SOCSD - Board Meeting 04-08-25

001I alian 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. Okay. All right. started off with any board announcements. Um, all right. I I'll start off real quick. I I remember over the summer when I was doing some training uh with Dave and Diana in in Albany, um they said how the the Revolution was going to uh the anniversary was going to be this year and I was very excited to see what was done and I got to see the play at at Cottage Lane. I know we've been doing it for um for a little while now, but it was nice to see something to really bring it to the forefront of everyone's mind and uh

002the kids did an amazing job. And then I it was it was nice to see the the third graders all in the front row seeing what they were going to get to do next year and seeing their excitement in their eyes. So um I I I definitely think it's something that we should continue. We should find whatever means to to keep that going. And um yeah, it was just it was really great. I mean personal experience. I mean my daughter knew every line for everyone. It was I'm sure there's other kids out there that did that, but uh I mean I think a lot of them have a future in the theater u whether it's here or whether it's at the high school. I think uh I just wanted to I don't have any nice

003anecdotes. I'm going to ask some very directed questions. I wasn't here in person last week. So um just wanted to firstly two points. one reading other a request from well me specifically but I think most of the other board members agree with me but I don't want to speak for them. I just wanted to hear uh like how we standing with the implementation of the reading. I know maybe out of order but I just I wasn't here. I was on Zoom so maybe it was discussed but um we can slot it in somewhere else if it's already being brought up tonight. I don't know but um yeah I'll do my uh update during uh Dr. Koula superintendent report. Cool. Um, and the other the other comment and one thing that's sort of glaring to me

004when I was and this might not make friends, but I don't care. Um, we've been discussing a budget that has been very, let's say, challenging at for the least for the district with a reduction in state aid and rising costs. And one of the reasons I joined the board was to not um or try to save the taxpayers money. I don't think we're going to be able to actually do that this year, which is really paining me. The other thing is one of the major groups in our district who's consuming, let's say, close to 70% of our budget, I don't see their leadership ever attend or hardly attend. I don't want to say ever because I don't want to be wrong, but in particular, teachers or other union leadership, they should be attending the meetings.

005Now, right now, it would just be a request from the board, but they're consume current they're currently consuming about 70% of our budget and their president doesn't doesn't come to the meetings. So, I find that to be I just don't it just doesn't sit right with me is the best way I can say it. So, I'm here publicly asking that, you know, a senior rep from the teachers union and maybe the administrators union attends these meetings uh in some sort of official capacity. Now, this is only a a request from the board. We can't obligate anything, at least not now. I am maybe we can figure out how to obligate, but for now, I'm just making a nice professional request. So, um anyway, those those are my comments. not not as uh as pleasant as

006a as a play in Cottage Lane, but I think something that's cru crucial for the for the district to have every stakeholder, especially stakeholder consuming 70% of our budget that their leadership does not attend the board meetings is is frankly unacceptable. I'll stop. I think that kind of speaks to the heart of the matter that the budget discussion needs to be more involved on multiple levels and I think that's one of the reasons why we've been talking so much with Natalie about the future bud budget discussions is we can bring all the stakeholders to the table. I think next year we're going to have to do that and that's probably a good idea to have the union heads there and he's 100% right. can't obligate anybody to be there, but this is the entire district's

007um livelihood we're talking about and I think it would be in everyone's best interest if certain stakeholders were there, specifically union representatives. Um but I think that's all stuff we can discuss next year and we definitely need to because there's once again that that fiscal cliff is coming and I think the more people that are involved the better off we'll be so we don't have to cut anything unnecessarily or we jump to any conclusions and cut something that we regret later down the line. So, I think you're right, Rob. Um, hopefully in the future we'll be more involved with the process and everybody can have a seat at the table. Um, on a side note or a happier note, we'll try and make it upbeat. I went to the SOS Wizard of Oz musical. I

008know we didn't discuss it last uh board of ed meeting, but uh I took my six-year-old and my 12-year-old, and they thoroughly enjoyed it. My six-year-old daughter so much that we had to go watch the movie that night at home. But uh I really enjoyed it. I I wasn't sure what to expect. I was like middle schoolers, what could they pull off? And I was very impressed with the set design and their enthusiasm. It was a really fun time. So I'm glad that I went. We also attended. Um I think my husband enjoyed it more than my children to be honest with you. Um they did amazing. It was You could see all the hard work they put into it. It was just awesome. My kids also were obsessed with the movie. So, it was

009a great experience, but it was also nice to see how cute they were when they all came out because they knew how hard they worked and which is it was really nice. I attended as well and I uh loved it. I was supposed to go back the second day because my oldest was sick um on Saturday, but she wasn't doing any better, so I wasn't bringing her so I was got yelled at for that. But it was great to watch everybody. They were magical. I can vouch that Mr. Sansone did a great job at contributing to the recession. uh the stand. It was a little bit of a back and forth uh during the intermission. I didn't have a lot of cash, but it was gone. And going back to to Cottage Lane's play, um

010my daughter was in it. It was phenomenal. I loved it. It was really good, and I really hate to see any funds cut for that program. All right, we all set. Okay, we can move on to superintendent's announcements. All right, good evening everyone. So, tonight is the night that we are going to hopefully adopt the budget. And so, I'll just kick it off with first and foremost thanking Miss Espanol for an incredible job taking us through her first budgeting process as the assistant superintendent for business and operations and really being transparent with cabinet and everybody else and the board of education. Throughout this process, we've done more um I think digging in and looking at staffing and lines and everything to try to make sure that we were able to close the budget gap while

011at the same time maintaining uh programs and services for kids while also avoiding any staff layoffs. So, thank you to the board of education as well and our entire administrative team for your hard work and thoughtful planning about how to meet our students needs. So, as we discussed multiple times, this has been a very challenging year. It's really unprecedented that we've getting a 0% increase in state aid. So, I do want to talk about the positives and what this budget does provide for. I mentioned this during the budget workshop. So, for the public, I want to make sure that I cover everything. The budget is providing for reduced class size at Cottage Lane Elementary School with the addition of an elementary teacher. We are also reducing class size and physical education at the secondary level.

012We are increasing support to meet students needs at Tapenzy High School with the addition of a reading slash possibly special education teacher. We're going to look for a dual dy certified teacher for Tapenzy High School and the addition of a special education teacher at South Orangetown Middle School. So, those are the four positions that we had talked about um that would total $338,000 in new spending. and the cabinet this morning did go over those areas and identify $338,000 that we can cover those new positions, which also is, I think, unprecedented in our time together. So, we're really being diligent and not just adding positions, we're making sure we have the funds to cover it. The other thing uh that we're doing with this budget, what it supports is a $2 million transfer to capital and

013that supports the eight classrooms at William O'Shea, although we are revisiting some pricing on that with school facilities. Construction of an accessible bathroom at Tapenzy High School in the nurses suite, replacement of the entrance to ZMART and the Tapeny High School school store, and district-wide camera and safety enhancements that we're working through with the school safety team. So those are the items that will be covered in the $2 million transfer to capital. So to fund the budget and to reduce budget growth and narrow the gap, the district is recommending that we go out at the tax levy with uh 2.31% which is within the New York state mandated cap. We have identified $1.44 million in reductions which includes offsetting the additional staffing. We did this through staffing efficiencies achieved through attrition. As you know, we're

014not backfilling every position. Reallocation of existing staff to meet the clerical support needs at William O'Shea for Cottage Lane. And for athletics, we reduced the custodial and maintenance budget. We also reduced the IT service and some consultants. We made some reductions to field trips, which we discussed during the budget workshop. uh enrichments, extracurriculars, summer programming, and district-wide furniture. None of those have been eliminated. So, we really spent a lot of time today going and looking very closely at those lines and just reducing them. We are looking at our communication services mostly at the print materials we send home. We do send home a lot of print materials and we're going to be scaling back on some of those. We're recommending the use of approximately 1.89 million in ERS TRS reserves and unrestricted fund balance as

015follows. 500,000 from the ERS reserve, 500,000 from the TRS reserve, and 886,220 from the unrestricted fund balance. So, just to recap, we're proposing a tax levy increase at 2.31% use of ERS, TRS, and unrestricted reserves and the $2 million transfer to capital. Moving on, in my superintendent report, I also had the opportunity to go to the Wizard of Oz at SS. It was an amazing play. I've seen a lot of plays over the years at the middle school. That was by far one of the best performances. and it was sold out all three performances. There was not a seat available and that tells you a lot about the uh amount of work that went into it and the community support for our theater program. So, um I did send an email to the uh directors,

016Miss Fano, Miss Green, Mr. Bennett, Miss Pñena Carne. Uh, we also had um some people helping out with costume design and the set and sound and lighting and it was just an awesome performance. So, I'm glad that you all had the opportunity to attend with your families. That's great. In other news, we had all Eastern Honors musicians. Our Tabsy High School senior Angelique Cerbololis and juniors Allison Latimer and Lucas Whitik have been selected to perform in the prestigious 20125 National Association for Music Education All Eastern Honors Ensembles at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Connecticut. And that is from April 24th to April 27th. Angelique and Allison will perform with the All Eastern Honors Mix Course. Lucas, a violinist, will perform with the All Eastern Honors Orchestra. And throughout their high school careers, all three

017students have demonstrated ex exceptional musical talent, earning recognition from the New York State School Music Association, including All State and Area Allstate Honors. Their selection for this highly competitive event underscores their remarkable achievements as musicians. So, congratulations to Angelique and to [Applause] Allison. Moving on to uh another great achievement of one of our high school students, James Scari, for his first place finish at the Greater New York Automotive Dealers Association Automotive Technology Competition. And that took place on March 26th. James, who attends the Rockland Bosey's certified automative technology program, faced off against other students from across the region at the event, which features 12 challenge stations to test participants automotive knowledge and skills. So, I know last year, uh, the board supported us sending all of the kids to CEK who qualified for a seat,

018and you can see that our kids are thriving in that program, and it's great to see them achieving. In our math department, we had Tapenzy High School's math team achieve the top score in Rockland County, and this was the first time that this has happened since the pandemic. Based on their high scores in the Rockland County Math League competitions, four Tapenzee students, senior team captain Joey Wong, junior Jaywan Chay, and sophomores Jacob Kim and Dileia Spiegelman competed on the Rockland team at the New York State Math League Championship last Saturday at Shamonade High School in Minnola. Joey was the Rockland team's highest scorer at the state meet and the high scorer for the year in the Rockland County Math League. So, congratulations to the math team and thank you to Mr. Resnikov, Seth Resnikov, and

019the high school math department for giving our students the opportunity to compete. And finally, our Tapenzy High School Youth and Government attended the statewide conference. And this is a club that has uh come back in the last couple years. And so that took place uh from March 21st to March 23rd. We had delegates from Tapeny High School Youth and Government Club go up to Albany and participate in the New York State YMCA Youth and Government State Conference in in Albany as I said. So, it's a three-day learning conference in which students participate in mock government aspects and students can participate in either the legislative, judicial, or press branch. So, over the course of the weekend, our youth in government earned a number of honors. Uh our students were recognized for best bill which focuses on

020expanding the child performers uh trust to include child influencers. We also won best justice outstanding delegate. Uh and we had students who were selected to attend the conference on national affair affairs this summer and that was Sophie B and Griffin M and Mary M and Valencia M were selected as alternative delegates. Also, Isabella P and Michael H and Alexandre Alexandria W were selected to attend the YMCA National Judicial Competition this summer. And we had two students that were elected to state offices. So, that concludes my superintendent highlights and now I'm going to ask Mr. Arieta to come up to the podium. Oh, absolutely. Questions? Sure. Can you just repeat the um four um positions? Sure. Absolutely. So, the four positions that we are adding for next year, we are adding a 1.0 teacher for Cottage

021Lane Elementary School to reduce class size, a 1.0 physical education teacher to reduce class size at the secondary level, a 1.0 special education teacher at South Orangetown Middle School, and a 1.0 reading specialist for Tapenzy High School. But we're looking for someone who has dual certification in special education and reading. Um if if we can find somebody with that certification. Great. Thank you. Sure. Thank you. All right, Mr. Arietta. Um so my uh update this week, a couple of items. Uh the IMSC training. So if you remember, we're we're going through a a two-pronged um review. So first we looked at our foundational skills. That's our phonics uh program at William O'Hafer and our morphology and word study program at Cottage Lane. So those are are foundational skills. Um and so we decided on IMSC.

022Um the training is very rigorous. Um and so training is underway. We started our first uh cohort. Um as I as I've mentioned in previous board meetings, IMC provides training every single week um throughout the rest of the the school year. And so uh Dr. Scarth at Cottage Lane and Miss Beglin um at William O Schaefer are developing schedules along with Mr. Galvin and Dr. Paige. uh to get their their uh teachers trained in IMSC. So we had our first cohort this week uh seven teachers at uh William O Schaefer who started um Cottage Lane did not start this week because of the state tests. Um and so then we'll pick up um with the training with the next cohorts from both buildings um after the uh after the spring break. Um a couple of

023thank yous. Big thank you to, as I mentioned, the administration of both buildings uh for putting together these schedules and for being very flexible to accommodate the many needs of their buildings um and of their teachers and students during this very busy time of year, but getting the training uh off the ground. Um also a huge uh thank you to the faculty of William Schaffer and Cottage Lane u for their flexibility and their willingness to take on this uh very rigorous training. Um there's always a big unknown with any type of change uh that you implement and so I met with the the faculties of William O'Hafer and Cottage Lane yesterday. Um and they're, you know, they are um ready to kind of roll up their sleeves and jump into the training. And so it

024feels very much like we're moving in the in the right direction. Um one adjustment we did have to make because as we mentioned in the last um my last report is there's a lot of training to get done in a short amount of time. um and the end of the school year is very busy. And so with Cottage Lane with the state tests, obviously we're going to limit the amount of training that we do um in and around the state tests. So we've made the decision right now is that the fifth grade um will get trained in the fall. Um so they are the furthest away from the the phonics and those foundational skills. Um if if we're able to we're we're not going to prioritize the fifth grade. So if we can get them

025trained, we will. But we're going to prioritize kindergarten through through second grade at Schaefer. Absolutely. Everyone will get trained before the end of the school year. And then at Cottage Lane, third and fourth grade are will be the priority and they will all get trained. Um just that Cottage Lane had almost 50 teachers that needed to be trained. So um we're going to prioritize the third and fourth. If we don't get to them, um they will be the first trained in the in the fall. Um so connected uh to that the next update. So then we had the foundational skills which is the phonics and the the word study. And then we're currently in the process of looking at our ELA program, right? So our our uh our reading program for lack of a better

026term. Um so we're going to extend our timeline with that. So with the the number of teachers who are being pulled uh from the buildings um to pull more teachers to go visit other schools and to go to uh meetings to discuss um curriculum really would have had a huge impact on the the ability of the buildings to operate. Um and then also really for a from an education that's so that's a logistical perspective. Um but from an educational perspective is that we've had conversations and um as we're implementing IMSC we need to live in IMSC because to see what gaps um the strengths and the weaknesses of the program are um so that will inform our decision on what the reading program should be. Um and so we feel strongly that we need to

027experience IMSC um for a little bit as we're going through the fall um as we're kind of looking continuing to look at these different reading programs and visiting the schools and having the conversations about what reading programs we're going to do because there may there may be some things uh that IMS either addresses um in our reading program um that we would not have to prioritize or maybe some things that they don't um uh address so that we would not have to prioritize, but it's it's um I think we need to kind of live with that for a little bit so that we're able to then make a a recommendation on an ELA reading program um by December um of the of next school year. Um so I think this will give us a different

028more informed perspective um that we don't currently have. And I think that this is a you know it's a major decision and it's one that we want to make sure that we are considering all of the parts and the fact that we um have just adopted the uh fundamental skills the phonics and the morphology. I think we really need to take that into consideration uh before we decide on uh what the reading program will be. So the timeline will be um so we will continue to look at we still have the materials from the programs all you know the teachers are in the process of looking at those um you know getting questions and and uh that they have about those programs. Uh we've reached out we've identified some schools uh not a ton um

029in the the Rockland Westchester area that either have just implemented those programs um or that are planning to implement those programs. And we also have lists of other schools from throughout New York State. Um so then the plan would be in the fall to visit some that we can to do Zooms with others to pull the EL team ELA team back together and then to make a recommendation uh to the board uh by December um right in time for the the budget process um for an adoption of the of the ELA program. Um, so that's where we are with the uh IMC is is uh the training is up and running and um uh ELA um a little bit of an extension on the process wanting to take into consideration the uh the work that

030we're doing with IMSC. Thanks, Mr. Arietta. And just to add that the some of the reading programs we were looking at do have phonics components. So there was the potential that we were going to purchase a reading program that had phonics, but what the team realized is that those programs did not do what an IMSE or some of the other phonics programs uh and that's why we adopted IMSSE questions. So I I just want to make sure I'm getting this right. The the LA team has decided has has requested that we don't make a move on any reading program that could possibly have a phonics component which could impact students. No. So I think the I think the clearer way to put it is that so we're we we decided to go with IMSC. Yes.

031And IMC is going to cover our So we had to bring in a phonics program, right? So that's going to cover our phonics and our our word study. So now as we go out and we start to look at reading programs, we want to make sure that IMSC complements the reading program correctly. And I think I don't think we'll know that until we've kind of lived in IMCE for a little while. Do we know of any breeding programs if if all of them have phonics? Uh they also when we when we heard from the reps um all of them have have components of a phonics program or of a word study program, but nothing to the the level that we would want, right? Um, so it's more of they they tell you that they have

032phonics and they tell you they have word study. Um, but as far as the level that we want and the and the intensity and the time that the teachers want to spend on and should be spending on phonics and word study, um, they don't meet that threshold. So the three programs that were presented, I think uh, two board meetings ago, were are we continuing with those? Yeah. So, those are still the ones going to look at other programs once we get to September or those would would still be the ones that I think that we would go ahead and we would look at. Um, I think so, as I mentioned, I think in the the previous board meeting as well is there hasn't been a lot of other districts that have adopted. Um, one of

033the things that we could potentially do is pull a couple more in as we start to learn of other districts that have uh adopted other programs. I mean, these three that we looked at were by and far the three of the six that we looked at were very much uh, you know, the the better of the six, for lack of a better a better term. Um, there might be some that we didn't look at um that maybe start to, you know, we start to hear experience of, you know, with other districts. Yeah, we're not wedded just to the three, but those were the three that came out. Yeah, those are the ones that we really, you know, we're not set on those three. I don't think we have to be. Okay. But we also don't

034want to we don't want to start adding too much to slow it down anymore. You know, I think we really want to make a decision by December. Um we really want the teachers to have an opportunity to uh to live in IMSE for a few months. They'll have experience the training. They'll have implemented it. They'll see how it either complements the you know the different reading programs or or not. Um and I think that has to be something that we take into consideration. And is the leadership team or the EL leadership are they getting the training in IMSC too? Yeah. So all those folks are teachers at you know at uh William O'Hafer in Cottage Lane. Um so they'll be getting the IMC every all the everybody else will be getting the IMC. There's we

035just we we met with IMC or we're speaking with IMC about the admin there's an administrator training for over the summer. Um so as we're observing this we can you know we'll have the the knowledge to to give feedback on the implementation of it. Um I'm a so again they'll they'll sell you whatever they can sell you. Um so Ise even we talked about the you know the fact that we have teaching assistants in a lot of classrooms. So believe it or not there's an IMC program for teaching assistants. Um what's that? Did we buy that program? Yeah there's we'll get there's an IMC for board of education members that will um no but they the more we sat on so Miss Beglin, Dr. Scarth, uh Mr. Galvin um Dr. Paige and I sat on

036this call when we were setting up the training and we were telling them kind of about what our needs were. Um, and so every every turn we took, we have a program for that. We have a program for that. Um, so we're prioritizing the classroom teachers and the special ed co- teachers um in like phase one, if you want to call it. And then as we go into phase two, that will be um our ENL teachers. That will be other teachers who our reading specialists also are in phase one um if they haven't gotten the training already. And then in phase two will be any other um staff members that also do teach reading but aren't in front of a a whole class at a time. And I think I asked last meeting about how

037many teachers we have that are currently trained or were previously trained in IMS. Yeah. So we have nine at um William O. Schaefer uh and we have one at Cottage Lane. Um, so the so what we're also doing is the most recent that we had someone trained. We had someone trained this this past year. Went for a refresher. All the others kind of range anywhere between like 2014 and 2022. Um, we'd really like to get them retrained. So we can do that with this. Yep. Oh, good. Yeah, we can get them. There's refreshers that that we can give them. um so that they're in phase one they'll get the refresher and then in phase two in the fall they'll get the full training. So the goal is to have everyone speaking the same language, everyone

038to have the same training um you know as quickly as possible. Regarding the reading programs to look past December um have you looked at what each of the three would take to get our teachers trained and when we would have that done by? Yeah. So, the uh the the the the foundational skills, the IMSC, and again, we've mentioned this before, that IMSCE is by far the most training of any of the foundational skills programs we looked at. The reading programs were all pretty similar um in not as it was more of like a an orientation to the program. So, a typical, this isn't wasn't for all three, but a typical was some type of daylong kick uh kickoff where they're just kind of getting uh used to the the program and that can be done

039either in August during the superintendent's conference days or um at the end of the school year depend we're going to make the decision early so we'll have time to to schedule that. Um and then what most of them had was some type of uh coaching support that they would come uh to the school either virtually or in person and then they would work with smaller uh groups of teachers. So nowhere near the the 30 hours, you know, a week-l long intensive training that the IMC requires. Um that was one of the questions Dr. Koulad asked me today. Um but it it does have training, but it's more about the orientation to the program. um not the level of sophistication and rigor that the IMY has or the number of hours. Yeah. Yeah. Any other questions?

040All right. Thank you. Thanks, Mr. Ariet. Appreciate it. So, also a part of my superintendent report tonight, we were supposed to have our computer science kids come up and uh give a demonstration of an app that they had created called Way to Go to help with our transportation becoming more efficient. Unfortunately, our lead presenter was not feeling well tonight. So, they are going to come probably to the next meeting. Uh, but also on the superintendent's uh agenda tonight, we wanted Mr. Trolo to uh share our new website that is going to be launched soon. So, Mr. Trolo, if you would come up with Miss Thanks. Hi. So, I'm Jen Satr. I'm Haley Robertson. And we're the district's communications team. And we're here tonight to preview our new website, uh, which will launch on Monday during

041the recess. And it's the culmination of an 18-monthlong process. So for some background, from October 2023 through March 2024, we held input sessions with staff, students, and parents across the district to inform the redesign project. At the same time, we reviewed analytics and made a list of enhancements that we wanted. Um, planning and site mapping began last May, and we started building our district and four school sites in early October. Throughout the course of the build, we worked closely with department and building administrators on content and design of their respective pages and sites. So knowing that our users spend less than two two minutes per visit, our focus was on maintaining the main navigation structure, which our focus group participants liked, while streamlining content to enable users to get to the information that they're seeking

042faster. So specifically, users asked uh for easier access to the schools from our district homepage. And our schools are also going to have um simpler URLs so that it'll be easier for families and students to access directly and to bookmark. Uh they our users also ask for links to most frequently used apps like Power School and Class Link and menus. So we've got two spots on our site that tackles that. Um our information for parents. So what we heard from parents particularly uh those with children in multiple schools was that they relied heavily on our current uh district for parents page. So we built out this page in the news site um as a one-stop resource to include attendance reporting um key links and forms. Okay. So since the current site was launched, the way

043that users access our site has changed. This redesign um provides a better user experience across devices, particularly mobile, which accounts for more than 34% of our web traffic, which is roughly double what it was when the current site launched in 2016. So I was just showing this, but it's not really behaving properly. So that's okay. To demo the Oh, yeah. Um, in addition, we look for opportunities to leverage the capabilities of the new platform to enhance user experience by presenting content in a more useful, efficient, and visually pleasing way. So, our new capital improvements web page uh provides detailed information about capital work happening on our campus and how these projects are funded. So, each project it has the funding source and a description of the work being done. And then we also have the

044completed work, but also descriptions of anticipated projects also with descriptions and funding sources. Our new directory is a huge upgrade from the Google Sheets that Haley and I have been maintaining manually and updating for the past nine years. Um this is a big lift from uh John John and George um in technology who handled linking the web platform to our district's human resources software so that the directory automatically updates and can be searched by name or location. The board of education page has also been enhanced by consolidating information so that the landing page is a one-stop location for users and now contains links to things like board docs but also u policies under review under review board policies and our meet the board bios. So, next steps. Um, George and John John are managing the

045technical aspects of the launch, which is scheduled for Monday, April 14th. And we're conducting website previews this week with buildings and at tomorrow's joint PTA meeting. We'll also notify users via parent square towards the end of this week that there may be a brief disrupt disruption to website access during the launch. And then over the recess, we'll review the new site to ensure that everything is operating as intended. And prior to school's reopening on April 23rd, an announcement communication will be sent via parents square with a link to an at a glance resource which will be posted on the site. And as with any new site, we expect a flurry of questions during the first week or two as users become acclimated to the new tool. Thank you for the opportunity to share this with

046you tonight. So before I before I open it up for questions, just thank you for an incredible job. I know this was a huge lift over 18 months with a lot of uh work and input. I we just saw this uh recently and I'm glad you're going out to staff meetings into the PTA so that everybody is familiar with the new platform. It is way better than what we had. It's much more aesthetically pleasing but much easier to navigate, easier for parents to find things and for staff as well. So, thank you for an amazing job. We're looking forward to the launch and I'll open it up for really was a team effort with the board. I think it looks I think it definitely looks more user friendly but I think overall it looks amazing.

047Very clean and easy to access things and I think you'll notice it most when you go on your phone. The mobile app was a huge it's going to be a game changer for a lot of families. It's very easy to get to different parts of it too which I think people are going to appreciate. So great work. Thank you. I really liked how you captured what the parent I was at one of the PTA meetings where you were asking for the feedback from parents. What are you looking for? What do you need? Menus is huge. Yes. So, and even the uh calendar I know that's what I utilize it for the most. So, it's it looks great. Thanks. And Miss Corbel, all the capital projects are on there. So, we're gonna we're gonna pull that

048together. We heard you. We were we were listening my calendar for everything everything that you have asked for is there. So, we'll get it to you in a different format, but that's what you were looking for. Great. Regarding that last statement of the flurry of questions, where should we direct them? Just email us to us and the communication atscd.org, but that will also be on the popup with the user guide. Um, yeah, there's always a little bit of a learning curve anytime there's a new tool, but um, yeah, and we're actually also going to the Capstone computer science class tomorrow afternoon, so they will definitely give us live feedback. So, does this have any interaction with the parent square? I mean, how is it going to they're two different platforms, correct? Is there any type

049of cooperation between the two? Will one hinder the other? I mean, this is going to be a lot more data, correct? Yeah. So, this is really more like the encyclopedia. Um, so we know that there are lots of different ways to communicate with our families. Um, this requires pull, right? So, people have to come to us, right? And so, this is kind of the encyclopedia. If I'm interested in the curriculum guide or things like that, I can come here and that's where this information lives. Parent Square is really more to push information to people. So um where they can receive that information more passively um doesn't require them to come to the website. We drive traffic to our website by using parent square or by using social media. So it's they kind of work in

050tandem. Um but really parent square is what will drive people to the site. But our website also comes up anytime you log into the the web from a district desktop or Chromebook. It comes up. It automatically comes up on the district page. So it's not just external users. It's our students and our staff every day who are seeing the website that it automatically comes up. I don't know if that helps to answer your question. It looks a lot I don't want to say cleaner because the previous setup is is fine but it is is lacking. uh the interface is not as good as this obviously. I think it look it came out great. It looks a lot more user friendly. I can't wait to use it and I'm glad that you guys were able to

051put all this hard work in, you know, based on input from the parents, the employees, etc. because the finished product looks fantastic. So, good job. Thank you. And this is a living site, so any feedback we get along the way, we'll make adjustments and changes. But great job. Amazing. Thank you guys. All right, that concludes my superintendence report. We'll move on to public commentary. Okay. Um, we do So 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,

052cannot be discussed at board meetings. References, 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 a 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 the 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

053time limit on each speaker until everyone is 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 and 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. Mara Lazda Hi, good evening. Um, I wasn't going to speak tonight, so I just wrote down a couple of notes. I don't have a paper here or anything. Um, but I didn't I wasn't planning to speak tonight, but something that Dr. Coleman said in the beginning of this meeting tonight um wanted

054me to made me bring up something that I've been thinking about for a while about these board meetings and that is just a comment that um that teachers consume 70% of the budget. And so this, you know, the questions we ask matter and the words we use matter. And you know, when we suggest that teachers consume 70% of the budget, what are we saying with that? Is it that they're consuming it or isn't an investment that the district is making um into our te with our teachers? So, I'm not a teacher myself, at least not in the district. So, the comments I'm making here are just like what I'm hearing as a parent and as a community member who attends these meetings. So, the question really I've been wanting to ask um and I don't

055expect an answer tonight, but I hope that maybe you'll go home and think about this is how do the board members see their roles working with the administrators and teachers of the district? What kind of professional relationship do you want to have with the teachers, students, and administrators? I mean, this would be really useful to know. I appreciate your commitment to accountability. I appreciate your commitment to thinking about the taxpayers, but attending these mo meetings over the past few years, it seems that some of these conversations that you are having are unnecessarily contentious and at times turn out to be not with all the information. So, let me just um I'll just mention two. I mean, one was the calling out of um the athletic director, Mr. pill, which then turns out he was serving

056um the school district at a at another event, which is why he wasn't here. The second is the tableabling of the robotics funding um for a week, which yes, it was funded um in a special meeting later. And then finally, again, this you know, this comment tonight of teachers consuming 70% of the the budget. So, I guess again I said, you know, I haven't thought, you know, this totally through. Um, I just kind of prompted to make this comment coming here tonight, but I really would encourage you to think about what kind of message do you want to send to not only the teachers about your investment in them and your interest in a constructive dialogue, but also the message that you're sending to me as a parent, as a community member, about the kind

057of relationship you want to be you want to have with each um each actor which each participant in the in the district itself. Thank you. Thank you. You can respond to that or I I would just say that my role on the board, the fiduciary responsibility of a board is actually not to the employees. The fiduciary responsibility is the children and the taxpayer first before. So anything that's done, at least my opinion by the board is done with those two things in mind first. And actually the teachers and they're super committed to the district. I appreciate that. I've met many and I think the administrators are as well. But we take the hat of the professional interaction with the admin and the teachers is actually third in the list of priorities for a board member.

058The first are the students and the second is the taxpayer. As a board member, our fiduciary responsibility is to those individuals. That's who elected us. We're sitting here as representatives of the taxpayer whose students are attending the district. So the most important at least my opinion the most important position of the board and our fiduciary responsibility to the people who voted for us are those two groups and this may be like come off as cold. I think again cannot say that any clearer. I think the teacher, the district administrators wholeheartedly are invested in doing well, but the board's role is to serve as the fiduciary for the taxpayer and the student first and second. So, we can stop. All right. Uh, we hold on one second. I just have a followup question for Miss Laza.

059I'm just curious how can we respond to you because we do work for you. So I'm just curious how we can best serve your question. Did you looking for an overall response from the board as a whole, a general statement, an individual board member to each state? Uh how they I guess would interpret your question and would be able to personally answer it. Uh, I'm just curious how we can best serve your concerns because I've seen you at many board of ed meetings and I'm curious if there's something or some way we can help you um, answer whatever issues you might have. Well, it's not just an issue that I have, right? and I was just sharing as far as you know other people my role as community members just said here's what I'm hearing

060right so you can do what you want I am right that I'm trying to share together myself how do you see a relationship between you and the teachers you and And my concern was because of some of these points of contention that I just didn't understand over the past year at one point. Second point is I really don't expect this. I think the best way to move forward is if I can't speak the rest of the board, so I would have to answer your question from a personal viewpoint and I'll get back to you within a reasonable amount of time, a week or two. Um, and I'll let you know how I see the board's relationship with the district and the taxpayers and the parents and so on and so forth, the stakeholders at at

061large. Um, but I can't speak for the rest of the board. Um, but like I said, we work for you. Uh if you go to a lot of the board of ed meetings, it is it's really dysfunctional. It's very aggressive. There's a lot of shouting. There's a lot of accusations. The public can be quite unruly. I think we have a great district where their discourse is very professional. I think we're able to have excellent conversation and accept feedback from the public. I don't remember it being like that all the time in this district, but I think we're getting to a better place where we're able to hear everybody's concerns. We may not agree, but I think we're getting to a much better place that we respect each other's viewpoints. And I appreciate you coming here

062as much as you do, and I want to make some time for you in the future. So, I can promise that I will personally uh contact you in the future. The rest of the board members, that's up to you guys. Thank you. And I'll just add that uh getting up and doing public commentary is not easy. Oh, yeah. Um, you know, it takes uh a lot of getting up there in my own personal experience and and getting rid of those jitters. So, to see you go up there a lot, it's it's impressive. Um, and I would just add also that if if you need to formulate questions or whatnot, you know, email will definitely be a great way to get in contact and get answers to any questions that you formulate, you know, whether it

063be now or later. Um, and we'll absolutely get back to you in a timely fashion. All right. So, we have board presentations or we we did that already. Yeah, we're done already. Okay. So, uh board discussion on any committee reports. I have one when All right. Okay. All right. So, we let's do one we do have one presentation before we do uh the committee. Not that important. just the budget adoption presentation. It's pretty quick. Thank you, Miss Espanel. I'll fast forward. Good evening. Um, so I wanted to put together a brief presentation on the the budget adoption date because I think it's important that you see how all the decisions are now um factored into the proposed budget. So I'll make it brief. The agenda is just briefly going over the timeline and the process

064um for the budget development for the 2526 school year. Um the proposed estimated revenues, the final tax cap calculation, the executive uh state aid proposal, revenue considerations. Then we'll go into the proposed estimated expenditures, the cons expenditure considerations, the transfer to capital and budget key notes and dates moving forward. So the budget process overview um the purpose of the budget is to align with academic priorities. A lot of these slides you did see before. I just wanted to consolidate it into a clean um close to final product. The academic priorities are reviewed during the budget process through collaboration with district administrators and the BOE. The budget supports the district's academic goals, operational goals, and administrative goals. It provides a timeline and structure for program requests or modifications to be considered and implemented. Um, and I

065just want to say it seems I think I I'm not sure if the process seems short or long, right? because it's a year-long process and it's really continuous. So, that's what I look to to do here is once, you know, we're going to continue every day looking at the budget over and over. I mean, it's close to the business office and I'll be reaching out to all the budget builders and the board with um further information before we even get into the next budget cycle. So looking at the process, starting in September and October, we set the budget calendar and I I put out budget documents to the budget builders for receiving their information. In November and December, much of the budget meetings occur with the budget builders. Um in January, that's where we really

066got to touch base with the board, especially this year, we had the special election. Um so we started uh formulating what the goals and information that the board can base decisions on. Um the tax cap calculation is started as a draft in January and it's submitted to the office of the state controller on March 1st. in February and March. That's really the meat of drilling down into the priorities of the district and seeing how that's able to um come into um a proposed budget that you'll see today. Um I think what was one gap that I realized in this budget cycle was in February while there was a lot of work happening, there was no workshop. So I think that did have a little bit of an impact on um moving forward with some decisions.

067And here we are, April. Um, the board will make a decision on adoption of the proposed budget and I will file the property tax report card by tomorrow. And the budget, the public vote is on the on May 20th. So, the first step in reaching um in figuring out the revenue for the district is figuring out what the tax cap um limit is. So this is the details of the calculation. If you see we spend a lot of time talking about the tax the capital exclusion every year where there's capital expenditures which is comprised of debt service which is principal and interest payments that we pay annually on outstanding debt. any new debt that we um draw down on, which we recently drew down on a ban uh bond anticipation note, which is a short-term

068loan um that will then be extended into a long-term. However, factored in this into this calculation is the interest that will come due in August. Um so the tax you'll see four lines down, we have the prior year capital tax levy exclusion. It's backed out of the calculation. And then towards the bottom, four lines up, you have the new tax capital tax levy exclusion, which are the numbers that we anticipate for the following year as far as capital expenditures. So those numbers kind of come in and out every year with the tax levy limit calculation. So for the f for a 2526 school year, the tax levy cap is calculated at 2.31%. This includes a 2 million um capital transfer. Um also that's just a portion of the capital exclusion which as I just mentioned

069includes um debt service other um expenditures that we pay to boseies related to rent um that will go factored into that. So, as we discussed before, the state aid uh the executive pro proposal is only a increase of $67,757. Um this was there was a notice that I received after the state aid runs were issued where it stated that due to our um data we should expect a further decrease which is what is reflected on the top line on the foundation aid line where you see the state aid run for 2526 shows a 12.2 2 million amount, but according to the notice I received from the state aid office, it's expected to be 11.7 U million on the foundation aid. So that was definitely a major challenge in the budget development for next year. Our

070state aid is basically flat at 0%. This slide includes all of the revenue items estimated for next year. You'll see the property tax levy at the cap is a total revenue amount of 91.1 million at the very top of the schedule. Um and the other significant amount, the next significant amount is the state aid which is 17.8 million. um interest was estimated at a um closer to actual and that was a great point raised by Dr. Coleman um so that we can maximize on additional revenues for the following year. Alto together I I want to note also in this budget as discussed with the board we're appropriating $500,000 $500,000 from the ERS reserve and another $500,000 from the TRS reserve. Um just as additional information we had a internal audit which is um an audit

071of processes and they advised that we should have a plan for use and funding of both of all the reserves. So where they're not just sitting there but there's actual there's an actual plan for a set amount or to use going forward year after year as well as replenishing the reserves. Say that again. Sorry. So back in the fall, we had an internal audit. Okay. And for the accounting department, they usually select special areas. So they selected the finance area. They looked at our reserves and they recommended that best practices is to have a written plan for use of our reserve funds. Since we have quite a bit, which is good for our district, some districts do not have as much. Um that there's a plan on using it. So, I'll develop something that indicates

072a percentage or like a ratio against the balances and how we may be able to then replenish those. When will this uh plan be available? I know it's it's infancy stages, but we'll be able to see it before the next budget process or Sure. Yeah, I think by the summer. It's nonbinding, right? I mean, it's nonbinding. It's just that we have an eye on it. So when we look at the projections where we talk about the cliff where we have a plan and not to say that that's just to solve the gap going forward it's it's going to be a combination of assessing you know reductions as well as use of of reserves and to also monitor how we're able to replenish that the replenishment piece also it's not just use it'll be both right

073huh it's also about replenishing the reserves replenishing seeing where we end year after year and changes in our operations s and you know what the net the net income is for for the district. So in factoring the reductions that were decided on at the last workshop the proposed budget is not 116 million anymore. We factored in the net savings of 1.1 million. So now we're at $115,289, um84, which is a budget-to-budget change of 4.24% and a dollar change of 4.6 million. And I don't want to leave out we're we're still using um unrestricted fund balance of $886,000 at the b very bottom of the page. So revenue considerations during the process. The tax levy is final upon voter approval. State aid final upon legislative approval. Um there's still a lot of uncertainty in state funding

074in the state funding formula. Um, our state aid allocation is pretty stagnant. Federal grants were reduced from 2024 to 2025 um, for our district. So, we had to absorb some of those salaries into the general fund and the tax levy cap formula versus the inflation rate is always a concern. Now, we'll go into the proposed expenditures. You'll see we're balanced at a proposed budget of expenditures of 115.2 million. Um the salaries on the top, the percentage has decreased a bit as u related to not backfilling certain retirement position uh positions of people that are retiring. Um and so salaries and benefits together districtwide comprise 70% of our budget. This is kind of um is a shortened version of what I'll do for the budget hearing. In the budget hearing, I'll have more percentages and pie

075charts so that it's um you can have a visual of what each category represents. Supplies and materials is at 2.5 million. Um just a $178,000 increase from the prior year. um contractual expected anticipated expenditures. Um those are usually all our services that we use from outside vendors such as a lot are from the facilities department for um repairs and maintenance that we need year after year. We have Bosey's a Bosey's budget of 12.9 million. And I just wanted to point out that transportation also has a Boseis line. I just I figured it's better to include it in the transportation category, but it's um it's Boseies is our contractor for some of the transportation services. Um transportation is at 6.6 million. Um has increased significantly. We have put out a bid this year and so that

076has also pushed up the the cost that we anticipate for next year. Um we have reduced our equipment expenditures for next year and again the debt payments principal and interest that 2.2 million is also factored in the tax levy calculation. That's our obligation for paying off some of our debt in the following school year. Transfer to other funds that is comprised of trans um 20% of our special education expenditures during the summer are um must be supported by the general fund. The 80% is then um reimbured by the state and a small portion is is set aside as about $5,000 to fund the food service fund shall we go under um that fund balance and they need a little bit of support but usually we're in good standing with the food service fund and the

077transfer to capital is the $2 million there within the transfer capital. As Dr. Kula informed, we have the Schaefer casework in eight classrooms and that will complete the construction in the classrooms at um at William William O. Schaefer. We have the nurses suite ADA restroom at TZ High School. um the school store entry and districtwide cameras and safety enhancements. Expenditure considerations are enrollment and student needs. We know that our enrollment is pretty stable. Um but changing demographics we need to remain mindful of. Um not only within our buildings, it may also it entails the the private um community as well. um contractual obligations including boseies, pension, health insurance, facilities, transportation, those are those costs usually increase um significantly especially uh benefits unfunded mandates from the state. One that's um something I need to look deeper

078into next year are for the the electrical school buses. So, we'll see where that goes. and we have open labor contracts. So I think next year once some of these items are settled it will also have a better start to the budget process. So we have a balanced budget at $115,289,084. Estimated revenues equal estimated expenditures for the 24 2526 school year. some key notes and I think on the taxpayer end that are good takeaways. The budgettobudget increase is 4.24%. The budget increase in dollars is 44.6 million. The tax levy at the cap is 2.31%. Uh the tax levy increase is 22 $2,61,48. Um, the estimated tax impact to a taxpayer with an assessed value of $200,000 is estimated to increase their school tax by $195 on an annual basis. And I just wanted to highlight

079that the assessed value is a value assessed is a a value um designated for tax purposes. So within your taxing jurisdiction there's like a pizza pie you can say and everyone is allocated a value so that then it's made whole. Um everyone that's how they then divide up divide how much each taxpayer is responsible for. So unlike the market value which is what your your house house can sell based on market funuations the assessed value is a percentage of that market value. And here it's approximately 34% of the market value. So the assessed value is approximately 34% of the market value. Um what was I going to say with that? So for instance, a million dollar house that a house that has a market value of a million dollars may be $350,000 in assessed value,

080which will mean the tax impact to that taxpayer is about let's say 300,000 $300 per year. Got it. So looking forward this these were the key dates during the budget development process. Um May 13th I will elaborate on this presentation for the budget hearing and on May 20th um is the public vote. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you. Thank you. Just give the board a second in case there's any questions. I didn't set. Okay, we can move back to committee reports. Um, I have one for facilities. I'll just go right with that. So on April 2nd, 2025, facilities committee uh met. Phase one, CL and William O'Shea work is ongoing. Substantial completion is on 8:22 and the cleaning will be done on 8:23. CPL punch list scheduled for 8:25 and 8:26. Spring break gym work

081at uh William Oafer and Cottage Lane Elementary. An update on the outdoor classrooms. Various material issues are going to be addressed during the spring break and into the summer. Other concerns are being investigated. Uh regarding phase 2 at Tabothy High School, the schedule review, we have abatement on 77 through 7:16. Gym floor being done during abatement week. Then we go on to spring break. We have abatement of two rooms between 4:14 and 419. abatement building will be closed as of 4:14. Uh the boiler room work will be done. It was agreed that the camps will be allowed in the building during times outside of the abatement period of 77 to 7:16 and there will be no customization of classroom 414. Then regarding the Tapati High School auditorium, we have April 11th the bid posting, June

0823rd, uh, opening, June 6th, qualifications, June 9th and 10th, recommendations, June 11th, facilities team, June 17th, board approval, and the construction schedule will be June 2026 after graduation through December 2026. Then we have phase three at homes received NISD fiscal review comments and then we have other items discussed was the William O Schaefer playground. Uh there was issues with drainage and per the CPL engineer the playground is about 10 years old. It's in good shape otherwise. So, they're going to review the cost of patching versus replacement. Uh, four companies have been um identified uh but none of them actually do patching. So, uh further investigation uh may be needed to see if there are any companies out there that do patching. Yeah. And just to add on to that, so I had a communication with

083John Galina, our director of safety this morning because I went out to the playground and I've been out a couple times, but last Friday and there are definitely areas that are sinking. Um, but to rip up the entire surface would obviously cost a lot of money. I think the quote came in at several hundred,000. He did tell me this morning that he is talking to a company that does do patching and so we're going to hopefully get some Oh, there you are, Mr. Galino. Yeah. You want to just another I have a meeting tomorrow 12:00 at the site uh for a price on patching. Excellent. Uh they're local. They're right in Jersey. So, we're going to see, you know, what he comes up with is aesthetically it might not be the best, but he says

084he might be able to make it work. Well, looking at the cost of replacing the whole thing, it was it was really um quite a number and it definitely um made me feel that, you know, searching out for those companies that do patching was well worth it. So, thank you. So, thank you for update you guys. Can I ask a question? Sure. So the patching is just for the like divots or the But what about like last I think in September we had that huge beehive that was located like at the entry to the playground and it was like underneath. It wasn't a divot. There was no like it was just a break or somewhere where they can get into. Would they be able to look at something like that as well? Wasn't aware of

085a beehive. But when you come in through the gates no there were two actually the playground walked up the ramp. I was on the pirate playground. Yep. I was not aware of beehives were stung and I think it was actually kindergarten. I mean you Yeah. I don't know if I don't know if the sink holes which I think what she's saying is it possibly there was a space with with the foundation sinking that a beehive was there. There was also one on the building multiple years with those issues. So it was like two years in a row of multiple kids working. Okay. That's the first I'm hearing about that frankly. U I could talk to facilities and see about a beehive. But there is another issue where the little houses are on the pirate playground.

086There's a if you notice, there's a tree adjacent to the playground. Well, there's a very large root that's growing underneath the surface that one of our estimators picked up on. It's pushing up. I mean, there's padding over it, but that the the fact that such a large root is there that could be causing some of the depressions with regard to siphoning out water from underneath. that could be affecting something with drainage. And the whole drainage was a theory from the engineer that that might be one cause. Another cause might be just when it was installed back in 2017. Possibly the compaction wasn't up to par, which could be causing some of these depressions. So, you don't really know until you investigate further. But if we could do patching and get another 10 years out of

087it and it's safe to keep cost down, I would think we'd want to Yeah, we're going to definitely try to do that. All right. So, what I'm hearing is just to make sure that uh where the beehive was is that that you know, we addressed it with facilities last year. Yeah. And we'll keep an eye on it. Yeah. Whoever's doing the patching, just let them know and see what they say. Yeah. The one area where that nest was was at the base of uh either I think the slide and there was a depression there. So, I don't know if the beehive would not have been there if the surface wasn't sunk, but we'll definitely keep an eye on it. 12:00 tomorrow. So, I'll ask him about it. And then there was also one on the

088side of the building that was exacerbating the issue. Okay. Thank you. All right. So um then on to the Tapzy High School nurses suite ADA restroom we have in the 2025 2026 budget the CPL is to issue a proposal and obtain feedback from a user group on that. And lastly we have discussions and future plans for the following um possibility of a putting green and a driving range and a field study um for all of our athletic fields. So that was facilities notes. I just wanted to say I'm very glad to see the boiler being worked on. I mean infrastructure is probably the most important thing facilities. So it makes me feel good that that's going to be underway. Um I just want to make sure we reiterated the camps that are going to be

089allowed during the abatement period in July. Which camps are those? It would be outside the abatement period and we were looking at the volleyball basketball. Mr. Eddie, do you want to share the update? Boys and girls. Yeah. So, just so I'm clear, the camps that we thought we might have to displace, they'll be able to operate in that time period. Correct. It actually worked in our favor. No, that's that's great. Parents concerned, some of the administrators were running the camp concerned. Yeah. And space and Yeah. So, that worked out. Glad to hear that. Can I ask a question? The um estimate for the putting green, are we paying for that estimate? No. Okay. Thank you. We we we pulled that off the facilities agenda. It is something that Mr. Rallow is looking at just from

090a grounds perspective. If the guys can do something, but we're not spending money for a vendor to come in and put synthetic uh putting surface and even if we had the money after we looked at some of the products, I don't think it would meet our needs. And I think that the other athletic fields need to take, you know. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Uh any other committee reports or is that it? Okay. Um if there's no other committee reports, we can move on to policies for review. We have two policies for review. Policy 2245 exeicio student member of the board in its first reading and we have policy 8113 extreme heat condition days in its first reading. Um so we can look over those. Um policy. So, they've been reviewed in policy. Does anyone want

091to speak to them or um have any questions or concerns or I was going to put Karen on the hot seat, but she ran out. So, um I just want to make sure everyone understands that both these policies, I believe, were statemandated and that they were inevitable. So, it's not like something that we came up on our own. Every school district is dealing with their own version of it. So, this would be the first implementation of both of them. So, obviously there will be the school will pivot accordingly. So, this will be the first iteration of both these these policies, but they're pretty standard, straightforward, like I said, statemandated. So, yeah. Uh, and one the one I Steve referenced before about the training that we went to in Albany, and I did sit on a,

092uh, round table with students uh, upstate New York that are currently sitting on their school board uh, or are the member and it was uh, very interesting to listen to and I think it's going to be a great asset to the district and for all the students, young and old. Yeah, we're looking forward to it. Great. All right. Um, so with those policies, now we can move on to board discussion of agenda items. So, I'll give you a few minutes if there's anything. Oh, uh, I sorry, the building um condition survey, when was the last one conducted? 2021. 2021. Thank you. Sorry, I have a question for you, Natalie. I'm not really up on this position. The supervisor of fiscal services. Can you explain that briefly? So, it's under your umbrella. I just want to

093make sure I have a better understanding of it. Okay. Okay. So, she was she just um went through her provisional period and I gave her a review and I recommend that we keep her. So, so now she'll be made permanent. But I thought you did everything with numbers. So I'm just curious what she does. [Laughter] Every number. Yeah. Have you seen this binder? Yeah. She gets to work behind the scenes. No, if you're happy. Yeah, I'm happy with her. Good judging. I think we're her and the other one and the whole team. Yes. Good. Thank you. We got a lot of work next year by the way. What's Don't next year. Next budget. So Oh, yeah. We're already starting. All right. Yeah, she has helped out. Oh, Karen's back. We had a policy question. Where

094were you? Sorry. It's like you knew it. You knew it was coming. I needed you. Out of here. We covered it. Sorry. All right. All right. If there's no changes to the agenda, we can move to make a motion to approve consent agenda categories 8 through 12. Motion. All in favor? I Are you asking a question, Rob? I couldn't hear you. Yeah. Wait. What are all What's number Oh, 8 through 12. Are you okay? Excellent. when he's lucky 13. All right. Um, we do have to read the resolution to adopt the school budget, but just a second for any new business before we do that. Is there anything else? I mean, I probably should have brought this up earlier. Uh, but it's been something on my mind. I attended a webinar and that was about,

095uh, basically social media and electronics with kids. And uh I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up that I think that we need to take a deeper dive next year. Um I know we were doing workshops before um basically informative sessions for parents. We talked about the dangers of vaping or social media etc. I think we need to revisit that um based on the webinar I had with uh I think it was a Dr. Deborah Heightener. I mean it was it was very informative about an hour and a half and uh I'm glad that the school provided me with that opportunity that I could attend the webinar but I mean I think that we need to come to terms with the fact and I was a parent that dug in early on in my kids

096development that I didn't want to be around electronics but that's not feasible. That's really not realistic. It's it's quite silly now that I think about it. Our kids are growing up with electronics 247. They only know a world with electronics. And there was a pool analogy that the doctor brought up that you essentially don't put a fence around the pool. you teach them how to swim. And I think that was pretty relevant to at least how I feel now. And I think that next year we need to revisit some type of in information distribution to parents because I'm lost when it comes to social media. My kids are much better at than I am. I don't know what they're doing at this point. I wish I did. So I think with all the the skill

097sets in this district, I think we should look at that next year. So that was an important webinar. I recommend if you can get her book I think uh I forget what the title is but overall it was a good session. I'm glad I was able to attend it. I appreciate the opportunity from the district. Absolutely. So one of our core goals as you know is responsible use of technology and I think we can look at that goal and look how we can um expand it. And there's the book that we ordered. That's a pro right there. It's sitting in my car. So this is the book. Uh I look forward to reading it. But it was a it was a great webinar and I think that there's a lot of training at our disposal

098being on the board of ed and I'm glad I made the time for this and even as a parent I'm glad I made a time for this. I look forward to reading this and and we're going to get you guys copies of the book. So Kathy, thank you for always emailing us to sign up with appreciate it. Those who didn't get a book, you will be getting a book. All right, we're moving on from new business. Um, I have to read the resolution to adopt the 2025 2026 school budget. Whereas the board of education has received and reviewed a proposed 2025 2026 school budget from the superintendent of schools inclusive of the information provided on the property tax report card. And whereas the board of education concurs with the superintendent's presentation of this budget as

099well as the recommendations with respect to all budgetary matters for the 2025 2026 school budget. Therefore, be it resolved that the board of education of the South Orangetown Central School District presents to its voters a proposed 2025 2026 school budget of [Music] $115,289,84. Motion to approve the proposed 2025 2026 school budget. Motion. Thank you, Dave. Second, Diana. Thank you. All in favor? I I All right. So, does it need to be unanimous to to go through? Uh, no. It doesn't need to be unanimous to go through. Board is an equal. I can't abstain. I You can't. No, you can't. Obstaining is like really narrow window. Um, the only reason I would vote no is just not because the administration didn't pour like so much mental effort to get where we are, but just as a

100warning to what is coming with regards to spending and we run up against that tax crap every year. The math does not add up there. Something's got to some there's got to be some way to figure it out in in the out years. Well, I'd like to say with that I don't you do whatever you want with your vote, but realize that you three are on the board no matter what next year. So, if you speak to them, I think you have a quorum right there. You can give your warning to them and then decide how you want to vote. I don't if you understand what my logic. Yeah. I mean, I don't the vote on who's going to be on the board next or not is also irrelevant because they're going to have to

101deal with the the problem too. So, uh I really when I'm sitting here I wanted to vote no. Not because the administration and not because um I just what irks me is the our reading scores are below 50%. We're spending f4$4 million more than last year. We are spending money from our savings account to get there and we had to play tricks with high interest rates that most likely if people are watching the capital markets may not be around for much longer. So what am I voting to approve? Um, I'm going to vote to approve it by very reluctantly, but I wanted the minutes to show that uh Coleman was contemplating a no. Please. Thank you. And it has nothing to do, I want to be clear, has nothing to do with, that's not a

102slight at the administration at all. They were handed a very challenging environment with raising rising inflation. We're getting we only got an additional 20k from New York State or 70k. So my wanting to vote no is not a slight in any way or towards the administration um or the fact they didn't pour a lot of their effort into try to get where we are today. So, it's more of a a statement on where where we're going and what we have to sort of figure out. And that's it for me. So, well, I'll just comment and say that we are definitely already talking about next year's budget. We were doing that this morning and we will be into the budgeting process much earlier. So, you will have plenty of opportunity for us to address next year's

103challenges either way. And I will just say too, I think we need to come out unanimous and I think I would encourage the voters to support this budget because if we don't get it passed, it'll just be even harder for us to to try to get it in the right direction going downstream. So yeah, I want to state that the board can unanimously support unanimously supporting the budget. I do want to note it in the minutes there's reluctant reluctance my my seat to vote yes. When is the next uh board brief? That's what you put out, right? Board brief. I think that the next board brief should be devoted wholly to the budget process and to the severity of the fiscal issues we we're going to encounter. I think it should be a very, I

104guess, thorough explanation. And I want to echo Rob's sentiment that I'm I'm supporting the budget, but I'm I'm scared. I'm definitely scared. And I think that that is being conveyed to all the administrators, the staff that we have serious challenge next year. And it's it's nothing that we can ignore or downplay. I mean, it's a serious problem we're going to have to deal with next year. And I think that the next board brief maybe should be something we all collectively agree on. Something that expresses the diligence and trying to figure out ways to make the budget work next year with lack of state aid, etc. I don't know. Something because everyone has the same concerns. We do, but I think maybe we need to find a a vessel, some type of medium to get it

105across to them. I don't know. Not a good idea. It's a good idea. All right. So, um, so that is a unanimous approval of the budget and, um, we'll work on that board brief like you said, Dave. So, look out for that at the beginning of next month. Motion to appro adjourn the meeting at We can't adjourn the meeting yet. We approve the consent agenda. Dr. lawyer. We have uh Mr. Madera and Miss Gonzalez here. He would like to bring them up and introduce them. On behalf of the administrative team and the schools, we want to thank the board of trustes and Dr. Koulat for allowing us to get out in advance of some really difficult hires. We're bringing forward Miss Ashley Gonzalez, who's going to be joining us as a world language Spanish teacher

106at South Orangetown Middle [Music] School, and Mr. Raul Madero who will be a physics teacher at Tapenzy High School. Former TZ graduate. I said former TZ graduate. Say something. Um, thank you guys uh for approving uh the changing school. I mean I've come from Massachusetts and I've been at Mount Vernon and changing schools is always a difficult process. Um, and during the hiring process here, it's been very welcoming and I'm very excited um, as an alumni. Um, but also, you know, being a student is very different than being a teacher. So, I'm very excited for something new and I'm excited to kind of see how that goes. Awesome. Thanks. Good evening, guys. Thank you so much for having me and I just want to thank you guys for this opportunity. I'm so excited. I'm so

107excited to not only join this school, but also to join your community. Um, and I vow that I'm always going to give 110% and I just can't thank you guys enough. So, thank you. Well, thank you. Thank you for being here and thanks for waiting so long for us to approve the consent agenda. Well, that's a great way to adjourn the meeting. Motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:16 p.m. Thank you everyone. Great meeting. All right. Thank you. All in favor? I