Board of Education Meeting 02/09/2026

001[laughter] [snorts] Okay. And get a motion to come out of executive session at 6:31. >> Angela >> second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Post 70. Thanks. All right. We'll call [clears throat] to order the Monday, February 9th regular board of ed meeting at 6:31. And we'll begin with the pledge, please. [clears throat] >> To the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. Just some housekeeping. Please take note of the emergency exits on the side behind you. Side and behind you. There's no smoking anywhere on school property. And if you wish to address the board, please sign in on the sheet provided. This meeting is being streamed on our YouTube page. So, just want

002to call out a couple of uh changes to the agenda before we get started. Under new business, item 11 will be changed from an approval to an a discussion. And under reports, item number 12 is going to be pulled and rescheduled due to a conflict. Okay. So, we will begin with correspondence. >> Good evening everyone. Just a reminder that next week school is closed um due to President's Week. The high school black and white dance happened on January 27th. And the family and community engagement meetings are coming up on March 4th at 6:30 at Montgomery Elementary School. And our DARE graduation for EC is happening on Wednesday, March 25th at 2 p.m. >> Okay. Accommodations. >> Commendations. The high school pops concert was held on January 13th. Walden's winter concert happened that on January 14th.

003East Coldenham's winter concert happened on January 15th. The middle school drama performance, Once Upon a Mattress, happened on January 16th and 20th. And I just want to thank everyone because there was a snow um delay and we had to cancel and there was still a great turnout. The UPK information night and application release was on January 22nd. Berea's winter concert was on January 27th. The middle school 7th and 8th social was on January 30th. Berea's, excuse me, EC's drama production was on February 5th and 6th. Montgomery's drama production was on February 5th and 6th. And then the high school Viking cheerleading competition was on February 7th. Thank you. >> Great. All right. Before we go on, I just have a couple commendations myself. First, I want to congratulate the uh SRP and Perry unit and

004central office for successfully working and signing the new contract which the board approved on January 28th. So, I appreciate everybody's hard work and dedication for that. And I also just want to acknowledge um January 28th was Ellen Mcolddrich's last board meeting. So, she's she's uh happily retired and we extend our thanks to Ellen for her years of service as the district clerk and wish her well. And if you're watching, hang up. [laughter] >> All right. Okay. Uh we're going to move on to the consent agenda and we're going to uh pull item A1 to do separately. So, if I can get a motion to approve the consent agenda last >> not on consent. What do you want to pull? >> Okay. What is it? Number four. C4. >> Yeah. This one. >> Oh, okay. Just

005>> for discussion. >> Okay. Discussion. >> Okay, that's fine. All right. So, we're going to pull A1 and C4 and we'll do them separately. So, I'm going to ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda less A1 and C4. >> Second. >> J. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? 70. Thank you. Can I get a motion for the approval of A1 >> Katie? Second, >> Diana. Discussion. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? >> Bob. >> Okay. 61. Thank you. Uh motion to approve C4. >> I'll make a motion. >> Diana second. >> Angela. Discussion. >> I'd like to discuss that item. Sure. Um, I just think that our in-house food service can provide that to the district. Um, I think that it would be, you know, a good morale booster for our people to

006be able to provide that for the um for the district and I I um be interested to hear what our need for food service director would have to say about taking that on. Well, I think we tried we had used them in the past, right? And >> a new director now, so I think it might be a different story. >> Okay. Well, we can vote and see where it lands and then Okay. All right. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. J. >> Okay. Passes 52. Thank you. Okay. Next, we'll move on to reports, and we're going to begin with our student reps. So, for our February report, we would like to start with our achievements. And on January 19th, the girls wrestling placed fifth out of 44 teams in their Winster Lady Black Knight

007International. On January 29th, the high school's varsity girls wrestling hosted their first dual home match against Middletown. Boys and girls track team had a fantastic performance at section 9 championships on January 21st. The varsity swim team went another night on January 28th and again the day after on January 29th. Students represented Valley Central at the OCMA All County Senior High Festival at Cornwall on January 24th and 25th. Upcoming events includes the Spanish Honor Society sweetheart serenades on February 11th, modified sports registration opening February 16th, and the blood drive at Montgomery Fire Department and BC teachers on February 25th. school climate includes students are engaging with each other around school well and people wearing their ideas is becoming less of an issue and that's all >> what >> oh the Spanish honor society >> thank you

008all right next we'll move on to the superintendent of schools I was able to attend the high school winter pops concert. Um, as always, our children do a fantastic job in their performances. I do want to make a correction. The EC drama performance did not happen and it's been postponed. I do not have a date, but when I do, I'll I'll announce it at the next meeting. I did attend on Friday the Montgomery drama performance. Um, it was of Willy Wonka and the singing and the acting was just fascinating. Uh, that they are fifth graders and able to pull that off the way that they do in such a class act. I'm always amazed. I attended Spma committee meeting. They had um had a a meeting this Saturday to honor Black History Month as well

009as our ancestors and then the laying of the reef um on on the burial ground in Montgomery and had an opportunity to um listen and learn as well as hear from our students that attended. And then I also attended on Saturday our JV and varsity girls basketball game against Monroe Woodbury. And I have to tell you that they played their heart out. They won both games, but it was very close. The JV, we won by one point. And the girls went in overtime um at the varsity level did a fantastic job and showed sportsmanship all all through both games and were fantastic. Wonderful experience. >> Thank you. Next is the assistant superintendent for business. >> Thank you, Mr. President. The only few things I have tonight is as a special thanks to director facilities Ryan

010Schmidt, our maintenance foreman, Christrist. Ryan is here tonight. And a huge thank you to our custodial and grounds teams who have really worked their butts off this winter clearing snow, ice uh and dealing with the issues that you would expect with this uh I would say unusually cold weather, but it has feels like it has been a couple years since we've had this cold weather with various uh minor roof leaks, frozen pipes, uh things like that. and um that one big storm, they really did put in a lot of hours for us to be able to open uh on that Tuesday. So, a big thank you to them. Also, our transportation team over at First Student, they've dealt with a lot of very very cold mornings. Um but all the buses have been started and

011running and and on time. So, thanks to everybody. >> Yes. >> All right. Next is the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. >> Thank you. Good evening. Uh the curriculum instruction has been very busy. Uh bu building out our professional learning for tomorrow as our half day. Um, also looking at curriculum, obviously, uh, coursework, new electives and such at the secondary level. And, um, and again, how can we continue to expand on dual enrollment at our high school and grading specifically and and how can we adjust regent exams as f as the only thing for our final exam and potentially decoupling that. Um, other than that, I look forward to continuing to work with our teams. And that's all I have for tonight. >> Next is the assistant superintendent for human resources. >> So, I

012have a short report tonight. We have one teacher who is being recommended for hire on this agenda. Uh, had the pleasure of attending Walden's DARE graduation a couple of weeks ago, and it was a fantastic, wellput together event. Congratulations to all of the fifth graders at Walden on that achievement. And just a reminder about our upcoming job fair on Saturday, March 7th from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at Berea. Uh details on how to sign up sign up if you plan to attend are on our website. Uh we will also be sending out a message to the community shortly. That's it for me. >> Thank you. All right. Next is an update on our health and safety committee. >> Um unfortunately I wasn't able to attend the meeting. Um I got hung up at school

013and I just couldn't couldn't get here. However, I did get some notes for the meeting just to share a couple points. Um, the bus cameras um are active and effective and um actually a couple of tickets have been issued and uh just be careful when you're driving around a bus with lights. Um and then just another thing I thought was worth me mentioning is um just uniform signage for all the buildings for first responders. If they have to show up to a building, they can easily see where they need to go and have it kind of be uniform across the district. I thought those are two pretty pretty important things. >> Okay, thank you. Uh, next is the Oxa delegates meeting. >> Yes, I attended that. Um, they had a guest speaker who was a

014retired US Army [snorts] um civil service um panel. Uh, he talked about the um the vital role of civic service in education. Um, the American Legion has a program where they come into schools um as early as [cough] elementary school to um educate children about um civic service. Um he had a lot of great um ideas to get kids involved. Um he starts out you know in the elementary um saying service it can be as simple as making your bed in the morning. Um you know it's your sort of responsibility. um you slept in it, so you get you get the fix. Um anyway, um they have programs. They work with many of our local um school districts and so I think it' be a great um great program to get involved with information. [cough]

015[clears throat] [snorts and laughter] >> All right. Thank you. Uh next is PTA council. >> That's me. PTA Council. Um, we talked about the job fair. I know you'll be happy about that. Um, what else was uh we talked about founders night nominations. We got to vote on who we all thought would be the best. Um, there was some talk about fifth grade graduation and people wanting to move at different places. Um, and I guess probably the biggest thing for me is I don't and I have kids in the district, but it's it's wild how much the PTA and PTO's actually do. And sitting in a room with a representative from every single school and have them talking about the events they're doing and all the things they pull together for the kids is just

016really impressive. And I think shame on me for not realizing just how much they really do. But it's really I'm really enjoying my time on this committee and hearing about all the things that they're doing. It's not just the elementary kids. do a lot for elementary, but all the way up through the high school. I think some of the high school students, they had like um like a snack thing, right, recently. And you guys like food, right? So, they're trying to find ways to incorporate everybody. So, it's really I enjoy my time on the committee. That's all. >> All right. Thank you. Uh next is the Nigba Capital Conference. >> Uh I'm the representative, but I was unable to attend. I was unable to go to Albany for the lobby day on Friday. Couldn't take

017off. But uh UPK has been a big uh topic for the past couple of years. Uh Scufus um has been very vocal about UPK and um I don't know I don't know if you guys got this email from uh uh where Governor Hokll has included two key provisions relating to preK expansion um starting in 2829 with a full uh UPK program. So that's exciting to hear. We'll see how that works out. But for the past couple years at the lobby day, many um many of the school districts have been lobbying for more resources for UPK. So, and I it was also mentioned on Friday. That's all I got. >> All right. Next, uh we have our student engagement presentation. Do you want to introduce? >> So, um I'm going to start the presentation and turn

018it over to Dr. Leblanc. So just wanted to uh share a few and give a little bit of background um before Dr. Leblanc came up. So this year we have uh started to deepen our work in student engagement and just wanted to briefly go through over the last three years about our work because we have been focusing on student engagement for the last three years and each year we get deeper and deeper. So in 2023 we began to just lift what student engagement is. We launched it off in May of 2023 and really began to talk about the ABCs of student engagement. Dr. Leblanc will go into more detail. I don't want to steal his thunder. Um, we then went into phase one where we were really talking about, well, what does that look look

019like actually in classrooms? We worked with principles to to make sure we're calibrated on what we're looking for and actually provided professional learning from October that year and continue to do that throughout the year looking in classrooms and looking at indicators of student engagement. [snorts] In 2024, we looked at the data because we were collecting data about what's happening and we realized that there was minimum discourse in most of our classes across the district. Children were and students were extremely respectful and and um compliant in classrooms, but we really wanted to move them into having critical discourse alignment with our vision and mission to have highlevel conversations and to ask questions. So we began to deepen the work and focus on three indicators in deepening that work and that was one having discourse two sharing

020their work so they're presenting their work and three collaborating with each other so that they are working together as a team [clears throat] or a or a group. And this year we went even further to deepen our work that we're focusing on learning targets and continuing to work on DK which is higher level order thinking skills. And so some of the things that we've done, we started day day two um or actually day one of this year where we started with professional learning for the secondary on learning targets. There were turnkey sessions for APS and coaches. There's ongoing professional learning that will be happening with Dr. Leblanc as well as classroom visits. We have one coming this Thursday. And I just wanted to share how each step is just getting closer to making sure that

021we are building on so that we're not starting new every year, but that we're building on uh the work that already exists. And this aligns with our strategic plan and definitely the student engagement. Those are the ABCs and goes right into the classroom in regard to questioning and learning targets. What you will see is the portrait of the graduate from the state level and how it aligns. At the center of the portrait of the graduate, you will see cultural responsive sustaining education that was developed in 2017 and we are now looking at it here on a on a on a lower level right now. Um and that is that it aligns with our strategic plan. When you have welcoming and affirming environment which aligns to priority two, high expectation and rigorous instruction which aligns to

022priority one. Inclusive curriculum and and assessment goes into both one and two. And then ongoing professional level le uh learning goes into priority one. And so we have a very dedicated staff that works extremely hard and we also have others who come and help us and assist us. And so in December we had a presentation from Mrs. Stellatano who really supported us with our culture and climate and then also um that continues to support us around data. Dr. Leblanc supports us in in the academic and instructional all of the stuff that we do the teachers the students the parents the the consultants really help contribute to the gains that we made this year in the New York State assessment. And I just wanted to briefly share that on how well we did. I did show

023this at convocation but wanted to applaud everyone who has contributed to that. It is not one person, it's all of us together and it takes a village to get here and I just wanted to highlight that. Um when you hear Dr. Blancill talk about the instructional pieces and the avenues in which he works on um that has contributed to this piece. Um and so we did uh go up tremendously. If you see that in ELA that we went up 15 points in grades three to five and a math three 3% and then in six to eight we went up 5% in each curriculum area and this is our graduation rate and the regions. I'm not going to go through each and every one of them um but I do want to highlight the fact that

024we went up um in our graduation rate last year and that is not easy to do. And so with that I'm going to as it takes a village turn it over to Dr. Leblanc. >> [clears throat] >> Uh so good evening. Um I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you this evening. My name is Jess Leblanc. I've had the pleasure of supporting the district for for many years. Uh and I'm excited tonight to talk a bit about the work that we have been doing. Um as Superintendent A has said, how we are extending the work um from our strategic plan and focusing on those three priority areas. Um just a little bit about my background. I am a professor in developmental psychologist and professor at Hunter College in the school of education. Uh so I

025spend um my time preparing teachers, school leaders and and counselors. Uh I also serve as an educational consultant to to uh local area districts. I'm from Duchess County, Arlington schools. Uh but I also um work with different area districts locally including the Kingston City Schools uh along with the New York City public schools. My work in teacher education and developmental psychology is related to a lot of the research that I do um through a book that I published not long ago which really focuses on how do we develop school communities that are fostering student engagement, fostering a sense of connection and sense of belonging. Uh and those are the things that have been undergirling the work that I've been doing here and I just wanted to say that prior to uh superintendent Avala uh the

026focus of my work has been more specifically on culturally responsive practice uh and also social emotional learning. Um since uh Superintendent Avala's arrival, I have expanded that work but deepened the work to focus on three core areas. Focusing on district level policies, looking at our practices and particularly our instructional practices and also some of our procedures. And so those are the things that I'll be talking about in the next few minutes. From a student engagement perspective, as Superintendent Avala mentioned, the work around student engagement is very much related to our broader strategic plan. Uh and so when we think about engagement, one of the things we realized immediately is that we needed to have a understanding of what we meant by engagement and a collective way of defining it. Uh and so the first thing

027that we did was to really think about what do we mean by engagement and more importantly how do we see that showing up in our students. And so a good part of the work has been to identify different areas of engagement, what it looks like in practice and then going into classrooms and observing and providing feedback and support to teachers. Uh I've also helped to develop the tool that we have been using as we've been doing the walkthroughs as superintendent AA mentioned. Uh and I've also helped to participate in some of the classroom visits. None of the work that I'm reporting out this evening would be possible without the hard work of the teachers, uh the staff, all the professional staff and administrators of the district. Uh and so everything that I'm talking about here

028are just things that I've helped to support. Uh I've also helped to focus on the instructional piece as superintendent AA mentioned. We have been leaning into the work around learning targets and also focusing on classroom questioning. Um as you know with the district rolling out um CKLA within it are certain strategies for instruction and so we want to expand those strategies and provide direct support. Uh I've also had the privilege of of helping to facilitate a model classroom project where I'm working with teachers representing all of the schools across the district and we've been working explicitly about how do we develop instructional strategies that align with student engagement and also building out learning targets again for the goal of deepening understanding in the classrooms. Um and then thirdly I've also helped to support and this

029is in collaboration um with Nick Stellatano and his work and his team. I'm focusing on now that we've identified our different priority areas, looking at our discipline practices, our behavioral practices to see whether or not they align with our bigger goals around how do we foster engagement, foster a sense of connection and a sense of belonging. And so through that work, I've been working with that team um to look at our documents, revise those documents. I've led work um district level work with administrators and teachers representing all the buildings in the district to look at our policies and practices regarding that. Um as superintendent Avala mentioned, we look at student engagement. we've been focusing on three areas. Um so a a effective engagement is is about this idea of positive emotions, motivation, a sense of

030belonging. Behavioral engagement is demonstrated through active participation. And I use the term demonstrated intentionally because of all of this work, we're looking at how students are demonstrating their engagement. It isn't about what adults think. It's about how students are demonstrating it. And so as we look at the demonstration of engagement, what we're looking for growths in some of these indicators that I'll show in a moment, but that's really the idea is how do students demonstrate their engagement? So we've developed tools and practices for being able to assess that and report back out. Uh for example, when we look at student engagement, here are some of the indicators that we're looking for when we go into classroom. So everything from collaborating with peers among students to how they respond to questions. And so all of these

031things are indications of their engagement within the classroom. And we're so we're tracking that. We're looking to see what the level of engagement is and what we can do to foster that. Some of the things that we've noticed through our walkthroughs is from fall 24 to 1225, we've seen increases in engagement as demonstrated through these three areas. Um on the prior slide, I showed a number of different indicators. What we've tried to do is to move with depth, but also at an appropriate pace. And so we've identified three of the areas to focus on right now with the goal of then expanding this work as we move forward. What we also found through our student engagement outcomes. We looked at our survey data from 2024 to 2025. And so what I did was I looked

032at the 2024 questions that most align with student engagement indicators. I then looked at the 2025 data and you'll see here in green one of the topics on the 2025 survey focuses on a sense of belonging. The other topic is around student engagement explicitly. And so through those two areas, we've seen growth in student engagement across those two areas from fall 2024 to fall 2025. as demonstrated across these questions that have mapped on here. And so we've been very encouraged by the growth and engagement that we've been able to notice both through our walkthroughs but also through the student surveys and how they report out these particular dimensions. From an instructional perspective, I've also helped to as I mentioned lead the model classroom piece. And so one of the things that has been really exciting

033is the impact that participation in this kind of collaborative process has also had not just on the teachers but also on their students. And so just a few things here. Teachers have mentioned how it's deepened their understanding of student engagement by participating in this collaborative way. Helped them to be more reflexive in their teaching and intentional helped them to grow in terms of the kinds of decisions that they make in their instruction. But also one of the things to highlight is that the work of the model classroom has also been rippling out to other buildings. So teachers who participated are going going back to their schools and employing some of the practices that we've been working on in our model classroom group. For example, intra visitation is going to their colleagues classrooms and providing support

034and feedback to them. So we're looking at how do we extend this work? How do we ripple this work out throughout the throughout the district and this is just one of the examples through the model classroom project work um through the behavior and discipline work that we've been doing. We've also looked at things like developing a discipline matrix and really thinking about how do our how does our priority areas inform some of the current policies that we have and what are the things that we need to do differently. Uh we've had a revision of our student dress code policy. One of the things that we noted as we were revising a lot of these documents is a lot of the language of the documents is very much about what students shouldn't be doing, what they

035ought not be doing rather than talking about the things that we want, right? So what are the goals that we want for our students? And so that's what we've been doing is really focusing on what are the things that we would want to see our students demonstrate. Uh we've also thought about what is our philosophy? What's the guiding principles that undergurt all of these things? Um and so what we've noticed is that through the work that we've been doing both codifying our practices through these policies year-to-year. So if we look at fall 2023 24 all the way to fall 2025 2026 one of the things that we found is over almost a 36% decrease in student suspensions. And so we've been very very intentional about thinking about our practices uh and some of the needs

036that students are demonstrating and thinking about how we might respond to those needs differently. So ultimately, as the superintendent noted, all the work that we're doing is related to our priority areas and very much focused on preparing us to be able to focus much more specifically on the portrait of a graduate attributes. And so all the work that we're doing around engagement, around instruction, around the behavior and discipline practices very much relate to the competencies that are embedded within with within the portrait of a graduate. So everything that we're doing is mission aligned and that we're working collaboratively across the different consultants within the district. Right. So thank you for very much for the opportunity to share. >> Question. >> I have a question. >> Sure. >> Um when you talk about the decrease in

037suspensions, why is that? Is that we're not holding those students accountable anymore or how like what's the difference? >> So comp complicated question requires a complicated answer. I think there are multiple things. One of the things that I think we're seeing is that with the increase in student engagement, that's one aspect of it. And so I believe and I and we have to still tear apart a lot of that data, but increasing in student engagement is very much been associated with decreases in college. And so that's one of the results for us is our students feeling more engaged. Are they feeling more motivated? Are they feeling more self-efficacious? Do they have a belief that they can be successful? The second part is I think that we've been doing a lot of work around instructional practices.

038A lot of some of the behaviors that we're seeing, the disciplined behaviors if you will, the problematic quote unquote behaviors oftentimes are avoidance. And so the question then becomes is what are students avoided? And I think that the teachers have done a very good job in administrator thinking about the classroom environment. What can we do to make sure that students feel safe and supported that they feel welcome? But what are the instructional practices that we can also use to make sure that students feel not just engaged effectively but also cognitively so that students are curious about their instruction that it reflects their lived experience. I think all those things contribute to us. That's great. Thank you. >> Any other questions? No. Thank you. >> All right. Next up is our director of data testing. >>

039[clears throat] >> Good evening, members of the board of education, superintendent Avula, Assistant Superintendent, and members of the school community. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Britney Ola, and I serve as the interim director of data accountability and instructional services here at Valley Central School District. I'd like to provide you with an overview tonight of the work in this department, the data accountability instructional services, and highlight how this work supports district priorities and most importantly leads to student success. Sorry. Our department's core focus is using data thoughtfully and responsibly to strengthen instruction, improve student outcomes, and ensure transparency and accountability across the district. So, our work includes several key areas. We oversee state data reporting, ensure accuracy, compliance, and timely submission of the data. We coordinate New York State

040testing including grades 3 through eight ELA math and science assessments, regions exams, NISA assessments, NISLAT and nice. We also manage school tool which is our student management system which supports attendance, grading, scheduling and communication. We are also working to strengthen MTSS and support students through AIS and provide instructional support and feedback through class the classroom observations and walkthroughs that were previously discussed by Dr. Blanc. Together, these systems allow us to move beyond compliance and use the data as a tool for continuous improvement. I'd like to highlight a few key areas of focus for the 25 Okay. Uh focus um highlight a few key focus areas for the 2526 school year that align to our district priorities as superintendent Abula had previously shown on the board. Our first priority is elevating student success and achievement. This

041year this department has been added along with the other departments in the district and continuing to provide instructional support and feedback through classroom observations and walkthroughs. This was not occurring previously. These visits are designed to support reflective practice and instructional growth and we are using the observational and assessment data to help inform instructional decisions both in the classroom and at the building level. This impact is uh of this impact of the work is twofold. The teachers will receive the timely feedback and that improves the um supports and instructional practices in the classroom and then the buildings are able to share that targeted feedback and increase student engagement and achievement. Our second priority centers on community belonging and VC pride with a strong emphasis on equity. We oversee data informed identification and modific and monitoring of

042AIS and instructional supports which helps ensure that students receive the help that they need at the right time. We have also worked to ensure equitable access to academic interventions across student groups supported by the AIS guidelines. As a result, students feel more supported, seen, and developed a stronger sense of belonging within our schools. Over time, this work contributes to reducing academic gaps and ensuring opportunities for success that are accessible to all of our learners here at Valley Central. Our third priority is clear and transparent communication. In keeping with this priority, we are committed to providing clear reporting on assessments, accountability, and student progress, and to ensure consistent communication across all of the buildings. This year also marks the launch of our first AIS newsletter, which is designed to help keep families informed about the supports

043and services and the instructional practices that are happening here at Valley Central. The impact of this work includes increased transparency and a shared understanding of district performance and families who are better informed and more connected to the instructional practices supporting their children while they're at school. The work of the data accountability instruction services department is about aligning systems, people, and practices centered around student success. By combining accurate data, reporting, and thoughtful analysis, as well as instructional support, and clear communication, we're building those structures to help continue uh the improvement and equity across our district. Thank you for your continued support um and our commitment to working with our students, staff, and community. And I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have. Any questions? >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay.

044All right. Uh, next, as I mentioned, the director of health, PE, and athletics is uh unable to attend tonight. So, we'll move that to the next meeting. So, we'll move on to the director of security. >> Thanks, Tom. Good evening everybody. Evening school board superintendent. Um just to piggyback off uh Mr. Leblanc, I think the numbers the numbers that you're going to see with the suspensions going down may be a reflection of also the numbers that are decreased uh in student offenses. [clears throat] So I think they all kind of correlate with each other. All right, department overview. um just continue maintain um possibly increase our level of security and personnel um more the better. Uh technology working with uh director technology um advancing just at light speed. Uh there's so much more we can

045we can move forward with. Um, I've been talking with the superintendent, assistant superintendent about, um, moving ahead on some projects that I think will uh, be helpful. Uh, as always, just continue the training for the faculty, staff, students on, um, the shell protocols. Um, active shooter. I schedule that twice a year for our law enforcement officers. And, uh, we do, uh, each school has a threat assessment team. Um and they get refresher course every year as well. Uh ongoing review, safety emergency plans as well as site assessments ongoing all the time. And uh the level of uh collaboration with the uh district and our law enforcement agencies is second to none. It's just have a ridiculous. We we all have a very good relationship with uh all law enforcement, federal, state, and local. Um, all

046right. Here's some of the highlights. Uh, I want to bring up the data. Um, obviously, you know, I'd like to try to keep lowering the uh student uh offenses and altercations. Um, I want to bring the data up. Tom, how do I get to the data? Okay. So, we'll [clears throat] start with the high school. Um, as you can see, right out of the gate, it doesn't look great. Um, because our electronic devices went from four to 549. So, that had a a pretty much adverse effect on our numbers. Um but overall uh this is the uh high school. So our physical altercations they're down 64%. Um even though in insubordination is up a little bit that's a byproduct of uh what's happening with the phones because a lot of times um students are insubordinate

047because their phones being taken away or sometimes if it's a second third offense it be also becomes an insubordination. So hence the uh the insubordination uh increase just a byproduct of the electronic devices but uh the numbers are pretty good. uh they just keep decreasing. Um so you'll see here it looks doesn't look good. It's 111% but if you take the phones out we have a decrease of 39 another 39%. So our total offenses have gone down from 360 down to 219 over the last four years. Uh numbers are trending pretty well. Um, before I move on, does anybody have any questions about the numbers on on this one? Okay. >> I'm sorry. >> Yeah, >> you know, 10,000. [laughter] Thanks. Thanks for pointing that, pointing that out. >> Okay, >> I have a question.

048So you you referenced the increase in insubordination to the cell phone usage. >> Yes. >> Cell phone usage is on this tracking sheet as part of security. I guess I'm a little confused as to why it's on here. >> Why the electronic devices? >> It's it's part of uh the student you uh student actions offenses. It's considered an offense. if a student's caught with a phone now since that was instituted in September by uh Governor Hokll. So that has become a disciplinary issue. >> Okay. But that's part of your department. I guess that's what I was confused about. >> No, it's just it's just showing that the increase from 4 to 549 and that it it has become a little bit of a discipline issue. >> Okay. Okay, so that was the high school, middle

049school. Okay, middle school. Um, again, physical altercations are down. Now, it's scrolling all over. They're down 82% here in the middle school. Uh, down from 44 to 8. Um again the phones the phone uh the electronic devices they've gone from 4 to 31. So that that that gave us a little bit of an increase. So, if you just if you want to digest the numbers for a moment, um, and you have any questions. Um, so total offenses have gone down from 113 down to, uh, 106, which presents a, uh, a 31% decrease. So, the numbers keep trending lower and lower and lower. These are really good numbers. Um, don't know how much lower we can get them, but we're working on it. Uh, and basically support of the school board, superintendent, the staff, uh, has

050really been helpful in that, uh, in supporting that endeavor. Um, okay. Oh, Tom messed something up. just >> there we go. Thanks. Uh priority two just uh as I had mentioned just keep engaging with the technology um engaging with our outside vendors to uh stay current. Um as you all know we uh we have every vestu has a visitor site now. We have swipe cards and we're we're looking to you know move on on that. Um, at some point I'd like to go keyless in the district. Um, that's a bit that'll be a big ask. Uh, and again, uh, just continue to use effective training methods. Uh, provide the, uh, active shooter training and provide the, uh, factor staff with the, uh, emergency protocol training and updates. Um, it's kind of it in a nutshell.

051Anybody has any questions? I'd be happy to ask. >> You're good. >> Thank you. Next, we'll move on to the director of technology. Good evening, board of education members, central office administration, uh community members, faculty, staff, parents, and especially our students. Uh my name is Dr. Vincent Broncado. I'm the director of innovation and technology. Thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to speak with you this evening on a few of our technology initiatives. So technology, we really support many areas of the district. U give you a brief overview right now. So cyber security, hardware, software, instructional and non-instructional, ticketing system and events. Uh for cyber security, I like to think of that in four big buckets, four areas. We have the tools, we have how we use those tools, training our staff, and

052then incident response. So our team takes care of all of those areas. Hardware. So, we have to look at our device refresh. Make sure our students have Chromebooks, teachers have uh devices as well as these Prometheian boards that are uh allowing us to present and use instructionally. Uh repairs. Uh we see a lot of Chromebook uh damage. So, our our team really works hard to make sure we have enough working devices for all of our students throughout the school year. Uh asset tags. We need to make sure we have each uh item piece uh inventoried to make sure we know what we have and where it is. uh construction and then network infrastructure, all of our Wi-Fi and everything like that. Software, we support professional development. So, teaching and learning, how are we using those

053tools in the classroom as well as in the office and anywhere else uh for um uh what's it called? The uh heating and electric. There we go. Uh data integration. So, a lot of the backend items that you would never see. How do we make sure students can log in seamlessly? There's a lot of backend data work. Ed Law 2D, making sure we're compliant with the law. Um, we're only sharing data with uh approved vendors. We'll look at new requests and make sure our emergency systems are working. This year, we also really kicked off, we fully kicked off the ticketing system. So, all of our uh requests when staff needs help or students need help with some technology needs, they'll put in a ticket and that ticket will get to the right person pretty quickly.

054So, it's really uh an excellent initiative. uh we've we've seen an increase in use in I would say three 300% in our ticket. So our issues submitted and completed by technicians instead of calling five people for help it gets routed to the right person to get get that handled as quickly as possible. And then events like live streaming like we are right now. So we have three uh priorities this school year. Uh the first one is maximizing resources. So I mentioned we have a large amount of Chromebook damage um especially at the secondary level. So, we're looking at some different things to reduce that damage. One of which we're piloting Chromebook cases. So, we'll have some hard hard case uh for our sixth grade students this school year. We're piloting that uh very soon. Uh

055hopefully we'll see a reducing a reduction in damage and then if that's the case, we could look at purchasing more. Um we we piloted some uh insurance on these devices for for a quicker turnaround and repair and then digital citizenship. So how are students really treating the technology um as part of uh the 21st century tools? Uh part two uh priority two would be the cyber security program. So we've implemented a lot of tools this school year uh fishing campaigns. So fishing is a big issue in our society nowadays. Some folks who really want to um do a lot of damage will send a fake email looking like a real email and causing a lot of issues. So, we we send out practice simulations to our staff to make sure that they know how to

056identify um real emails versus uh uh someone who's trying to trick you into sharing too much information. And then multiffactor, just another way to secure our network. And then again, that ticketing system for full uh full implementation this school year. Um and that's all I have for the technology division. I know it was a lot of information very quickly. So, if you have any questions um I'd love to hear them. >> Questions? Anyone? No. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> All right. Next, we'll move on to community participation and we'll begin with Bob. >> Uh, no report this. >> All right, Fran. >> Uh, I attended the policy committee meeting on February 3rd. Very productive as you saw from today's approvals or readings, I should say. >> J the

057report. >> Andrew, >> uh, yes, I attended the policy meeting. Um, and also I attended a gymnastics meet at Wal Hill. >> Diana, >> uh, I attended the winter concert at Walden Elementary. Um, the fourth grade band has grown so much. It is the largest band I think that they've ever had, um, at Walden Elementary. And so it was so large that they couldn't fit all the parents in. So they had to separate the concert. They had the fourth and the the fourth grade band and chorus first and then an hour later the fifth graders performed. So it worked out very well and it was much better for the parking situation as well because as we know it's very difficult. Um the students performed very well. Um it was just really wonderful night for everybody

058and I also attended the um Walden DARE graduation. >> Okay for me. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. I um went to the varsity basketball game last week. That was a good game. They won, so that was exciting. And I also [clears throat] attended the uh Spoma event on Saturday um at the town. I didn't go to the Ruth Wing. It was cold. I'm fragile. So [laughter] um but they do have a new website, sacred placeofmy ancestors.org if anybody wants to check it out. There's a lot of good information out there. So that's good. Thank you. Okay, next we're going to move on to public comment. >> Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to begin our public comment portion of our meeting. We have public comment because it is important for us to hear concerns

059and issues from our community members. Please note that the board is here to listen and public comment is not designed to be a discussion. If needed, the board or designated staff member will research your concerns and get back to you accordingly. We want our schoolboard meetings to serve as an example to our students. So, I ask that we demonstrate mutual respect. We ask that speakers address their comments to the board directly, and we will insist that all speakers and members of the audience maintain civility and respect on opposing views. The board reserves the right to shorten a speaker's time if that speaker violates the board's public comment rules. I also want to point out that under board policy, we do not entertain any comments or questions about specific school personnel or individual students by name

060or by implication. Please know, however, that we take personnel and student concerns very seriously. On these matters, we ask that you review our board policies and go through the appropriate administrative channels. The board will now entertain public comment for 30 minutes. Each individual speaker is allotted four minutes. The individual time limits will be enforced so that as many members of the public who wish to to speak may be allowed to do so. >> Okay. Thank you. We're safe. >> One speaker, uh, Emma Donovan. [snorts] >> [clears throat] >> Hello everyone. My name is Emma Donovan and I'm an eighth grader at Valley Central Middle School. I have been going to Valley Central my whole life. I went to East Coldenham kindergarten through 4th and in fifth grade I moved to Maybrook at West McGomery Elementary.

061I was brand new and didn't know anyone and my first day there this kid started picking on me. I let it go because I was new and I was the fresh me. I didn't know anyone there. [clears throat] And on my second day, he kept going, saying, "You're going to break the floor because you're so fat." I told my teachers and they said to tell the school guidance counselor. So, I did and she didn't do anything. She told me not to pay attention to him, but I tried and I couldn't. It's hard when someone's in your ear 24/7 talking about you. This went [snorts] on for weeks till I stop till I started making excuses not to go to school. My mom caught on, so I finally told her and she called the school to

062find a solution. I [snorts] told the principal at McGomery Elementary and finally thought I could go to school again. But then the kid But then the school called my mom and said the kid bullying me comes from a troubled household so they couldn't do anything. All [snorts] I got was a note saying I'm sorry that a teacher made him right. Then he kept bullying me after the note. Fifth grade was a really bad year for me and I missed a lot of school because of this and I [snorts] had basically no friends. Then over summer, so me going into sixth grade, he started a group chat and bullied me even more. Put photos of my face on people's bodies and other a bunch of other things. That went on till seventh grade. Let me remind

063you, I told the school several times. [snorts] I let them know in fifth, sixth, and seventh grade. So I finally got to the point where I retaliated against his twin sister because she would bully me, too. But I got in trouble for that. They didn't get anything even after bullying me for 3 years. The crazy thing is I went through the same things they went through. Fast forward to 8th grade [snorts] this year, I started sticking up for myself more. But on January 9th, 2026, a different person started picking on me, saying I was the biggest planet and so much more. [snorts] Now, I usually don't let people's words affect me anymore because I've been through it for 3 years, but I started crying at lunch. Two of my guy friends seen me crying, so

064they went to go talk to the kid that made me cry. The lunch monitor would not let them over to their side of the lunchroom to [snorts] talk to him. She seen me crying though, so she sent the kid down to the office. An hour later, I get called down to the office and on my way there, [snorts] I see one of my friends who were sticking up for me getting escorted down to ISS. I [snorts] later found out the other kids sticking up for me also got ISS. But you know who I seen walking around? The kid that made me cry. [snorts] I get into Mr. R's office to which he started yelling at me because the kid that made me cry [snorts] said that I said something about his teeth and pale skin

065when I never did. I asked Mr. R why they put my guy my two friends in ISS and [snorts] not the kid that made me cry because if you take one walk around Valley Central Middle School you'll see be upstandards and stop bullying posters. I told Mr. R, how are you going to put the upstanders in ISS and [snorts] the bullies in class? He did end up getting one day of ISS, same [snorts] as my friends that were standing up for me. But don't get me wrong, Mr. R doesn't usually I don't usually have a problem with Mr. R cuz [snorts] he helps me. He tried helping me get a DAS report, but they decline my DAS report because I have good grades and I show up to school. [snorts] He helps me and tries

066to get me to do the right things, but guidance and principles have never helped me. They always tell me to ignore it [snorts] and they never ever yell at them and always me when I retaliate. I came today to share my story because Valley Central needs to change things so no one has to go through what I did. >> Thank you very much, Emma. >> Okay. Uh move on to business now. So, thank you everybody. So, tonight um we're going to have uh obviously our second budget presentation of the season. Thank you very much. Uh tonight we're going to look at operational services and we're going to begin the transition into student programs. So tonight we're going to look at operations to maintenance uh technology safety and security uh transportation and then we'll transition into

067athletics. Just as a reminder, these are very high level numbers at these point. They are subject to change. Um we're having um some discussions with our our cabinet and our principal teams this month and as we move forward in March when we come back with the superintendent's um budget. We can go into some more details and any potential changes um that have changed from these presentations into the uh March time frame and then also we will go through the second um the superintendent's recommended budget um which does go into a lot more detail than these slides do here tonight. So our first slide is the mission and priorities and I'm going to turn it over to our wonderful superintendent and ask her to share a few words on the mission of Valley Central. [cough] >>

068So our mission really centers around just high expectations and empowering every learner to achieve at high levels. I just want to I just want to highlight that at Valley Centur we champion curiosity and high expectations and our mission is to empower every member to achieve at high levels and embrace the joy of continuous learning and as Mr. Conklin is going to present tonight. All of our vision and vision and our mission and our priorities are embedded in our budget and we look at that as that drives as we create the budget and use that and data and the needs of our of our students at the center of of our budget. >> Thank you. So today's agenda pretty straightforward as I mentioned before on the operational side of things. We're going to look at operations

069and maintenance, technology, safety and security and uh transportation and then transition into athletics. And when we come back in March, uh we'll dive into the instructional programs and special education. So, operations and maintenance ensures that valley central facilities are safe, functional, and ready to support learning every day. As I mentioned before, um we have to give a lot of credit to our buildings and grounds guys and our custodial team that have really um put in a lot of effort here to make sure our buildings are ready to go. um when staff and students come in in the morning, we've dealt with some some heating issues on top of what I said before, but this work emphasizes preventive care, regulatory compliance, responsive stewardship of district assets along with balancing reliability, and a long-term cost control. So,

070a little high overview for everybody of what does operations and maintenance covers. So, of course, cleaning services, preventative maintenance, mechanical systems, uh inspections and compliance, that's a big piece of it. Emergency repairs as needed. Um electrical and plumbing, our grounds of course, as well as uh seasonal and capital support. As you know, there's a lot of capital work that has been uh going on across the district over the last few years. And um just because we have contractors in the building does not mean that um our team doesn't have a huge lift uh to help make that work happen. So high level look at our operations and maintenance staffing. This breaks it down from our dire director of facilities secretarial staff maintenance foreman uh all the way down to a courier that we have that

071runs around the district multiple times a day. Uh no change in staffing is projected at this point. uh 56 uh currently 56 next year and here is the highle operations and maintenance budget overview. So salaries and wages for the department uh next year um our proposed is $3.5 million which is up just slightly from the $3.4 million of this year. On the equipment side of things, at this point, uh we are just holding it flat. Um pending the final outcome of state aid and some other uh budget requests um that we need to consider priorities across the district uh and contractual supplies and services. So, a lot of what gets paid out of this is is um contractors that need to come in and do repairs. We have utilities as part of this, uh refuse,

072um you name it. Um kitchen department repairs. Um, so that area of the budget is projected to go up just slightly from 2.9 uh to three million dollars next year. >> Moving. >> Can we ask questions now or? >> Yeah. Yeah, if you'd like. >> Yep. >> Are there increases here beyond just I don't I don't know. Is there anything new added to operation? >> No. At at this point, no, we are not proposing anything new. Um our process will be to get together with the cabinet and um of course every director and I'm fortunate to be standing in front of a few of them that would um love for us to grant them everything that they've wished. Um but our directors as well as our building principles all have a long list of requests.

073We are not at a point to be able to grant uh any of those requests yet. So this is essentially a status quo at this point. Um we have we have upped it for some things that we know for sure. So, for example, uh what's driving the approximate $100,000 increase on the contractual supplies um are contractual services and supplies, our utilities is built into that. And that will be kind of broken out when we get to the line by line and the superintendent's budget, but our utilities um will be um proposed an increase of about $100,000 between the electric and the and the gas. So, as of right now, it's it's we don't have an option in that area of the budget. So, Moving on to technology. So, um, Dr. Prankado did a a very

074great job of giving you an overview of the technology department. So, in the essence of time, I think I'm going to skip over uh reading uh this slide and as well as what technology covers. Um, but it is a very very big department and we're going to take a quick look at staffing at this point. No proposed changes in staffing. nine for the department uh this year and as well as nine um nine staff for next year as well. This is a budget overview. Same format as um operational maintenance. So salaries and wages on top followed by equipment and the contractual services um and supplies. >> Yeah, good question. I'm seeing that right now. Um, that will be an increase. Uh, I'm going to have to follow up with you on that. I'm so sorry,

075but there is something that we had built into the budget and I'm sorry I can't recall it off the top of my head. >> Follow up with you at the next meeting. >> Yeah. So salary I'm I'm I'm anticipating the answer to that will be the change that we had in directors this year. So as of last year you know um Mr. Moore had retired and Dr. Bcado had begun with us but um let me get some answers on these and I'll follow up with you. I'm sorry. So now moving into safety and security area of the budget. So this supports a secure learning environment through prevention, preparedness and coordinated response. Um to piggyback off of uh what u Mr. Ragny had shared before. Um I think um the intention was to kind of show

076the reduction in the referrals and uh just speaking back to the 2223 time period where we were having um a lot of uh a lot of things that were happening at the middle school high school level which kind of led that push to additional um uh security as well as uh SRO's in the buildings and that that trend has continued downwards. So this work not only includes the physical security systems but also emergency planning, staff training and ongoing collaboration with local partners. Um Steve uh he does a wonderful job. We usually know about things um very very quickly that that we need to know about at all hours any day. Um Steve will let us know. So a few things the safety and security does cover u physical security systems and access control. Um Steve

077plays a big role in working with our uh partner day automation that covers all of our security systems. Um on and on visitor management, emergency planning, safety drills. Um moving over to the right side, the school safety personnel and coordination with between Atlas security as well as the local um police departments and SRO's staff training and preparedness collaboration with local local law enforcement as you mentioned before as well as incident reporting and response support. So, director, again, uh no changes projected at this point in the budget in this area either. Director of security, our school resource officers, we have a total of nine, uh districtwide. Um our security guards at the high school middle school level, 16 uh that's expected to stay uh consistent next year, as well as hall monitors, which um don't necessarily

078fall under this um budget code. However, uh it is an area of the budget or it is um staff that work handinhand with with Steve and his oper uh his operation. So, I did include them in here um for a staffing perspective for you. Next, uh budget overview. Um next year, a very slight increase. This would reflect contractual increases with our Atlas security as well as um the annual increases that we see with the uh the local police departments and their contractual agreements um with their police officers. [snorts] So now on to transportation. So before I um begin on transportation, I would like to just take a quick second to introduce two key people that are here in the audience that help us um with our operation. Um, I do believe we run one of

079the best operations in the business. Um, so our in in-house district employee, Renee Marchant, uh, she works in my office. She does all coordination between all of our buildings and the bus company, as well as communicates um, with parents regularly. And here, uh, in the back is the terminal manager from First Student, um, Becky Finch. Um Becky uh was a wall panther at one point but has since come over and she's a she bleeds blue now. So very very happy to have um these two people here and um on uh on our agenda tonight was a renewal of the transportation contract with first student step one. Step two is uh obviously the voters have to approve it in May, but we are we are very very thrilled to consider uh to be able to continue

080with the same team uh over in first student and they they really really do a great job for us. So thank you very much. So trans what transportation covers. So I kind of broke this into two columns. So if you look at it on the left, this is more of the district's responsibilities. So route planning and schedule coordination uh student eligibility and transportation requests uh oversight of the contracted services as well as the state reporting that that all is in-house um responsibilities that mostly uh Renee Marchin handles for us on the right side. This would be what first student does for us. So daily student transportation service obviously they they make sure all the buses are ready to go and that drivers are in those seats every day. They take care of our specialized student

081care. Um, we have a lot of students that really have a lot of unique needs. They handle all that. They take care of all their fleet operations, vehicle maintenance, uh, as well as the driver staffing, training, and certification. Now, I I always like to brag. I get to go to, um, our county meetings every month and listen to every other district around the county complain um that they don't have enough drivers, they can't run all the routes. Um, we have not had that that problem here. So, I I don't mean to brag when when we're all Becky's in the room or Rene is here, but um we really really do a great job. And Becky, thank you very much. >> So, with that said, the bad news. So, we did uh we did anticipate an

082increase in our rates. Uh it had been five years since we did the transportation RFP. Uh that was conducted during COVID at the last time. Uh and we know how much the world has changed. The contract was also limited to a 2% increase over those years. So, um, we do feel like we've, um, gotten a pretty good bang for our buck over the last few years. So, uh, an increase was was not expected and and we are going to realize that, uh, next year going forward. Uh, a few things, um, to look forward to next year. If if the contract is approved, um, we will be receiving a brand new fleet of large buses, all air conditioned large buses, which we have not had. Um the buses will uh say first student on the side

083um I'm sorry we'll say Valley Central School District on the side of the buses um which they they have not and um we get to continue with the same team. So what's what's wrong with that? But our uh budget this year um was 7 million. So we are going to see a significant area uh increase in this area of the budget up to 8.9 million uh next year. Now, one of the things with transportation aid, as you know, there's always a year lag in the aid. So, we will be making a recommendation to offset this increase with an appropriation of fund balance in the budget until the aid catches up uh the next year. Um so, it um yeah, it is what it is. But, as a reminder, this would be a five-year transportation contract.

084It is subject to voter approval. It's not a separate proposition on the school budget. Um but it will be noted in the budget newsletter. I'm talking about it here publicly tonight. So, approval of next year's budget does constitute the approval of a five-year agreement um for transportation services with first student. >> Any questions here? >> Yep. So, the next one we structured a little differently to try to to help ourselves. Um so, it'll be a max of three and a half% but it will be um as low as zero. So we based it on the New York State CPI increase. Um so that we feel like it's kind of fair for both. We looked back at the average over the last few years. We felt three and five 3.5 is fair. And of course if

085CPI does end up being zero or one that we'll realize that as well. So >> question. >> Yeah. I have a question about the fuel. Can you explain why it's going down? >> Yep. So, as you see, um, last year we did not, uh, we spent $282,000. And looking at it, um, we do not need to carry the the 576,000 forward anymore. What we've done is we projected forward. We estimated where we're going to be this year. And then, uh, we feel comfortable recommending a 400,000 or 395,000 next year, and we've rolled that that budget into help offset the increase in the services, which you see above. Now, this um I did try to just break it down and show you in a little bit more detail. I know it's a big ugly number, but

086I was trying to give you some kind of color behind it on the amount of uh services that we do provide here. Um home to school, our special education busing and our monitors is is a huge piece of this operation. Um about $3 million next year. Mckin Vento, these would be um routes that we need to run outside of the district, sometimes far outside of the district. We've been up as far as Swan Lake, I believe, if not farther, um to transport students back and forth to school. Uh the other that would be things like post session, uh sports runs, um things like that. And then non-public, this would be for the busing that we have to provide to students that attend schools, um like uh Most Precious Blood, Harmony Christian, and things like that.

087Okay. Um but note on the bottom does does show that we it reflects an updated contract cost following competitive rebid updated service standards which um kind of speaks to the AC requirement expanded student needs. Um we we are um in need of an additional wheelchair bus going forward. So we mandated five in the contract and also the current market conditions >> start. Yes. >> Well, you know, we hope so, but we didn't mandate that. >> Yep. So, moving on to athletics. Uh, athletics supports student participation and wellness through intercolastic sports programs. Uh, this work includes program coordination, coaching, uh, and supervision, and section 9 participation, uh, to provide safe and equitable opportunities for students. So, uh, some things that athletics covers, um, middle school and high school programs, fall, winter, and spring seasons, of course,

088as you know, um, all of the levels, uh, section 9 sanctioned competition, coaching, supervision, program coordination, um, scheduling, and game day coordination as all is also the New York State Public High School uh, gosh, I don't know what the last three stand for, but and section 9 regulatory compliance. So our athletic staffing. So um director of health PE and athletics uh expecting the same next year as well as uh secretarial staff. Uh the coaches and assistant coaches 95 and um that that was upped. Uh so that is this year compared to next year. Um last year was different because we didn't um we didn't have the assistant coaches at all of the uh the teams that was added as part of the school year budget. But we are expecting that to continue anything that was

089added. And also the director of health and PE oversees the health and PE teachers. Um so that is uh 23 currently expected to remain consistent um going forward. Budget overview salaries and wages uh increase or actually 8.89 to 886. slight decrease there may also have something to do with the uh the change in athletic directors as you know director uh Uhelski just started with us um in June or July uh equipment um 50,000 up to $53,000 she has made some requests there um for the program uh so a slight increase and also um one of the the capital projects that we have uh to talk to you about tonight would involve athletics but that's a separate conversation So, not included here. And then contractual services and supplies uh decrease here. So, as you know, in

090last year's budget, we did build in a $50,000 allocation for uniforms. Based on the cycle, um the director has only requested 30,000 for next year. So, slight decrease there. >> What's under? >> Yep. So, I do have um I did have some information over there, but equipment would be anything that is over I believe $1,500 that's needed for the department. So, for example, soccer soccer goals could be something. Um volleyball nets, uh you name it, like large um pieces of equipment that are required to be purchased. Last year was uh we did the pole vault mat which was a big one. Um, we do need to replace uh there's in the pool I think backstroke mats or something that need to be purchased. That's $3,000 there. So, I mean items that that cost a pretty

091big buck. So, um that wraps up tonight's presentation and uh I I apologize. I do have to follow up with you on the technology um area of the budget next time, but next meeting we will go into curriculum and instruction uh special education, high school, middle school, and elementary programs. And then uh on March 23rd, we'll have the superintendent's proposed budget, >> Right. >> Submit their list. being submitted as wants versus needs. [snorts] >> Um yes uh you can look at it that way. There's a very very long list but through those conversations we we are easily able to identify like what is a need um versus what is a want. Sometimes they see things as needs different than than we do. And when I say they I don't mean that this this group of

092wonderful people that's sitting here. But um we do break it into categories. actually um Wednesday we are going through the full list with the entire team and and we feel like that's um the most transparent process we can go through so that they have an idea it's it's easy for a principal to request you know five different um things for their building but five times multiple buildings times each department it adds up very quickly so >> questions >> okay all All right. Thank you. >> All right. Next, uh we have the first reading of board policies 520 520.351528332. Not going to read them all. They are available on the website. They are related to equal education opportunity, students with disability, non- studentent um resident and also revision of the cell phone usage policy. So they're

093available uh for reading. Uh next on the item is the appointment of board leaison for the communication committee and the facilities committee. I know this was uh late today. I apologize for that. Um, if we have anybody who can sit on one of those committees, we'll assign you now. If if we can't commit to them now, we can talk about it at the next meeting. So, the one committee was the facilities committee and they meet the third third Thursday each month from 4 to 5. So, and again, if you can't commit now, we can wait till the next meeting. But anybody interested in that committee at this point? >> I can do that. >> Katie facilities and then communication. >> I can >> Fran. All right. There we go. >> Katie and Fran. Very good.

094Thank you. [snorts] >> Huh? >> Watch it, Brad. >> That's an appointment, not an approval. Okay. Um, next item is the approval of bid recommendations for capital projects. Can I get a motion to approve? >> Angela. Second. >> Fran. Discussion. All in favor? >> Opposed. 70. Thank you. Motion uh for the approval agreement with Down Tree Service. Motion to approve. >> Bob second. >> Jane. All in favor? >> Opposed? Sunz. Thank you. Uh, next we have the future of capital project recommendations presentation. We stuck a presentation right in the middle of our approvals. Okay, let's do it. [laughter] >> We've missed you, Tom. >> We approve of your present. Wow, we might. All right, Tom, do you have it? is still up. >> Here we go. >> All right. So, real quick, I will uh

095I'm going to turn it over to Tom and uh Tom is going to introduce Dion Miller. Dion is uh really been running the the show for us kind of behind the scenes. Tom doesn't like to bring him out very much, but we [laughter] Dion is the uh really the the the architect that's been the boots on the ground here um to represent CSR through this process along working with uh Bill and Tim at the Palumbo Group. So um Dion's going to give us a little presentation tonight. So I apologize this is a little bit later in the season than we would have liked to do this. I I kind of internally had hoped I' I'd be able to give you some ideas um in January, but just time didn't allow on my part. So, we

096are um going to propose a couple items that um for the board to uh whether um accept or reject as we move forward to a potential capital project vote for 2026. We have had over the past few years um we have had very good luck putting out smaller size projects to our community and it's addressed a lot of our needs. Um we have also put out a very large project in 23 which the voters approved. Um, so while we are still having some uh uh things happening in the background regarding Walden and we're not exactly at the point to move forward with a Walden vote, um we don't want to lose the opportunity to at least uh ask the voters for their support on a few capital project items that have uh one have a

097few of them have been on the five-year plan and we are moving them forward and also a few things that have come up um over the last year or so that we would like to recommend you consider. So, with that being said, I'll turn it over to um Tom and Dion. All right. Good evening. It's great to be back here with you. Um I'm going to give you a break tonight. I'm just going to do a couple general introductions and then I want to introduce uh Dion formally and I'm going to let him give the presentation. So, uh you're in good hands. Um, we're really going to talk about the capital planning process and the recommended uh work potentially for for the 2026 uh May budget vote. Uh, and then do an estimate summary so

098you can see what that looks like. And of course, we always start out uh with one of the district's uh models uh equity through consistency, which I really like that. Uh that's uh that's fantastic. So, uh, as Brad had ex- explained, you know, in the light of, uh, the ongoing consideration of the future of Walden, um, you know, the district's been re-evaluating the current five-year plan, uh, to look at other identified facility needs, um, so they're not further delayed. These have been in the 5-year plan. Some of them have come up uh, over the last year or so. Um, and so as a result, we're going to present uh a capital project proposition that could be presented to the voters in conjunction with your budget vote uh this year in May of 26. Um, and

099then we'll we'll talk a little bit about the breakdown of the estimated costs. Uh, right now it's with the financing and contingencies would be right around the $10 million mark. And so with that, I'm going to stop talking. I'm going to introduce Dion Miller. Deion Miller is a um well, he spent his whole career with CSRCH, so we love to we love to say we hire people for life, and we hope their whole careers are with us. Uh he's one of our uh uh project managers, and he's been managing your projects, uh really from start to finish, uh boots on the ground. Um you get to see me every time, but now you're going to get to see the person that's really working behind the scenes and making sure that um all the wonderful projects

100uh that you see come to life. It's really the result of his work and the staff that he works with uh in the office. He's also a senior associate with the firm and he's been with us. >> Yeah. 10 years in June. So uh for for quite a long time. So without further ado, I'm going to hand it to DM. [clears throat] >> All right. Good evening board. Uh nice to meet you all. Um as Tom said, I'm a product manager with CSR. U been working with the district since the 23 capital project seeing that through um design to construction. Um over the last couple months or so we've been working with the business office facilities um our construction managers our engineers really since the tail end of the construction last year last summer to

101start develop uh recommendations to the board. Uh so we're going to review some of those today. >> [clears throat] >> Starting with Burri Elementary School, uh we are recommending a uh replacement of the water supply storage and treatment systems. This was something that was on the five-year plan to be done on as a future project. Uh 2028 I believe believe it was the original uh intended uh timeline for that. Um with recent conversations with facilities department um we felt that was good to expedite that. Um the intent of this project would be to move the water supply storage and treatment system within the building um and then treat everything um inside of Berea. In addition to that, we are looking to uh upgrade the stage lighting in the cafeteria auditorium as well as the sound

102systems. Um right now the systems are pretty antiquated um and the improvements would look to uh introduce some new controls um to be more state-of-the-art and up to date um with uh other uh facilities in the region. We [clears throat] are uh proposing a similar scope at East Colenham and Montgomery elementary schools. Um same thing, lighting and sound system upgrades. [clears throat] Um after discussing discussions with the team for the last couple months, we felt that it was important at the concession stand new at the high school to introduce new heating upgrades to help you heat the building in your shoulder months. So at your in your late fall and early spring to allow you use that more um throughout the throughout the year. Um, right now it's not heated at all. Um, so it'

103be be good to use those especially if you have uh some warmer days in the spring or get to the colder days um in in the fall. Um, so we're proposing some upgrades to the heating systems there [clears throat] at the middle school. Uh, similar to the elementary schools uh auditorium lighting um and sound system upgrades. Uh, this is going to be a little more um involved. Um we have uh different types of uh performances and events at the middle school level. Um so this one is going to be you'll see we do the budgets a little bit more uh to this than uh the elementary schools. Um switching over to the high school. Um this is similar to what we were proposing at uh Berea for the water supply storage and treatment systems. Um

104the only difference here is it's likely going to have to be done uh in its own independent building outside of the uh high school main building. Um with that we'll be doing a new well providing uh connections back to the building through a treatment system in in that uh new water treatment building we'll call it. Um also at the high school some various stage improvements are being recommended including some replacement of wood flooring, some improvements to the storage as well as uh modifications and and improvements to the access doors in the stage. >> [clears throat] >> Uh there's two items here that um really came out of the 23 capital project last summer. Um the dehumidification of the main office guidance office and auditorium as well as the pool uh water system. So currently as

105configured, the boilers uh feed hot water to the high school. Um and it's a continuous loop that ties into the main office, the guidance office, the auditorium, the pool, the hagger wing, and some of the uh classrooms in the library area. Um in the summer, for example, you are essentially heating the building to dehumidify the main office in Gaia's office and auditorium. So what this proposed uh uh projects would include would be to develop a dedicated democation system for those spaces, separate that from the pool, provide a dedicated pool hot water system that provides uh hot water just to the pool and that that will allow the remaining spaces, the classrooms, the hagger wing um and then the um library to remain as independent systems. And between those two scopes, you'll be able to treat

106those areas independently and heat them independently rather than heating them all at once. Um, additionally, we're proposing some modifications to the boilers to provide domestic hot water. Um, currently as configured, the boilers are connected to one boiler is connected to a heat exchanger, which provides hot water to the building for uh hand washing and and uh food prep. Um what we're looking to do is modify that so we can have the ability to tap off any of those boilers to provide hot water to the building in the event that there was an issue with one that boiler that does feed the hot water uh at the heat exchanger. [clears throat] Um at the main office and music classrooms proposing some flooring and wall base replacement. I have some photos but currently some of the conditions

107are in pretty bad shape. um some mismatched tile, some cracks, um some some carpeting is is um is delaminating from the substrate. So um we're proposing proposing that in some spaces the high school um roof replacement at the gymnasium entrance in the girls locker room. So this was something that um came to us recently um as there was many reports of leaks in this area. Uh so we look to to replace this area um down to the deck and get get a new warranty on it that'll last 20 25 years. [snorts] And finally um improvements of the track and field event area. So the jumping areas. This includes span expansion of some of the jumping areas for the landing zones for the pole bolt, long jump, triple jump. Um as well as some drainage improvements

108around those areas as well. some photos of what um we are anticipating for the water treatment buildings at Berea and um the high school, including some storage tanks, the treatment itself. Um and then this obviously would be tied into uh the water system in the buildings. Some photos of the existing conditions in the cafeterias, auditoriums. On the left is the high school stage uh flooring. You see it's uh deteriorating um time for to be uh replaced. The middle is a photo of the stage lighting uh at Montgomery. Um not a lot of coverage there. Some small lights um that serve as as backup emergency lights. Um and then final on the right is uh your spotlights at um East Coldenham. Um so they're due for replacement as well. the high school. This is varying conditions

109of the uh flooring condition flooring conditions that experienced throughout the the the ner uh the main office and the music classrooms. You have some tilelets cracked, some tiles laminating um this tiles mismatched because it's been replaced over the years. Um some tiles is completely chipping up. So proposing some of those those areas be replaced um including any wall base that be associated with that. [sighs and gasps] So, we get to the summary of the the cost. Um, what we're looking at really is 2.3 being proposed for Berea Elementary School. Um, 316,000 proposed for the East Coldenham Montgomery. So, those are the two auditoriums at those two schools. The heating upgrades at the concession stand to building at um just about a quarter million to do that upgrade. Um, middle school is the auditorium upgrades there.

110is a little bit more than the uh elementary school is a little more involved there with um needing to provide more services and more um capabilities there. The high school, everything that was mentioned, the HVAC system, HVAC systems, the flooring, the stage improvements, the roofing, um the the site work, um comes about just under 6 million um with total project costs for all proposed projects at just under 9.5 million for the district. questions. [clears throat] >> How would this? [clears throat] [cough] >> So, good question. Um there's been there's been some conversations with the town as I'm sure you're aware with them putting water and sewer up 17K. However, there as far as our knowledge, there's no definitive plans to do so. At the same time, um we have received communication from the Department of

111Health um to replace these systems as soon as possible. So, and it's and it's so we we can't necessarily ignore what DOH is telling us to do. However, if in the event that that water system ever does come up 17K, I think the conversation is there to be had if we do connect into the system, it is possible that our wells could help contribute to the town system. I guess that's the best. >> They wouldn't be completely obsolete. >> Yeah. that money into it and then >> right kids could maybe use them to water the fields in the back as well. [laughter] >> Um and then my other question is I would really love to see with your [snorts] all the different things like if it's new if it's from the five-year plan where on

112the five-year plan is from that would be helpful I think probably for all of us to see. Mhm. I can talk to them >> just but um the things that were further down on the five-year plan that you moved up is that out of like it needs to be done right now or you were just looking for things that could potentially fill in some space. >> Yeah. Like what got up from this year's list be able to >> Yeah. I mean I don't need them all. I mean right now there's a lot of stuff but it's >> I think we should carry this over to the next meeting and go through all that. I don't want to like unless you can answer all these questions like that. >> He was gonna show the fiveyear plan.

113>> I can pull it up. >> Okay. >> And show it then we'll wait then. Okay. >> I can speak to it as well. So um most notably on the fiveyear on the five-year plan, what projects were moved up moved up was the replacement of those plumbing systems at Berea and the high school. Remember last year we were doing the uh we did the middle school because that was the one that was identified in the most need. Um and we were waiting for the potential of a site work project to uh happen at Berea and we were also waiting for some um uh aid amounts to come back to us at the high school. Since then we've received the communications from DO um recommending that we move them forward. Um so we were doing so.

114Um regarding uh I don't believe there was anything else on on the plan that was moved up. The rest I could speak to the stage lighting and sound systems. This is something that has come up uh just about every year I think for the last two or three years as we do building walkthroughs um to really upgrade those systems. Um every and I'm not lying every building brought it up this year when when we were doing our walkthroughs and Ryan can attest to that. So it is something that we had addressed at the high school. I think in 200 n 18 or 19 um the project was approved to upgrade the this both I think they were separate projects but along the same time to do the sound and the lighting system at the high

115school auditorium but it never got rolled out districtwide and and maybe superintendent avails program and how much it has grown here. So that henceforth that's the recommendation um for the stage lighting and sound systems and Dr. Dr. Broncado is here and he's fully aware that there's been a request over the years to improve the presentation um equipment at the at these um stages and this would help address that. The concession um the heating for the concession stand area that was not on the 5-year plan. That was requested from some conversations from the board of education which has led us to have some conversations on how we can extend that uh lifespan um of the of the concession building. um this, you know, we are really trying to do things the right way. We're not just

116going to go plug a space heater into the concession building. Um but if it's the desire of the board to to have it open and ready to go um when practices start, uh we need to install a heating system and this is the right way to do it, submit it to SED, get the approvals. Um because it's the concession stand building, we won't receive the aid on it. Um however, uh I think the anticipated cost is 246,000 to do that. um the improvements at the athletic fields in the in the running track, this was not on our radar at all before this year. So, um while we had an interim uh athletic director last year, um he had re uh recommended to replace the pole vault mats at the at the high school, which we

117did. And now new athletic director has said, "Hey, new pole vault mat does not fit on old pole vault base." Um, and particularly there's a concern of the rabbits that will burrow under and get up into the mats. So again, trying to do it the right way is to present it to the board and say, "Here's what we need to do. Submit it to SED and get it approved and then they would expand those those landing areas and do it right and keep the rapids out of our pole vault." Mat, [snorts] um, moving forward to the the high school main office. Uh this particular project was not on our radar. However, we learned from the middle school we can't just grab these tiles and pull them up and put down new or the carpet tiles,

118pull them up and put down a new flooring because sometimes our old 9 by9's underneath like to come up with them. Henceforth an emergency abatement project that we had to do. So, it has been requested now by the former high school principal, the new interim high school principal to really get rid of that carpet, replace that at the flooring in the main office area. At the same time, we are seeing issues in the band room classrooms. Um, so it's it's really an economy of scale. These are our two most areas of need. Let's go ahead and get them done. Do them right. Do it through a capital project. It's an abatement project and we will get the aid back on it. Next project, the roof replacement. So, this area of the roof was not on

119our radar uh to be replaced at this time. However, uh over the last couple months, and Ryan can speak to this if he'd like to, he has developed uh has seen a trend of ongoing um issues as well as where the seam is. So, we are looking at a significant um repair that we need to do there. Um, but it is more cost advantage to us to go ahead and recommend to replace that area of the roof versus put a $50,000 band-aid on it until we need to replace it again in five or 10 years. So, that is why um we are bringing that to the table. the other projects as uh Dion had mentioned the dehumidification loop um the hot water loop and the the hot water supply. These these were things that came

120up um during I don't I don't remember exactly which phase of this project but I can remember um having some conversations and this was not a design from this project. This was a design from a previous project which we believe was maybe 2010 2015 time frame where just correct me if I'm wrong or I'm speaking wrong. It was just they shouldn't have designed it this way. Essentially we're using the boiler to create cool air and it just makes it makes no sense. Um, and we did have some conversations on whether or not we could address it through the current capital project or would we have to do it as a separate project and um, it would it would be a separate project. So, that's why we brought those forward. I can bring it up on

121the screen, the five-year plan. We can go through what's what's on the outears if you'd like. >> Yeah, it was good. I think when we get to it, we'll want to see what went up and what went down. [clears throat] >> And then just a question on the roofs because I remember we talked about the life of roofs. more than anybody should ever have to do in their life. And so, but how often are we inspecting the roofs? Because now this one's 10 years earlier than what we said. So, like >> depending on what section of roof you're looking at, >> I I don't know exactly. So, there >> Well, the the district just did had a roof uh report done uh summer of last year uh by Garland. they came and did a roof

122inspection and then they also infrared did infrared of all your roof areas so that we understand the condition of them. So that's constantly being updated. The other I I did want to mention um because you're comparing where things moved relative to the 5-year plan. Remember some of the things that are being recommended aren't actually in the BCS like stage lighting and such. Some of the some of these items aren't covered under the BCS. So they wouldn't they wouldn't be in the report um to begin with. So that's just a little bit of a difference. >> Yeah. And um >> Yeah. Right. It's a couple things things that have come up along the way and trying to do things right and run them through a capital project. So we had uh initially kind of pencled in

123um a project for this year possibly to align with Walden if Walden was ready to replace interior doors. uh districtwide now East Coldenham's doors were replaced as part of that ventilation project. But the thought was at the time we had the discussion um to replace um all the interior doors and also provide that that card swipe access to those interior doors which obviously would come with a new uh Walden Elementary School or a Walden Elementary School replacement as well as playground improvements at each building. So, um, our recommendation would be to push that off to another year, consider it, um, along with the vote in Walden or separately. We can we can go through the five-year plan, um, at another time. In the following year, which we would look at as year three now, it

124would be to replace the parking lot uh, here at Bur Elementary School as well as East Coldenham and Montgomery. So, this was a big site work project that's on our radar as of right now. It would be uh in year three of our plan. So the 2728 and it would be uh approximately $12.5 million at the time that this was costed out. Year four. Year four. This is when um we had the uh the water holding tanks planned for. This would have been the 2829 school year. At the same time with along with the holding tanks um we have on the radar to install an elevator at Maybrook Elementary School, courtyard improvements at the high school. uh renovate the um the remaining science classrooms at the high school. This would be the first floor earth

125science class classroom renovations as well as the uh facts as family and career >> science >> and consumer sciences. >> Family and consumer sciences. >> We'll go with that family and consumer science classrooms which we know are uh are in need of renovation. And at the middle school, uh same same type of projects, the courtyard, uh renovations as well as the home and careers classroom. So, two classrooms there as well as renovate the science classrooms at the middle school. I know you probably say, "Well, they're not that old." But Ryan, how old is that wing at the middle school where the science classrooms are? >> 99. >> Yeah. So, it they're they're due. And then in uh year five, which uh again we've just pushed off a year um it would have been year five

126last year, it would be year five this year. Uh library renovations, conversion over to media centers at Bur Elementary School, East Coldenham, Maybrook, the high school, and the middle school around $5.5 million. So that is that is what has been on our radar for the last few years. >> Yes, Walden on top of that. >> I have a question. trying to move forward. Y defin well actually statement first. I'm so glad to see the auditorium stage improvement finally got here after so many years. My question is >> how has that staging change happening now? because I know that there was a concern years ago about, you know, the um the access doors and issues around all that. >> Yeah. >> Approvals and and such. So, has that been >> I mean, we've had um >>

127Right. I was I know you you were mentioning this when we were on the board together years ago. So, um, we've had both Dion and Tom look at that stage access door, and I don't know if you want to talk a little bit about the plans on what would be the the fix to it, but >> yeah. So, we looked at the stage access door uh back in the fall. Um, actually, maybe the middle of the summer. Um, we were looking at doing a way to countless flight fortified the door so um it'll uh prevent it from um warping anymore. um going back to the the state with that type of project is not really appealing. So that's why we felt that doing the flooring with it, the stage flooring with it is something that

128would be generated, it would generate aid um because they may see the one as a repair. If we do the whole flooring, they'll see it as an aidable project. So we were looking at the flooring as a package with the door replacements or the door improvements as well as doing some storage options on the back wall for them to start mounting. They want to mount stuff in the back wall as well. Um, so we felt that was a more attractive patch package to SED um to be ableidable. >> And on our list of future projects is a larger renovation of the larger auditorium space, but it is extremely expensive. So, we're going to have to live with the beautiful gold chairs from the 1960s for a bit longer. Might be time for another steam clean.

129>> They're back in style now. It's okay. But [laughter] we do um and we've had some recent conversations [clears throat] with with the the team down there, but it's just not anything we can take on right now. >> One thing to possibly consider, which is it's not listed as part of this project, um would be to replace the stage curtains districtwide. That is um something that >> maybe >> um we were hoping to be able to do that at the general fund um maintenance, but it was it's a it's a it's a lot of money. So um depending on the appetite of the board, we can come back and include those costs. The advantage of doing that would be to uh Dian, you can speak to the rigging maybe. Yeah, typically when we do stage

130curtains, um they're um they're evaluated by a rig rigging company to make sure that they are operating per code and per the weights and the balances they're supposed to be. Typically, we're doing stage curtains, we bring in a rigging company to do evaluation to that and it may be more than just the curtains. You may have to do the rigging improvements as well. Um so that's something that us we bring usually bring in a close consultant in to look at that. Um, so usually we try to package all that together when we're doing curtains. [clears throat] >> So good. >> Um, so what next steps we would just need is some feedback. Are these projects you're interested in us continuing um forward with um as far as bringing back some financial numbers? Uh I know

131the timing is not great, but any anything we want to put on the ballot with the budget would need the board's formal approval uh on March 9th. So we would have one more meeting in between there to kind of have some follow-up with you. We can present some financial options and then see what see what the board would like to do on the 9th. >> So I'll say for me I'm not opposed, but I would still like to see it documented that I'm getting this and knocking this down. I mean it was great, but I want to see it. Um but from the surface it seems fine to me. I don't know how anybody else feels. >> I mean some of it like you were saying with the department of health I mean >> yeah

132we have to do it. >> So there I having some numbers would up. >> Okay. >> Definitely. >> Okay. >> And thank you for your explanations tonight. >> Bob thoughts Fran Jane thoughts. No, other than I think I would like to consider exploring the costs for those um curtains and or a study to tell us what it would cost. >> I don't know if that's possible how much it would be to replace the curtains or not. >> Yeah, we can get that. >> We can get it for you. I wouldn't want to hazard a guess because everyone has different subsets of curtains and you know we want to make sure >> to Fran [clears throat] [laughter] the home. I just think it's been a long time. I don't know how old all of those curtains

133are, but >> you know, we're doing all of these modifications and >> I mean, we have we have >> we might have to bite the bullet on this. >> We have a we have a long ways to go in this district to get our facilities up fully to the standards that we want to get to, but we have addressed a lot of work in the last few years, and we shouldn't lose sight of that, but that's now opening up opportunities for us to have these conversations. I mean, $10 million is not a small number at all, but we are be being able to get into improving the spaces that don't necessarily hit the building condition survey like stages um things that we really need to. And one of the goals um of the facilities committee

134is get towards that long-term improvement plan for the district that hits the spaces that the BCS does not. And it's really going to have to be prioritized which areas of the district, which which classrooms, which wings are kind of essential for us to get to to start uh improving. I know build um he was able to knock out the entire science wing at the high school last year. So, it is possible whether we take a floor of a building or a wing of a building, but um we need we need to do some work to get towards what that plan is. >> [laughter] >> say that I think that >> that we look at infrastructure and you know all of the behind the scenes important important work that we're doing. These are things that are

135front and center. These are things that people see. Anybody that's on that stage, whether it's a student, a teacher, parent, you know, if we're talking about VC pride, I think this is very important >> component to consider. >> I agree. >> Okay, Angela, anything? >> Okay. All right. So then just I want to She brought up curtains. Uh, so let me just see if we have four people who want information about pricing out curtains. So Bob, would you like curtain prices? >> Sure. >> Okay, Angela. >> Yes. >> Okay, we have four. >> Thank you. >> If it's too much, just take down the washing. >> So, okay. All right, moving on. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, >> all right. Moving on. Next, um, motion for the approval of the

136agreement with Cornell Agricultural and Life Sciences. Jane second. >> Fran. All in favor. >> Oppos. 70. Approval agreement with day automation. >> Angela. Second. >> Diana. All in favor. >> Opposed. 70. Thank you. Approval agreement with Train US. >> Jane. Second. >> Katie. All in favor. >> Opposed. 70. Approval agreement with CSR. >> Brand second. Bob. All in favor? >> Opposed? 70. Approval of single audit report. >> Katie. Second. >> Diana. All in favor? >> Opposed? I'm going to jump down. Approval resolution with Hefner Farm Solar LLC. >> Jane second. >> Bob. All in favor? >> Post. 70. Okay. Now, we're going to go back up to number 11. As I said earlier, this is going to be a discussion of tax exemption amendments. You should have um the memo that was in the blue

137folder and also this client advisory memo. And we're going to have Brad take us through this and then we'll talk about next steps if we need any. It is time sensitive. So, um Brad, I'll hand it over to you and we'll come back and talk. Uh, as much as I can uh take some blame for not being able to talk to you about this uh until tonight, we can blame the state for this one because as the state um loves to do, they love to approve these uh changes in rules and regulations in December and there's a short window of time for us to be able to uh get them approved if the board would like to approve them. So, as the memo states, um the last time that we had adjusted our senior uh

138citizen tax exemption was back in uh February of 2019. So, at this time, we had set the uh income limit to receive a 50% exemption of um up to it was $24,000 and to receive a 5% exemption, the income limit was $32,399. So, as the memo outlays, there is new um legislation that allows us to adopt graduated exemption levels that go beyond the 50 up to the 65%. And the example that I had provided below um was in consultation with our general counsel and that this would be based on us leaving that exemption at the $24,000. The board could choose to increase it if they wanted to. I don't have the information at this time of where other districts may be at. I I will try to get it this week um and provide it

139to you, but at the time um we were and I think we had looked at this in 20120 again and we were we were right in the ballpark of where all other school districts were as far as these income limits. So the the decision for the board tonight is is if they are interested in adopting this graduated exemption levels and it would go out to the uh 65% and um the values if we stay at 24,000 would be as they are. Okay. So I don't know I don't remember who was here when we raised this the last time but it was it hadn't been touched for a long time. So so we brought it up. I think we looked at it again maybe when the volunteers came and and we thought >> yeah but I

140think we look we might have talked about it but we thought it was okay. Now this is coming up. So we have to decide and and we don't have to decide tonight but it is uh >> timesensitive because if we don't want to do anything we don't we don't need to do anything right if we want to do something we have to have a public hearing and it has everything has to be done before March 1st. So that that means that we could technically have a public hearing before the next meeting if we wanted to and then we could vote to approve it at at the next meeting. So um just got to kind of get a flavor of where everybody stands because we're going to need to have a public hearing if we want

141to take action. >> We don't >> Yeah. >> So essentially >> Exactly. Right. Just one thing as we don't have a lot of information on what other school districts are doing. I'm not I'm not picking up. Um I put out a message to my group today, but it does it's like crickets. So either nobody is really moving on it or they're not telling us. >> Do we have like an estimated like revenue implication for the district? >> No. So this will not change the amount of revenue tax levy revenue that the district receives. Essentially what it does is somebody that qualifies for this exemption, they pay less taxes, but those those people that do not qualify pay more. it just redistributes their taxes. >> Um it is very difficult to calculate because there's a lot

142of factors as one is we don't know how many people would qualify for it. We don't know the values of their houses. Right. >> Last time last time when we did it for the fireman volunteers again it came out last second. >> Yep. >> And I remember didn't we table it for a year? >> We did >> just because we just needed to gather that information. >> We did >> and then we did it the following. >> That's a good point. Yeah, >> that's a good point. >> I think this is I mean it's [snorts] times are tough and we're talking about senior citizens with fixed incomes. >> So if I'm reading this correctly right now, everyone with income up to 24,000 gets a 50% exemption. That's it. This would be adding on. That would

143leave that. But then it for people that have lower they could get up to a 65% exemption. >> Correct. >> Right. Okay. >> And that's a very low amount. really >> those are the people that need the local right now. [clears throat] >> I personally would be for this. >> Okay. Well, let's do a vote then. Sounds like Sounds like we're going to do a vote. So, let me do I'm going to change this up for the Can I >> ask a quick question? >> Sure. >> Just understanding your example 50 in your example the tax limits as follows. 50% exemption income up to 24,000 5% exemption income up to 32 through99. Is that an an additional 5% or >> no? So in in order to get 50% um you're the threshold is 24,000. But

144if you make uh up to 32, at 32 you're making more money. You get less of an exemption. Does that make sense? >> So between 24 and 33, what do you get? It's I believe it's graduated. >> So 45. >> No. Um could any be anywhere between 50 and five, but >> I don't know that for sure. So I I I'm hesitant to say that >> it's not a 5% exemption. >> It's the limit. >> No, it would be I that that would probably stay the same. we would only be addressing the the additional I would call them columns 55, 60, and 65. You could choose to change those numbers if you wanted to and we can do some research and try to get you where everybody else is at. So you you may wish

145that 5% shouldn't be 32,000. Maybe it should be either higher or lower. >> I think they're okay. Again, I agree with Katie that yeah, that's that's pretty low numbers. >> Is this a a permanent thing moving forward or can there be sunset language? Like I'm worried about any unintended consequences of I don't know. We don't know what the numbers are. >> Yeah. Um I I believe it's something that the board could adjust annually, but it has to be done before March 1st in order to be in effect for the following. >> So like we're not locked in. [clears throat] >> No, if this becomes a budgetary disaster because what we don't know then we can adjust. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Do we have any idea how many properties? Brad, do we have any idea how

146many properties? >> We don't know. We don't know what, >> you know, that makes me >> the unknown makes me nervous. >> Do we have any ideas of how many properties? No. Um, we have not received that information from the town yet, but we would only have who qualifies for the current exemption. Um, so we don't have their income limits and we don't know the values. >> So, there's two options, right? We can either wait for the information from the town and discuss it [clears throat] at the next meeting or have a special meeting and then but again because we need a public hearing >> public hearing tonight. >> Well, no, we could do it before the next meeting. >> But what I'm saying is if we if we >> we only have one more

147meeting, >> right? But if we vote to approve tonight, we're fine. We can have it before the next meeting. If we decide that we don't want to approve it tonight, we want to wait for town information, then we need another meeting between now and and the end of the month. So, based on the numbers that are here, I guess let's let's take a vote to see if if we have a majority. So, let me do this. A motion for the approval of the tax exempt amendments as outlined in the memo. Motion to approve. >> I'll make that. Katie second >> Jane. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Okay. So that's 70. >> Okay. >> So then before the next meeting, we'll have a public hearing specifically on this topic and then we'll have it

148on the agenda. >> Well, I don't know. Do we I guess we just approved it. Do we approve it again on the agenda after the public? >> Yeah, there would be a formal resolution. >> Formal resolution. Okay. Perfect. Perfect. Okay. So, what was just what was the motion >> to approve as outlined? >> As outlined on that. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> I would recommend you take another motion to establish a public hearing. >> Okay. Good. >> On the 23rd at Good. >> Whatever time you so choose. >> All right. Motion to establish a public hearing on February 23rd to discuss the senior citizen tax exemption. Can I get a motion? >> Fran. Second. >> Katie. All in favor? I >> opposed 70. Perfect. Thank you. >> What time would that be? >> That would

149be What time is our meeting? 5:30. So, it'll be at 5. >> We just need to know. Sure. >> Is that too early? >> So, I >> That's kind of early. >> Yeah, >> I think we do the public meeting. We do public at 600 and do our agenda, a regular meeting at 6:30. Our special meeting at 6:30. >> So, say that again. >> So, 6 o'clock for public, 6:30 for the meeting. I think the special meeting started at 5:30. >> I know. We just bumped it. >> We're gonna change it. Okay. >> Yeah, we just changed it. I think five because otherwise we'd have to do the special hearing at 5. That's too early. >> That's too early. Okay. >> The special meeting at what time then? I'm sorry. >> 6:30 and the public

150hearing at 6. >> At 63rd. >> On the 23rd. >> Okay. >> Generally, there's um not a lot of discussion at at public hearing and you can attach an executive session to the public hearing. So if you have business, you may be able to do it at that time. >> Yeah. Okay. All right. So that brings us to the end of our agenda. Uh we are going to go back into executive session to discuss personnel and contract negotiations. We will not take any action when we come out. >> Oh, where was it? >> Yes. No. No. Absolutely not. Where is it? >> It's at the end. Oh, 13. >> Sorry. All right. >> Board of Education and Community Engagement. >> Let's talk about that. All right, Jan, I'm gonna kick it over to you then.

151>> Yes. >> All right. So, um, they had a few different ideas about getting different um, feedback from the public. one being a board of ed meet and greet budget workshops I think we already sort of do with our traveling road show every year um community conversations community partnership team community idea exchange of experts budget expo and real for breakfast I don't think we do have student students So that would make sense. Um but if you [snorts] go through the um you know the presentation deck um talks about how they you know um so the meet and greet it's an informal meet and greet to talk with community members about district priorities as they relate to the board education goals. There'll be time to speak with board members and enjoy some coffee and snacks. So

152people, some people don't feel comfortable coming to board meetings and standing in front of a televised um event. So maybe this would give people um you know an opportunity to come and speak to us and I know that we can't do a question and answer because um but we can definitely >> listen and we can we can hear what people's concerns are. you had mentioned piggy back in Eagle's meeting >> and I think that would be a perfect opportunity to you know put it face um um initiative that we have because maybe that would get some more people >> then get faces look like they're a little bit more formal so it's a focused conversation on, you know, a specific idea. Um, where there's rules about how you're, you know, encouraging all voices and where,

153you know, you're establishing, you know, rules for sharing, um, just like kindergarten. Um, then there's like a community. We don't have to do all these things, right? Well, I think I don't Yeah, I think it would be a mistake to write too much. Maybe start one of your favorite. >> That's great. I I don't know if any of those people work. I mean, they do a lot. >> I know, >> right? I mean, they really do a lot. I mean, kudos to them. >> Yeah. The presentation. >> I mean, they do a lot. So, I think I mean, I'd be all in favor of starting off with Eagle Lisa's uh thing. And I think um you know maybe we have a work session to put together >> um what we would you know something that

154we present to people to >> to write down what what they would like information on and and um and just how we do it. Talk to ease about how we piggyback. The other thing that I did think was very um interesting and it probably would help us [snorts] around um budget season would be to do a community open house at some of our buildings like the high school. Show them the new science building or rooms that we've just done. Show them what what they paid for, right? What they paid for like you know now that we have these glamorous science rooms, [snorts] let's show them off. Let's keep you know let's I mean, I know everybody loves watching Brad's videos. Come >> meet Brad live. [laughter] >> Come meet Come Brad. >> I mean, I

155think if we could combine it to say, you know, we're having an open house. Come hear about most recent budget planning information, meet your board members, some board members, >> and that could be part You're saying that could all be part [clears throat] of the base meeting? >> No, that would sound >> Oh, we could talk about that. Yeah. So, I think I think we have to I think we talk about EA Lisa's meeting first. Maybe we do a workshop to come up with that and then we'd have to talk to central office about the budget side of it because they'd have to run that and and set those up and then see how we piggy back on those. Right. So, I think the first step is ease. >> Yeah. That's that's easy. >> Yeah.

156>> So, we're going to have a work session to get details of that. >> Yeah. We'll have a work session to >> open house. Yeah. >> No, no, no, no, no. >> Go ahead. budget because if the budget's going to already be developed or there really is no there will be no movement from people on what their input is that I think we just got to be careful because years ago people probably still remember it there were those large massive meetings people wanted to work into groups talked about their you know interest and priorities and things that concerns that they had and then those things were brought back to central office and >> in this case I don't think we're doing that >> but maybe it can be a combination of this is the priorities

157these are the things that we're working on what other things do you have let us sort of bring that back >> and consider that for for the next I'm just saying we have to be careful >> okay >> all right sounds like everybody's in favor of the community engagement, >> right? Okay. So, we'll >> we'll work on scheduling a work session specific for that. Um, okay, we're good. >> now we're good. All right. Well, you know what happened was I went down, I went back up, and then I never went back down. >> I was on the approval. Okay. So, that brings us to the end of our agenda. We're going to go into executive session, discuss personnel and contract negotiations. We will not take any action when we come out. Um, so Tom, thank

158you for being with us and streaming for us. And I will take a motion to go into executive session at 8:41. >> Angela. >> Diana. All in favor? >> I >> oppose. 70. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. [clears throat]