you know, we're in the first year of implementation with
055that. Um so what that includes is not only implementing that in the classroom, um the teachers are all at this point um giving assessments to students because IMSC is very much tailored to the needs of the students who are in the the room that you're in. Um and so the teachers are in the process of of uh giving those assessments and starting the curriculum um with their groups of students. We also just as a reminder uh fifth grade um are getting trained now. They'll roll out their uh IMSSE in the second semester. Um and really this year is is about kind of establishing baseline data. It's the first time that teachers are implementing this. Um they all you know have have received training but you know training and implementing things uh in the classroom with
056uh with you know 25 students in a classroom are two very different things. Um so this year is while we're implementing we're also gathering a lot of data uh not student data the things that work for our teachers um we're having a meeting on Thursday with ELA leadership one of the the items on that agenda we'll be talking about the you know how the how it's going with the the teachers in the classroom and what their needs are as they continue to to implement this in in the very early stages. Um, also on, you know, Thursday at our ELA leadership, we'll talk about the next part of our review, which is look at our our ELA reading and writing curriculum. Um, so that's a goal this year is to look at, um, we started that
057last year and as you, as again, as a reminder, we put a pause on that. Um, because we wanted to give our teachers some time to to live in IMSC. Um, so we'll we'll pick up that conversation uh this week and we'll just kind of have an introduction conversation and and set a timeline for the year. And now when we talk about literacy a lot of times we end up talking about William O'Shea Schaefer in Cottage Lane but um this goal of literacy spans the high school and the middle school as well. Um so PS and the high school are looking at how they approach literacy in the content areas. Um right there are more departmentalized um in the secondary buildings and then also how we remediate uh struggling readers. uh so students that are
058in the middle school and in the high school um who didn't have the benefit of of IMSSE or a multiensory approach and then how do we remediate them um and get them caught up and then one important note so when we talk about literacy a lot of times we're talking about reading and writing um but we have taken a very broad approach to literacy so we're going to we're going to end up spending a lot of time talking about reading and writing but uh Mr. Brady's going to talk a little bit about digital literacy. You'll hear from the high school. Uh in the middle school talk about financial literacy. So there's there's there's many many different ways to be literate in uh different content areas and different um uh areas of study in all four
059buildings. So you'll hear the buildings talk about that more when they present. Um and so again looking at literacy. Um so for the the district is we're looking at growth. Um I'll talk a little bit about about growth in the in the next slide. Um so the star assessment is given um uh through uh the middle school and the uh we will be looking at making sure that students continue to grow. Um now why do we choose the star? The star we have control over. Right? There's opt outs. Again I'll I'll I'll touch on that very briefly in the next slide. Uh with the state exam um not to say that we're dis discounting the state exam. Um but the star is something that we can guarantee that every student will take um in the
060grades um in our three buildings. Also again kind of looking if you if we just kind of jump down to the bottom also looking at the content areas and measuring growth in how students at the high school are um um incorporating literacy skills in their work in the content areas like science, math, social studies, etc. So again just this is our this is our student data from from LA last year. These are the the in the 204 2024 2025. These are the state uh results. Um so we wanted to make sure that we these are uh we wanted to share this with the board. Um we'll the schools will go into further detail and I'll go into further detail in in future board meetings. So this is just a a very high level and you
061can see that for the most part um you know the grades and the cohorts did um did improve last year. Um you know this is the result of the tireless work of our of our teachers in the classrooms with our students um and our principles. Um and then if you if you kind of just look at you know so you can compare ELA 3 and 2324 with ELA3 and 2425. And then also and again I'll make this easier when we present um in future at future board meetings but you can also look at you know for example ELA4 in 23 24 and then go to ELA5 that's that same group of kids one year later so you can kind of look at the growth and for the most part um cohorts and then grade levels
062um have improved. Um again we're continue you know Dr. Koul just used the the term uh continuous uh improvement and this is something that our our teachers and our principles are committed to and to making sure that kids are consistently improving and always you know um maximizing their efforts with our our students. So I just wanted to share that um I can put this in the board report as well. I know we're not given a lot of time to absorb this um but I did want to just u make sure that this was included and now I will turn it over to Mr. Brady. So our next strategic goal is responsible use of technology and really at the core of that is digital literacy. You've heard about literacy in the other domains and other content
063areas. Um it's interwoven into everything that we do certainly within the district. As we know it refers to using technology safely, responsibly and effectively. So these skills are embedded within the curriculum throughout our schools all K through 12. Um over the last year, our instructional technology leadership team actually crosswalked our current curriculum with the New York State computer sciences and computer fluency standards. So this is a standards that were actually implemented last year 2024. And on the bottom you'll see here's some activities that we do throughout K uh well here you're seeing K through six but it talks about the different lessons and activities that our classrooms engage in and you can see that they scaffold upon each other. They start with a foundation in K and two talking about online well-being privacy and then
064it all scales all the way up to AI as we had discussed uh certainly in the middle school. I didn't include the high school here because that's part and parcel of what they do, right? Literacy is about research skills, uh, checking sources, um, and looking at counterparts. So, it really just builds upon that type of work. I wanted to show you an example of what the New York State Computer Science and Digital Fluency Standards look like. So, here's an example of what it looks like K through three. Um, so for each of the grades, there's five content areas, and I'll refer to them later. Digital citizenship is one of these, and I figure that would be a nice way to introduce some of the things that we do, uh, certainly at our lower grades. So,
065at a K1 level, um, one of the standard is identify actions that promote good digital citizenship and those that do not, right? So, it's it's working with our students to be able to determine the differences. So for the clarifying statements, students should be able to identify basic concepts of being a good digital citizen and know what actions are safe, responsible, and ethical when using technologies. So one of activities is what they refer to as pause and think online. Um so we want to instill this idea that just don't go down that rabbit hole that we talk about that doom scrolling. Um and one of the the pneumonics that they sort of use is is that traffic light, right? the red, yellow, and green. Red means, "Hey, stop. You shouldn't be going to a site like
066this." Yellow, you want to consult with an adult to say, "Hey, is this an appropriate site that I might want to work with?" Green says, "Hey, you know what? It's appropriate and we're allowing you to certainly use that." I'm not going to go into the other two, but it sort of gives you a feel of what those stu those standards across the state are looking for from our students as they grow. Here's another set. But when we actually unpack this and put into say a smart standard, it talks about the district's commitment to promoting the responsible use of technology, right? They refer back to what Dr. Koulat said to make sure they're productive and successful in their lives beyond graduation. So I reference earlier the concept areas. Um, so when you look at the New
067York State computer science and digital fluency standards, it's about impacts of computing, computational thinking, network and system design, cyber security, which is actually something relatively new that the state is really pushing behind. And as I said before, digital literacy, that's sort of the foundation that goes through everything we that we do. K through two, the focus is on internet safety and digital citizens, right? This is the first that our students being introduced to going online using as a resource tool and being part of a community um that is online. Couple of lessons um I've talked about in the past with the PTA. There's one about going to places safely online. Um knowing that it's okay to turn to a grownup, a parent to ask, hey, is this appropriate place to go? Trusting your gut. This
068is a great one. Uh, one of the the lessons talks to about your hands, your stomach and your feet, right? Your feet about balance. Uh, your hands about, you know, is the information accessible to you and your gut. So, what's your gut reaction? Um, it's it's allowing our students to understand that there's other modalities to be able to teach these skills, not just through, you know, wrote memorization of of things that are out there. Who are the staff responsible? Our instructional technology coach, our instructional technology teachers, our library media staff. Really, it's everybody. Our classroom um teachers as well. So, we talk about aligning resources. Um I started off with the constraints, right? Um I hate to say I put in that direction, but one of the main constraints for us is having, you know,
069the opportunity to provide professional development. We have these pockets, right? We do have half-day professional development days, but it really would benefit us if we could really look at something more sustainable, something that we could carry through. However, with that in mind, we do look at leveraging other opportunities such as Boseies and other out outsourced type of training. We also bring it in in house. We have experts experts that uh are able to actually turnkey those types of trainings that they do receive. So, what are some examples? Listen, uh, we talk about a common language, right? So, sure, I'm here talking about, you know, reviewing our strategic goal of responsible use of technology, but is that the same thing for everybody? No. But we actually have to have those conversations. Another great tool that you'll
070hear uh when our buildings present regarding uh responsible use is Common Sense Media. they actually have a tremendous amount of content that's geared uh at age appropriate and grade appropriate uh resources that can be used. Um and of course we do this through all different means. Um it's not just that professional development. Let's take the teachers out for half a day. It's pushing in and re reinforcing those skills uh with our classroom instruction. So at the end of the day, what does that look like? So if I'm talking about a K2 uh age group, you know, students would be able to identify the basic concepts of being a good digital citizen, right? What actions are safe, responsible, and ethical when using technologies. So you may ask me, what's the measurable goal? I'm going to be
071frank. You'll hear much better from from uh our buildings as as they present on their goals themselves, but you have to realize especially at this age group, it's all about developmental stages and right where the student is. So what you may expect may not be the same for that total class. So I just wanted to make that clear that it's going to look different not just in buildings but also within grades as well. And I'd like to turn it over to Dr. Lloyd. Thank you, Mr. Brady. Good evening, board trustees, exeicio members. Good to see everyone this evening. Hope you're doing well. I'm here to talk about our district's efforts towards developing character education and citizenship. As Dr. Dr. Koulat and our cabinet have mentioned tonight, we're really endeavoring to work with you, our board
072of education, our families, our faculty and staff to develop children and students who are um individuals who have literacy, critical thinking, who are innovative, who possess character, and will contribute to the community they live in or will live in. With that in mind and in an effort not to steal any thunder from our principles in advance of the next the next board meeting, I will try to highlight some of the activities, experiences, and events that our schools provide for our children promoting these efforts. And what I tried to do is I spoke with our principles and assistant principles last week and asked them for to share with them those signature practices that they're most proud of at their buildings. So when we think about William O Schaefer, um Miss Beglin and Mr. Galver are most
073proud of their initiative. Start with Hello Week which is also uh provided at other schools. Start with Hello Week is an initiative that really is in place to develop belongingness um student empathy to build youth um to build um youth agency and to diminish isolation and promote inclusivity in regards to Cottage Lane uh their pride point their points of pride in talking to Dr. Scarth and to speaking with Dr. Paige. They've been working with their faculty and staff to implement uh the ruler program in their classrooms and really that's about helping students to recognize, understand, label, express and regulate their emotions. Uh they're using mood meters in the classrooms and that they've been working on that for several years. Uh Dr. Corey and Miss Grace and the faculty and staff at South Orangetown Middle School,
074they piloted what's called an advisory during a 24-25 school year. And essentially what we're looking to do is create small groupoup sessions in which our students can work with teachers and staff that they would wouldn't normally see on a daily basis. And in those sessions they're working on social emotional learning lessons, maybe academic support and also uh building relationships with one another one another. And then when we take a look at Tapenzy High School, Miss Luciano, Mr. Carbonetti and Dr. Lavine talked about the pride that they have in U Rise which are attributes that the school holds in great um st holds in great standards and that includes integrity, empathy, responsibility, critical thinking and leadership and they hold it in such high standard that these ideals are placed in the report cards that the student
075receives on a quarterly basis from the teachers. Um, so that is what we're looking to do in our buildings and again I believe our team's going to speak a lot in a lot more detail next week, excuse me, at the next board meeting when they present on their school goals. Thank you very much. I'm going to hand it over to my colleague, Miss Espanol. >> Good evening. So, how do we get there to reach all these goals for our students? A sound budget, sorry. A sound budget is the foundation in supporting the South Harishtown mission and support for all students through a collaborative process. These are the various budget considerations when building the budget each year. These include small class size uh specials which include PE, music, art, technology, library and explores special services for
076our students technology again um athletics, capital bond projects, summer programming, afterchool enrichments, curriculum alignment, safety, transportation and facilities. This mindfulness fosters resources, access, and a safe instructional space for all students to succeed. So, we're on that road again for budget development as we start the new year. Um, the budget development process for the next school year starts as the current year opens. Tonight, our external auditors presented the fiscal results for the 2425 school year. Having a clear understanding of our fiscal condition leads us to various budgetary decisions. As Dr. Coleman noted, uh during September and October, the budget calendar is developed using the guiding draft calendars from guiding organizations such as Questar and the New York State School Board assoc association to ensure the district calendar is aligned with all legally required notices, disclosures, and
077reports. The budget development calendar will be presented to the board for approval at the October 21st meeting. During this time, recurring services for material contracts for for material contracts and service contracts for the 2627 school year are evaluated for renewal and rebidding. As the business office has already started and as we move into November, budget templates are sent to the budget builders for gathering and substantiating their needs for the 2627 school year. The budget builders include district leadership. Uh this includes the building departmental and central administrators. Monthly budget meetings are scheduled throughout the year entailing review of current budget budgetary trends from year-toear and expectations for the 2627 school year. Within these meetings, administrators will review current programs and potentially propose new items. And there is also a review of anticipated staffing needs. Um, this
078occurs during the November and December meetings. Turning the page into January, we start to review developing information from the New York State Education Department regarding state aid as well as the results of our tax cap calculation. The revenue capacity of the district will be weighed against the information received from the budget builders and other non-negotiable estimates such as anticipated benefit cost as well as contractual obligations. Budget workshops commence in January this year for review of board goal goals and priorities and also we review the budgetary parameters from the period of February through March. There will be in-depth information to the board and answers to any inquiries. Additionally, the preliminary budget presentation will occur on March 10th. Finally, during April and May, the board will decide on adoption of the budget for and there will also
079be a community vote which this year will fall on May 19th. >> Thank you. Uh, so I just want to thank my my team for collaborating with me on presenting the district goals tonight and open it up to any questions or comments from the board and that could our presentation. >> I have one thing to say. So I think you know I hope people shouldn't be leaving for this. No, it's cool because there's so much last year about the reading right and this very unique thing that just happened in this meeting. People didn't quite see what happened. There was people were suggesting that there's a lack of collaboration and then Brian started with a quote about shared mission being able to achieve goals and the goal of the district and there's a lot of sort
080of rightly so parents worried about lackluster reading scores throughout the district and the data here shows that we went from a 42% average to a 58% average of reading proficiency in the district year-over-year. year when you have because you had parents, stakeholders, administration, teachers, and students all working together towards a goal. Okay, we went from 8% below 50% proficiency to 8% above on average. One class went from 44% proficiency to 70% proficiency in one year. Okay. So, we sort of I want all of the parents listening online and in the minutes of how much we've improved as a district and that's sort of just the end of the beginning. Right now, we have our new reading plan in place and let's continue to see improvement. Right? Five out of six went from below 50% to
081significantly above 50%. And this is just me using my phone to calculate the percentages. Okay? So, I think it's a real testament to everyone coming together. union, teachers, administration, parents, right, to say the reading was not acceptable and we all came together and started to work towards one goal just like the quotes said in the beginning of the presentation and look how much we've achieved in one year. So I think everyone should be proud of themselves. I would have put that as like the first slide. It's just sort of me but but anyway I think it's I think it's a great achievement for all. >> Thank you Dr. Coleman. I appreciate you sharing that. Just to add on, we have been watching uh a particular cohort of students for several years that just this past
082year took the ELA test in grade three. And so if you look at that number alone, we have been really anxiously awaiting to see how that group of students would perform. And as you mentioned, um they perform very well. So thank you. >> Yeah. And if I could just take a second to u thank all those that really put in the effort to to get that work done. Um, you know, obviously this was on our radar all year. Um, it's really great to see these results. Obviously, we just want to continue moving ahead positively. Um, but but really I know that there was a lot of work done by the teachers, by the administration, by the parents, by everyone, by the students. Um, so just really congratulations. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um, so
083with that we can move on to any committee reports. Give me one second. I have mine on my phone. My apologies. Okay. So I have uh facility notes from the 917 meeting. Okay, here we go. So September 17th, 2025, facilities committee meeting summary notes. We have phase one, Cottage Lane and William O'Hafer wrapping up punch lists work to be performed through October. Cottage Lane Elementary is still waiting for ONR for electrical switchover. CLLE uh sophet spot markup to be reviewed with administrator and cottage lane elementary gym and cafeteria HVAC controls. The gym readouts are to be adjusted lower. It's a punch list item. Then we have phase two at the high school wrapping up punch list items. Countertop replacement schedule for the week of 9:22 considering adjusting countertop depth for the remaining phase two scope.
084Uh suggestion made to swap phase 2 scopes. This swap consists of completing 200 wing in 2026 and 300 wing in 2027 so that all 300 wing work would occur at the same time. This is to be evaluated with contractors. In the project management perspective, this change makes sense at as it balances out with most of phase three scheduled for 2026. Then we have phase 2A at the high school auditorium. Construction timeline is June 2026 through January 2026, winter break. Auditorium roof area of concern to be discussed further upon issuance of building condition survey. Then we have phase three at homes. Uh bid posting on October 20th. Phasing plan all in attendance agreed that 2026 field work, five bathrooms, third floor HVAC and classroom renovations along with 2027 second floor HVAC and classroom renovations. And then
085finally, we have the Tempy High School admin suite going on in 2026. CPL will need immediate direction on how to proceed. Original design is planned. Uh the drawer option or reuse of existing fire shutter need to submit to SED and incorporate into bid set next month. Those are the committee reports. Um does the board have any discussion on the agenda items tonight? >> Okay. I'm just gonna take a moment. I know that the students have been here listening to everything. Have you guys had anything that you wanted to contribute? >> Oh yeah. So I had a small comment on the digital dual literacy circling back to the board's presentation and I wanted to emphasize maybe one of the what an extra point we could add to the digital literacy and it would kind of go
086with maintaining balance. And so I think it'd be great if educators can kind of make a create a culture and in our school that might emphasize using personal devices less at home for activities that might be less productive like scrolling on Tik Tok or going on Instagram. I really think that if we were able to create a culture that maybe use devices less for those purposes, we could increase our literacy rates because kids would use that time to start reading more. And so I think that would be a great idea to add to our board's vision and mission. >> Thank you, Jaywan. >> Thank you, John. Um, my apologies for not getting you on that comment earlier, but uh it's very valuable and I appreciate your >> Yeah. sentiment. All right. >> Um, so then
087we can just move on to the motion to make uh motion to approve consent agenda categories 8 through 12. >> Thank you, Diana. Katie, right? Thank you, Katie, for the second. All in favor? >> I All right. All right. And then we can move on to new business. Anyone have anything discussed on new business or I can just um go ahead. just pull up one thing. Okay. So, um so regarding uh the resignation of Mr. Savage, um the board obviously um has to make a decision how to move forward. Now, um we have um the choices of either an appointment or a special election. And as um as I believe was brought up before, we're we're on a 90 day timeline from the date of Mr. Savage his resignation. Um, if the board was to
088choose to appoint a qualified person to fill the vacancy, uh, the length of that term would be until the next annual election. So, it would only be a partial year to the end >> on May I have May 19th, 2026. Um and then if the board was to choose a special election, um a special election requires legal notices, nominating petitions, um and then voting machine procurement. Um and that person elected would serve through the duration of the unexpired term. So that would be until June 30th, 2028. Um just personally, my own experience, um I I definitely you know, having have sadly having this happen before I I my experience is that I would um personally be leaning towards another special election um and leaving the choice in in the voters's hands. That's what I personally
089feel like. And and then also um the possibility of uh the voting machines is a is a huge expense for the district. So, I don't know if it's possible, but I would definitely like to inquire about the the ability for paper ballots and and lessening the burden on the district um when require uh getting the voting machines, the the procurement of the voting machines and how much that cost the district. So, um I don't know if any other board members have anything to express on this, but >> I just um I the only thing I have to say is that I feel like the community like last year last time um was able to give their input. I think that's a big thing. So about what they feel is right an appointment or an election.
090I think that commission members should be able to speak on that and to send in their what they decide what they feel is best for the district. >> Okay. So like like last time to the to the feedback >> feedback emails specifically for that like You can also come sit over here. >> The so for the feedback emails last year what we did was we requested that community members send in emails what they thought was best if we do the special election or if we do the um appointment >> and that way we get what you guys prefer like prefer right >> and we it doesn't look like we're deciding it's >> right >> whatever is mostly said or suggested that we'll go with >> all right so the only other thing I think it
091would I would say I'm I'm 100% supporting a special special election. >> I don't feel comfortable I don't think anybody should ever have a a majority up for a single election. Um and even if we appointed somebody there would then be three individuals running on in May. I just don't I don't think that's I don't think that's the right way to go. That's my opinion. So >> okay. Uh the only other thing I want to uh reiterate is the you know obviously we have a time frame um that we have to go by and and things that have to happen. So I do think it's very important that everything goes as quickly as possible. Um so if there are anyone that wants to give feedback, please do so uh as timely as you can. And
092um >> didn't we give a deadline last time? Can we do the same thing? Can we give a deadline so that everyone knows they're going to suggest what they would like us to do? there's at least a deadline. We're not cutting it to the next meeting where people want to extend it and that's >> we can review the communication from last year. We did give uh like a week or two >> I think it was two weeks something like that. So we we'll definitely do that. We can put a communication out. >> I think we should send something out to that by this date, you know, send it in before then. >> Yeah. And then and obviously it's it's important to have a five member board. It's important to have that that additional person here
093to give their viewpoints to add to the conversation. So as quickly as we can do that um I think that's important >> communication out. >> So all right so we will get a communication out and we will put a similar timeline to the feedback as last time. >> I also have a quick question. Um can we quickly explain how community members are picked for the committees because I'm receiving a lot of random questions from people and I'm not I mean we don't get to pick who everyone's on it. So I don't want to take it as the board members choose who's on each. We select what we want. That's all we get to do. So each year we have a number of committees that parents serve on as you know um and I won't go
094through all the different committees but we do put out an email each year to all the parents which did go out I believe last week and then depending on what the committee is there's a process where if someone's interested they would talk about why they want to join the committee. Uh as an example if it's a technology committee Mr. Brady would go through that um people who were interested and then he would determine who may be best fits for for that particular committee. If it's safety, it would be Mr. Galino. If it's audit, it would be Miss Espanol. If it's curriculum, it would be Dr. Arietta. But every parent does get an email in the district and has the opportunity to um apply quote unquote express an interest in being on the committee and then
095the person who runs that committee works to determine who would best fit for that year. We try to rotate when we can. Um and then we also have people who've been on committees who ask to continue on committees. So it's it really dependent. That is the process though. >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> All right. Do they get receive emails if they're not selected to let them know? >> I'm not sure. Do you recall? >> I don't believe so. But >> so they'll only be notified if they are selected. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Isn't that's a good thing for them to know as well? >> All right. Um if that's it, there was something that came up. So the the board um we had a member request an executive session. um for after this public
096session. Um we won't conduct any business after the executive session. We'll just come in and and close the public meeting. I just want to let you know that. Um so there'll be no further business once we come back from our executive session. So I'll make a motion to move to executive session to discuss pending litigation and employment history of a particular employee. >> Do I have a motion? >> Motion. >> Thank you. Do >> I have a second? Thank you, Rob. All in favor? I. >> All right. Have a good night, everyone. >> Thank you, guys.