001e e e a motion to come out of executive session at 6:37 I'll make a motion Sarah second Kae all in favor oppos 70 thank you we call to order the regular meeting of the board of education at 6:37 December 9th and we're going to begin with the pledge flag United States of America stands andice so couple housekeeping items please take not the emergency exits on the side and behind you there's no smoking anywhere on school property if you're planning to address the board please sign in on the sheet it's up on the podium here we had to move it out of the camera way but there is a sign up sheet up here and the meeting is being streamed on our district YouTube page okay so we are going to begin with uh correspondents
002so we have two Middle School winter concerts coming up one is tomorrow December 10th at 7:00 and also Wednesday December 11th at 7 p.m. Montgomery Elementary Schools Winter concert is December 16th at 6:30 and the high school Winter concert is on Wednesday December 18th at 7 p.m. please join us to celebrate in the musical talent that our our students show and next is commendations some honorable mentions the high School Pops concert was was on Wednesday November 13th the high school children's theater performance was on Wednesday November 20th and Walden elementary schools their graduation was on Tuesday December 3rd all right thank you all right next we are excited to welcome our high school student presentation good evening superintendent Ava board by president Mr Joseph Bond members of the central office and board by members I'm
003Dr Ross Burns proud principal of valy Central High School computer program is a fundamental skills for today's students we all live in a world that relies on Computer Connections and the ability to communicate with them those with these skills will have rums that stand out in the job field will be able to address the complexities of today's World more effectively the Valley Central School District recognized the importance of computer programming and designed a program nearly seven years ago to meet this growing need I'm excited to you uh to introduce you to our computer programming teacher Mr Matthew Fowler who will introduce you to our students and their work in computer program thank you thank you Dr Burns and thank you to the board of education for allowing me and my students to speak with you
004today um I just wanted to start off with some statistics so Across the Nation only a little over 50% of um high schools even offer a computer science course so Valley Central is way ahead of the game we offer three with two of those courses being college credit bearing um only eight states right now have um a computer science course as a graduation requirement so even though New York is not one of those States requiring it we're kind of ahead of the curve in that um field um getting students involved in this topic and um just 5% of students across New York State take a computer science course before they graduate so by taking computer science course or multiple computer science courses here at the high school our students are putting themselves in the top
0055% of candidates that are going on to the next level um and I have several of my students here today that are going to to speak to some of the projects that they have done uh first we have Aurora she's going to speak about her chatbot project if you're not familiar with what a chatbot is I'm sure all of you have interacted with one on a commerci uh like Amazon or some website where you went to purchase something and then you need help and then you just pound representative representative representative until you finally get a human um so Aurora made a chat boot to interact with the user she'll talk a little bit more about that for so as you can see this is my chat bot that I made for a unit project and
006this is using um python so it just asks simple questions like what's your name how old are you how are you doing today and it's able to input there it is it's able to input your answers and customize its outputs and what it says back to you depending on that what funny thing about computer programming is it always does what you tell it to whether you want it to or not it asks also favorite genre what's your favorite type of [Music] food and of course there's always something that goes wrong something that has to be fixed but each answer is individualized it's using random choices between a couple of different responses so every time you run it it's going to be different anything you put in whether its answer is specified or not will have
007an output so if you say something for how are you doing today and you say something like I feel sick it'll say I'm sorry I don't understand because that's not one of the inps but then if you put in something like music is your favorite subject it will say I love music there's so much emotion in every piece [Applause] uh now we have a a project for all you the the members of the board uh Mr Fowler is going to hand you a slip of paper that just contains some information about this uh but first here's a little intro on computer Imaging so each image that you see on any display any digital display TV monitor phone Etc uh that's all made of a little orthogonal grid of pixels which uh like your standard monitor
008to be 1,920 of those pixels for a width and then 180 for a height which calculates to about 2 million total pixels in which each one of these contains a little like could be uh any type of light but it's one that's red one that's green one that's blue and using some uh like cool color theory in physics uh they can combine to make pretty much any color that um the human could see using different combinations of red green and blue brightnesses and intensities so that's expressed using RGB notation GRE blue so 00 means that red green and blue all three of the lights are fully turned off that's a black image uh 255 which is the maximum number due to um computer math restrictions means that everything all the lights are fully on that
009makes the color white and then you can have something in the middle uh say 120 120 120 which because they're all the same intensity it creates something in the middle something in middle between black and gray so or sorry sorry something in the middle between black and white which is like a gray so by manipulating these these different values of red green and blue we can create some great filters that you might find on something like Instagram or SnapChat Etc so here on the papers in front of you there's a little diagram of this so This the the three lines in the top left uh for p and get pixels picked uh that's just saying that's a little that's a little Loop that pretty much just Cycles between all six of those rectangles and then
010it changes or uh sorry it sets a variable that's a changeable like named number for the most part it then sets value that variable to the red value for whichever box it's looking at at the moment and then it sets that to a variable P then it sets that Box's red value to P * so it it pretty much it looks at a box and it has the red value so as you might expect this desaturates the red function and it makes stuff a bit more green and blue looking so um this this first box it has a red value of 254 anyone with quick math anyone want to say what that over two would be 122 yeah I think I heard uh yeah 12 uh 7 I think yeah uh and then down here
011of course we have 100 100 that would become 50 100 z uh so then this slide here that shows the individual differences between uh this is the unmodified versus the modified of each and you can see like see this yellow becomes a bit more green these Reds this one is slightly more red than that one it's it's hard to discern uh but then they become just a little darker this one is is already a dark red and that becom comes very very deep right so you can see that's that's how these kind of manipulation um like sequences or functions can work um so we took a picture off of the Board of Education website and applied this filter to it you can see the original image on the top and you can see the modified
012one underneath you get this bluish greenish tint because the red is getting getting decreased which means the greens and the blues are getting pushed to the Forefront um em okay so for my project I used a picture of my cat and I'm kind of building off of what Connor did so it's a little crazy I know but I'm going to break it down so it's a little simple it's a little easier to understand so I took my original picture of my cat and I first what I did was I took the gray scale of my image which I got the red value the blue value and the green value for my image and what I did was I added those all three of those colors together and divided it by three so I set the
013red blue and green Valu so they were all the same color and then for the third image I took the negative so I did 255 minus the red value I did 255 minus the blue value and 255 minus the green value and set that number to the corresponding red green and blue values to get the negative and then after I took the negative I slightly shrunk well first I pasted the three images into one image so like this quarter here is like my new whole image and then I shrunk that whole image and then I shrunk that image again and then I mirrored it horizontally and then I mirrored it vertically to create this one big picture collage hi in my collage I use a picture of like a turtle made out of plants and
014like and like first I use different trans Transformations including a sunset a gray scale and finding the negative and like even dting and lighting the lightning the picture and then I just pasted the different transformations each other then reflected them over the horizontal access and then I also added text so can you guess well I already told you what could you guess what changes IED to the pictures in my Collage if I told you and um one of the key things here is they are not this is not like Instagram where there's like a Grays scale filter built into python they are writing the code themselves that that does this um so I have Joe to talk about a slightly different project so this is an image GIF of a random picture of a cat
015I found online it's not my cat but so essentially what this does is it's uses a function in Python called a slideshow which just takes a bunch of pictures and just plays them consecutively so as you can see I have a filter going across there one of them decreases uh the red in the picture like you saw earlier and one of the decreet is the Green in the picture and it just goes across the picture and then they overlap which makes the image look a little purple because it's decreased both the red and the green uh and then after that as you can see these red blobs have consumed the cat which is meant to look like laser eyes coming out of the cat so because you know that wasn't enough so laser eyeso all
016right hello this is very similar to what Joe presented I have this original picture here and then I have a lot more colors going through so it goes like that um I kind of did several different interations like uh you'll see here I made it Navy but I also inverted the colors as well and then I had them go down like this so that it showed all of them at once and I have I think it came out to about 40 different it ations of this original picture to end up with what I had here and that little space in between there I had the the computer find all of the color values and just make them all random so that you got this mess of colors as you can see there um so that's
017some projects from our our different courses and I just want to thank the board again for having us and for supp in this program here youc thank you any questions that myself or my students can answer I have a question on the cat so the pixels did the picture give you the starting pixels which cat any cat Amelia's cat Emily's cat okay so in the program you can ask like the computer like pixels in then you can do your image and it can give you all the red values and the blue values and the green values and then you can manipulate them from there so I guess yes in a way does give you the starting pixels but you kind have to ask for them thank you any other questions I have a question on
018the chat box so does it retain your answer so that if I say I love music and then I come back um does it does it keep the information uh it can not in that specific body but it does retain your day how your day was it will then tailor it answer to that if you said your day was good it says oh I hope you keep having a great day or something and then if I went on the next day and I said I had a bad day would it keep that or no yes it would change it bed on whatever put so if you said you have a bad day I believe my say hope I a little thank you there are no bad days of Valex no they not all right thank
019you very much good job guys next we're going to move on to the proposed consent agenda can I get a motion to approve I'll make a motion andela second I'll second ran all in favor I pass 70 thank you next we're going to move on to our student Representatives this this season has been quite eventful with various activities and events taking place across different schools in our district in the high school there's a craft fair on Saturday November 23rd and which me harly volunteered in and we helped various vendors set up and pack up and it was really lovely to see all all the different um vendors there and we got some volunteer there yes we had gotten many compliments from a bunch of the vendors saying thank you so much for volunteering your time
020and I felt very appreciated when they said that because it was just like you know take time out of my day you know help these vendors out and honestly the craft fair was like a really good success yeah yes I got some free these to from them there was also this St recognition night on the 3D um and it was a night to recognize students for their hard work in ucation and on December 4th through December 10th there is a orange Hall Gallery in Middletown where the advanced camid class at Valley Central High School has taken creativity and acttiv activism to the next level by creating sculptures inscribed by the articles of the universal Declaration of Human Rights these powerful student artworks will be featured in an upcoming Exhibition at Sunni orange showcase ing their
021interpretations of human right issues through to the upcoming events of the high school is science club kids night out at December 13th at 5:00 p.m. through 6:30 p.m. in the middle school there was a student recognition night at 600 p.m. through 7 p.m. on December 5th and upcoming events in the middle school is the Valley Central Middle School winter concert at 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on December 11th in the elementary schools there's the Wen Elementary D graduation on December 3rd from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and the again in Walen Elementary School there's a holiday craft there on December 6 there's the East cenam PTA holiday craft night from 600 p.m. through 700 p.m. on December 6 and upcoming events of Elementary was the Montgomery Elementary School PTA holiday Boutique from December 9th through
022the 13th that East Cen ham PT holiday Boutique from December 9th to 13th the bur Elementary School P holiday shop from December 9th through 133 the Montgomery Elementary School Grinch day on December 13th the Montgomery Elementary School tree liting ceremony will be on December 12 and the Walden Elementary School hot coco in caroling will be on December 18th now um with um now that fall scorts have come to an end and the winter season has begun it seems as if the winter season will be a good year I have taken the privilege of interviewing a few of the athletes in val in the Valley Central Community co- Captain co- Captain Lucas dble said that after their first meet today that they believe they can put up a fight they said he said that our size
023is our biggest downfall as we only have 12 swimmers but despite this we still came out strong against Warwick we were crushed obvious viously but they had over 30 guys on their team and divers as well but we placed first in multiple events and some of us qualified for sections while we might not have a lot of success in the scores we will certainly have a lot of personal growth and loads of fun also from Winter cheerleading one of the girls on the team said I feel like it's going very well I mean obviously it takes a bit of work to get used to new stunts um new stunt groups and for the routine to be Flawless however with a the few practices we've had so far I'd say this season is going to be
024a good one and also co- Captain Emily FR Frank for the indoor track and field team mentioned how she believes that this indoor season will be a good one considering that all of our fast potential we have on our team this year now um today the wrestling girls and boys team have meets today which I will be looking forward to hearing those results as the girls wrestling team is new this year and then um the girls basketball team on December 6th got second overall in their tournament and then upcoming events is the Goan basketballs team on December 13th and then the indoor track girls and boys team will be meeting at West Point on December 14th and that will be out for today all right thank you very much next we'll move on to the
025superintendent schools on November 13th I had the pleasure of presenting our strategic plan at the Walden Rotary Club November 13th I also attended the high school CPS concert and and moved in my seat as I listened to the lovely sounds of our students the future of Wen Town Hall took place on November 14th bia's back to the 50s celebration was on November 19th is an opportunity to celebrate the 50 days of school as well as going back in time and students dressed up as if they were in the 1950s and we had a special guest that um appeared Mr and Mrs Bond came in in costume to help celebrate and dance with the students yes the chair was sck back and had a leather jacket on too um children's theater performance at the high school
026is on November 20th um ALC Thanksgiving celebration we able to have um a nice lunch in with all of the students at ALC I attended the craft fair as well and did a lot of shopping it was really fun I thought I would spend about a half an hour to an hour there I was there for two hours came out with a lot of stuff it was a wonderful opportunity our scholarship our um Wen Elementary DARE graduation took place on December 3rd and our high school student recognition ceremony I attended as well as the kin fellow basketball tournament this past week there were two days that um it was attended um was very Lively girls did a great job and then Middle School student recognition ceremony took place on December 5th and Walden's tree lighting
027also took um place this week and had an opportunity to hear the students sing uh Christmas songs right before the lights went on and had hot chocolate so was a nice nice fun week weeks thank you Mr all right thank you next we'll move on to the assistant superintendent for business okay thank you Mr President so believe it or not today we began our budget meetings with staff I know Katie is Thoroughly looking forward to the next few months of budget presentations which will start in January um I had the great privilege last week to speak to this year's cohort of the orange uh leadership Orange um group I was asked to speak um what was called the fireside chat um me and a couple other assistant superintendents for business around the county and then
028um there were that the next panel was a board member panel and um there happened to be a no- show so I was happy to sit in and and share some thoughts on my uh for my time on the board here and it was a great experience and I believe we inspired a lot of people to uh at least become uh involved in the ongoings of their school district so it was a lot of fun um and then also I I'm sure you've seen the headlines that it is out and um I have not read through the full 300 pages but the Rockefeller report this is something that's been talked about from the state um since I think they approved their budget last March or April that um the Rockefeller group would be uh making
029a recommendation um to the New York State education department on uh School Aid distribution going forward so um we'll have more information on how that may affect us coming soon that's all I have for tonight great thank you next is the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction thank you on Tuesday November 26 our Paris received professional development in person as well as through our online modules Paris signed up for for a session of their choice in the morning and completed their assigned modules in the afternoon at their own pace um this was probably the most differentiated sessions that we have offered our powers in a few years and so we're excited that we were able to do that this year additionally we've already started our planning for February 4th we've been getting great feedback and
030requests from our teachers and administrators and I look forward to offering again multiple sessions on that day and in regards to our pilot for ckla classroom visits took place on November 19th and we were able to see our pilot in full swing and really coming along We are continuing to monitor the pilot in order to make sure in order to make a decision in the next few months that is all great thank you all right uh we have no Human Resources update tonight so we'll move on to diversity equity and inclusion FR yeah I attended uh the meeting um it was very interesting it was an interesting meeting as I was the representative last year it was interesting to see this new year start with uh the goal of actually aligning the work of the
031Dei commit with the uh the vision and goals of our district so it was nice to watch that that discussion take place right thank you next we'll move on to the Oxford delegates meeting yes I was able to attend the meeting on December 4th uh we had a presentation from Matt Dela who um is from nispa New York State School Board um with his thoughts on the budget and the Rockefeller report he's not get too much into the Rockefeller report but he did um speak a little bit about what they think is coming with budgeting um a lot of the talk is on the uh zero Mission School Bus disaster if they have no they pretty much did um they said they have about a zero% um optimism that this will happen and um like
03215% of the districts in New York state they said don't even have the electrical capacity to charge one Buck at this point so um a lot of work to be done on that and they talked a lot uh they think that the governor is going to go ahead this year with her cell phone ban in schools and um to get ready for that and in for preparation for the school districts our January 15th meeting will be on um cell phone use and policy in schools and um it will be run by superintendent creen from Middletown and a couple of her um people there so that they can discuss how they went forth with the policy and some of their the good things that happened and some of the things that they would change so that
033should be a good meeting for districts that's it great thank you next we'll move on to community participation uh Diana start with you um I was able to attend the DARE graduation at Walden it's always wonderful time to watch the kids graduate from the program and also the um the Thanksgiving dinner at the alc Sarah I was also able to attend uhc's Thanksgiving dinner food was delicious uh I stepped in at the greller basketball tournament uh the NCAA uh athlete signing last week um student recognition at the high school which was very nice uh was at a wrestling tournament this weekend up in Aly and we crowned six champions from BC and I went to the section nine um exceptional senior football game at O'Neal we had four athletes participating thank you Fran okay um
034on November 23rd I also attended and actually volunteered at CRA there and got to see a lot of uh great students volunteering and participating it's having been on that committee for many years really can't be done without the support of students and volunteers so was great and I know they raised a lot of money for student scholarships um on December 4th I attended the valley central Education Foundation meeting um just s give everybody a heads up here the Tricky Tray uh for one of their fundraisers is on March 21st and they are looking to get some new members um to keep the foundation alive and um thriving and so highly recommend people consider um the foundation uh as something to participate in thank you um I also attended the craft there um I attended a
035a lunchtime webinar on the Rockefeller University um initiatives um they did talk about the buses as well that was quite a hefty conversation um and also uh PTA Council uh meeting in November where Brad and or Mr Conlin and Miss abula um spoke one thing that was uh we did talk about busing on a different scale that evening and something that I'd like to explore is there was just a Elementary apprehension about putting kids riding buses so I'm wondering where you know there's a there were a lot of parents there that were apprehensive about their elementary students riding the bus um and their concerns so it was interesting to hear uh their perspective on why they don't take the bus so I feel like that could be a broader conversation maybe with other schools um
036and I intended the Cent Feller u basketball tournament J um I also attended the um the budgeting um webinar on the Rock Mar Institute findings um I also attended the school budgeting webinar that took place a couple weeks prior to that and the biggest takeaway from that was um begin communicating budget expectations now because uh it may be a challenging budget here um I also attended the CR Feller tournament on Friday um although it didn't turn out in our favor um there was a great turnout um and some very um Lively student um enthusiasm so it was fun can I use your micop thank you um I attended the Walden Town Hall along with I believe all of us right we were all there yeah that we were there um and then I was also
037at the Ken Feller tournament shaking people down for donations for the scholarship uh yeah I I attended the 50 sock hop here at Berea and I also went to Thanksgiving ALC so good all right next we'll move on to public comment we're about to begin the public comment portion of our meeting we encourage public comment because it is important for us to hear the concerns of community members please be advised the public comment is not designed to be a discussion the board is here to listen and if warranted board or designated staff member research your concerns and respond accordingly we'd also like to point out that under District policy we cannot entertain any comments or questions about a particular student or employee either by name or implication please know however that student personel concerns uh
038we take them very seriously and on these matters we ask that you follow appropriate administrative channels as outlined in our district policies we believe our school board meeting should serve an examples for students so we ask that everybody demonstrate mutual respect we ask speakers to address their comments to the board directly and insist that all speakers and members of the audience maintain Civility and respect on opposing views we will now entertain public comment uh and we will permit each speaker four minutes um to speak oh yes we do have a Podium over here for you to address your comments so our first speaker is Mary Ellen matis thank you I'll share with Okay um this comments says a really a continuation maybe from the town hall meeting about Walden elementary school so I'm just um
039and I see on the agenda you're having an update on long range demographic study which is good because um some of the information that I researched and that I'm passing on to you comes from the Orange County Planning Department in Goan and it's the Cornell projections for Valley Central School District and which I'm sure you have and it's probably part of this long range study that you have um most significantly I think from a residential resident point of view and a taxpayer's point of view is that our and also your point of view is that the demographics and the population in the schools is going down we hit a high point in 2004 districtwide was 5215 students and now 2023 we're down to 3869 for all grades okay through 12 and the two 2024 projection
040was 3862 so pretty static and their projections to 2028 are to continue in Decline so and I guess that's because that's old folks are staying in our homes and new people yet with kids aren't moving in but that you'll find that out in your study um I just pulled some information off Ned site with the student population from wal Elementary for 2023 and just um seeing as I'm the village historian and the town historian um I did have this photograph which I hope you enjoy to me the fence is hysterical I don't know what's holding it up but for the last 166 years there's been a school on that lot in Lan or street so when we get up and we say that's what you know the residents like what we want um there's a
041reason for that and it's because it's been a part of our community for that long and we really want it to continue to be a part of our community you're talking about busing kids probably and I've never been able to get a number maybe half the kids in the school in Walen Elementary walk to school or have the ability to walk to school because of their physical proximity their home to the school um why would you want to increase busing when that's such a healthy activity for kids to do children and on the last page is just some information from uh the historical record of when the school was placed there built there in 1859 um who the schools uh came under and then the changes in the school over the years um up to
042the centralization so the LA at the last town hall meeting I did bring up the whole idea of walkability which to me is very important of course I'm old so we did walk to school four times a day um maybe that's why I'm still kicking who knows but um it's also an EC economic driver for downtown and to take the school out of the central business district and even move it someplace else in the village is really going to help a severe impact on the two daycare centers that operate before and after school programs the library and the music school that's there that the children go to after school for private music lessons and there's probably other who knows the dentist the doctor I don't know what their facilities students are using after school uh
043but they may be um I also attached the page from our comprehensive plan which I brought up last time which is the villages vision for the future uh and tied into that is zoning and that zoning becomes I'm getting there becomes a really particular issue that I hope the school district will pay attention to in this decision because for the village to start putting Zoning for schools in other residential areas of the village it's Can it can become extreme ex problematic and that is something that I think you should consult with the village officials come and talk to us and certainly we can explain it to you I am on the zoning board and you you don't want to have to start putting schools in every neighborhood we have one in the neighborhood now that's
044been consistent for 166 years you can go back to the comment I made before about catchman areas shrink your catchman area shrinking the population of that school so that we can use that building or that lot and have a school there into the future for the F of all thank you thank you uh next is Becky Pearson you much of what maryan say said was I was going ditto that but um really if you take it out of the center w we will lose Community we will lose businesses it is a detriment to our community if that leaves us um there's so many things that happen there people the kids walk to Parks they go to programs uh we do Arbor Day they walk to the park for Arbor Day it's not like this school
045that everybody has to drive to or take a bus to people can walk there there are many many families that drop kids off and then other parents will pick them up and take them home and walk them home I did that with my children I took my neighborhood kids home with me and we did homework and then the parents would come home after school that is a very important part of world the demographic and World be very different and we really need that to stay there um the only other comment I have is I hope I hear all voices tonight um not just one one voice I hope everybody gets to have a comment and they can tell us why you like or not like or what PR which which part of it you like
046which way you're going so hopefully we hear from all the board members not just one total voice that means that it is not in an open session that we already had decisions made so hopefully we hear everybody's voice thank you very much I appreciate your time thank you next we'll move on to Old business uh first is the approval of High School curriculum Next Generation geometry can I get a motion to approve Katie second second Diana all in favor I oppos 7 Z thank you next is the approval of Club Charter for the high school book club can I get a motion to approve I'll make a Katie second I'll second Jane all in favor I opposed 70 thank you next the approval of Club Charter High School uh future health professionals Club can I
047get a motion to approve I'll make a motion Fran second I'll second Angela all in favor I pose 70 thank you all right next we have um a presentation on the long range demographic study update so I'll kick it over to Brad to introduce think that's four minutes don't feel the void please don't all right thank you everybody um so I am Brad conam the assistant superintendent for business for Valley Central School District with us tonight um are a few of our special guests that you have seen from the last few meetings um Jason Schwarz he serves as our District's financial adviser from BPD we have Daniel pedig he is serves as the district General councel William dine who is the district's construction manager and also Tom ritthaler from csarch they are here tonight to
048ask or answer any questions that the board may have as we go forward uh Jason will give a presentation shortly after I give this update so um we're going to look at an update that was done by Western suff posies as you know they conduct demographic and projection enrollments for not only Valley Central but for I believe most districts across the state or at least a lot of them um the recent study that they had done for us was back in 22 based on the conversations we're having regarding Walden we asked them to provide us an update and uh they have done that so I'm going to go over the highlights um from that right now um this first slide and I know it's a little bit hard to understand with the different um uh
049patterns they put in here but uh this middle line right here is 2024 so they looked back 10 years and look forward 10 years to kind of give us a summary and so looking backwards from the period of 2014 to 2024 uh Valley Central School District recorded a reduction of 178 students or 4.1% now looking forward for the period of 2024 through 34 they are projecting an increase of 302 students or 7.3% over the next 10 years the next few slides we'll look at um some categories so this first one is English language Learners uh our Ells have increased from 42 students in the 2013 14 year to 66 students in the 2223 Year and that is the most recent year that they have access to uh data from net the next slide is students
050with disabilities um students with disabilities as as you probably know through our recent budget conversations have increased from 17.6% which was 768 students in the 2013 school year to 19.5% 7 790 students uh in 2223 the next category is economically disadvantaged students uh these students have increased from 36 .3% uh to 43.6% which is 1,768 students in 2223 could be categorized as economically disadvantage uh and the trend in the most recent years is an upward trajectory the study also looks at um housing uh either development projects or even small uh subdivisions that are in process um of either in front of planning boards or in process of construction there are a number of them um if it shows up on the screen here it's kind of hard to sell uh to see this area these
051are in bold they are new ones that were not available when the um study was done back in 22 most notably the largest one is the Sheffield Gardens development at 261 students or 261 units um and they did not take this development into consideration as it is so early in the planning process but we will uh make sure we take a look and see if we can come up with an anticipated impact uh to the district so that we can account through that so District enrollment Elementary and Middle School grades are projected to be at their Peak enrollments in7 2027 and 2032 High School uh these grades are projected to be at the peak enrollments in 2034 which is down here which is at the same time when total enrollment for the district is expected
052to Peak in 2034 when 4,457 students uh are anticipated and so how do they project kindergarten enrollment so uh they look at live birs in Orange County and then um subtract out the village of here jool and then they come up with an average that uh correlates to the amount of kindergarteners we have enrolled and then they can project uh what we can anticipate over the next few years based on live births in the county so notably here uh this is projected kindergarten enrollment and this would be historical up on the top from 2014 to 2024 um and then this is going forward so this was actual on bed's day uh this year which is the first Tuesday in October we had 297 registered kindergarteners they are projecting uh Valley Central to see a peak
053of 320 kindergarteners in the uh this would be October of 26 so the 26 27 school year and then I would say a slight drop off um but fairly steady going forward um we asked how do they allocate at these um the 320 students or the 299 out to the individual buildings and they do it based on a formula based on historicals so Elementary enrollment so Bia Elementary School is expected to reach its peak uh period of enrollment in 2028 this First Column right here Bria Elementary School uh We've circled uh 2028 that is when it is expected to reach its peak uh East cenam in 2027 Montgomery Elementary School in 2027 uh and Walden Elementary School over four years they're projected to be a 455 students three of those four years for a total
054kindergarten enrollment um based on 1,923 students at the secondary level the middle school is expected to be at its peak uh period of projected enrollment in 2032 which kind of makes sense right as as these years we peek in the elementary school um they will eventually Advance into the middle school so 2032 for the middle school and then M Central High School is projected to reach its peak in 2034 uh combined middle school and high school students uh 2594 which is 262 more students that are currently enrolled and this slide um kind of gives us an idea of where we're at with utilization now just keep in mind this looks at I believe the total number of available classrooms um and then based on some standards this is not square footage so as we continue
055to talk about Walden we talked about classroom square footage this is not that this is the amount of space available for a classroom to fit um and the numbers that are used K through1 22 students 2 through 25 students 4 through 5 27 students and grade 6 through 12 25 students and this column right here is Peak utilization you can see that most of them are okay one thing that we should at least keep in mind as we go forward if those numbers materialize at the high school we are projected to be at 103% of um what we would be termed as our operational capacity at that point so I don't think any any alarm bells are going off but certainly um these reports are done and required for a reason and that's to bring
056things to the surface that we do need to continue and I would say that that is something that we need to watch carefully over the next few years as you know uh if we do get to a point where we expect to need additional space that is years and years in the process of conversations and approvals and as to the approval and then conr ruction before anything um really materializes so looking ahead so we had a conversation um with District administrators uh principes and directors last week and we asked them a few questions so based on this presentation what challenges do you anticipate how do you think this growth will impact facilities and Staffing what tools do you feel you need to manage uh the changes and are there any specific factors to the building
057in your building that you feel could influence these projection so we're not going to go into uh each conversation but I'm going to give you a few things that were talked about it was a great conversation I think it was a great practice to go through uh so definitely space if the district does uh see anticipated growth everybody agrees that crowded spaces there's a lot more discipline concerns um also more class more space needed for classrooms uh and also common areas like additional lunch space additional gym space related services um currently I believe in this building we have five staff members sharing uh one room uh storage space districtwide is is something that uh is highly sought of uh you may have heard about upcoming teacher shortages uh this is a concern that would come
058if we do need to hire additional staff additional support staff additional technology needs that come with an increased growth in population parking concerns and also scheduling changes and how it may become time to look at different options uh for scheduling to help perhaps reduce um passing time or um the amount of students in the hallway so just a few things probably more conversations to come um but that is all I have on this report do you have any questions all right I have I do have one question um and I'm sorry I didn't ask the sooner but how did they calculate the distribution of elementary students considering Maybrook was it based on how we distribute Maybrook resident students so I think um this looks back to October of 2014 and I think mayber had closed
059at that point so um I'm going to confirm with you but I think mayor closed in June of 2013 so 14 would have been the first year those students would have been absorbed into Berea and Montgomery so those those numbers would have continued okay all right so we're going to move into our future of Walden discussion before the board does their discussion you're gonna present yes so we are going to present um some high level financials and this this is uh in an effort to um relate to always when we present the capital project or the annual school budget um to the taxpayers there's always the we call it the house page or we try to put the estimated tax impact um in in in a number that somebody can relate to to be able
060to tell if they you know have a house that has a full market value full market value is not fair market value I will say that full market value is what the assessed value that becomes and taxes are based off of a full market value house you can you can find that for yourself you can find that for anybody in the community it's publicly available information um but from that number then you can um relate okay um what will this project uh what is it expected to cost me as a taxpayer so uh we are going to transition into that now and I'm going to hand the microphone over to Jason [Music] uh good evening everybody um Jason Schwarz from Donan Incorporated the district's financial advisor um so it's Brad said we wanted to uh
061come tonight just give a little bit of a a little bit more detail to some of the discussions that you've already heard of as part of the feasibility study uh in terms of what does the tax impact mean for any of these uh options you've been looking at for Walden and also try to you know boil that down for the average homeowner what it means instead of kind of those large districtwide values uh that we talk about sometimes so uh this is a little bit different format than you see for most of our reports for like the recent Capital project rep energy that uh you know as Tom and everybody else who's presented throughout this process uh has mentioned multiple times we're very early on and these are all very preliminary estimates um you know
062part of the next steps will be going through a more detailed design more discussion with s regarding building Aid and all that um so since we don't have all those pieces you know uh complete yet we don't have a full report like we would usually have with the detailed scope and maximum cost allowances and all that um um what we have instead is just a summary based off of the feasibility study so all these numbers that you're going to see tonight are just based off of that uh I believe it's section seven of the feasibility study where it really gets into the costs you know there's an appendix kind of at the end of that section uh with kind of the total values and annual impact so then uh this page here that you'll see
063takes those total you know District wide values and boils them down to the average homeowner uh so what you'll see in this chart on the summary page here is each of the eight different options that are listed in the feasibility study and we did add a key at the bottom just in case you don't recall what any of those uh given scenarios are so it uh relates to kind of the the titling there and on this summary page what we have is just to kind of you know anchor it and have Apples to Apples comparison across each scenario is we assume a $400,000 house uh to be the the average value for this summary table so what you'll see is um going across there in the three shaded rows are the the different types of
064exemptions you might have senior star star no star and gives that annual tax impact or the annual tax increase any of these projects would have if it was um if they were to move forward uh for that value home uh one thing to point out uh above kind of the second row down in that summary is the uh term of the project uh one of the things that I think was discussed at some of the prior meetings is depend depending on which route you're going in terms of the the different scenarios or scope options for this uh wall and Elementary project I could have different payment terms so again General reconstruction the state will Aid us over 15 years if it's a brand new build so if we build on a new site or demolish
065and rebuild in the same site uh that gets aided over 30 years so you'll see those terms there just as a reminder for how long this tax increase would uh be out there for uh and that's because we try to match the debt service to that building Aid so we keep that local share nice and smooth you know as best we can throughout the project so uh probably another thing worth uh mentioning here all these numbers are based on a 6% bond rate was what was used in the feasibility study um so that's you know that'd be fairly conservative in today's market for a 30-year Bond maybe you're closer to like 4% today but obviously we're talking a couple years off before anything what happened with this so we do have that conservative rate built
066to kind of hopefully give this as a worst case scenario in terms of possible tax impact but again a lot to be kind of vetted out through the um process as we go through that over the next you know year or so before we come back with some uh more detailed and refine numbers down the road uh also within here we do also have uh summaries for each scenario that just give a few other house options uh so as you look through that just gives you a little bit of a a benchmark of how much that tax impact can move um you know going up or down for house values um but again we tried to on this summary page just have one number the 400,000 value just to kind of give you that consistent
067look at what the impact is across those different scenarios do you want me to go through detail any of the specific scenarios or anybody have any questions or scenarios that want to go through no I think we're good thank you want um yeah we're GNA we're going to post it online after the meeting but I yeah read through just give it give an overview of what what they are so when they look at them at home they yeah so we'll just we'll stick here with this with the summary and as mentioned uh each column is was an option that was considered and this would be a hypothetical $400,000 full value home and I think we're just going to keep it in the middle row um on Star so this would assume you're a homeowner and
068you have star eligible to you and this would be the annual cost um so for option one 7.1 which was to renovate the existing um Walen elementary school so for 430 students the estimated annual impact would be $222 per year the next option was to renovate the existing Walen Elementary School uh but increase the capacity to 540 that would be approximately 230 $1 a year uh the next option would be to um for additions and renovations to the existing Walden Elementary School for 430 students that would be approximately $273 a year the next option us for the same additions and Renovations but to increase the capacity of the building to 540 students that is $283 a year the next option uh would be to demo the existing structure uh and construct a new Walden Elementary
069School on the existing site for a capacity of 430 students uh that estimated impact would be slightly higher $340 for the year however now we are into the 30-year uh category so everything prior to that after 15 years uh it would be paid off this uh new construction going forward would would have another 15 years the next option would be to demolish the existing structure construct a new Walen Elementary School on the existing site um for a higher capacity of 540 students that estimated impact would be $363 per year the next option um construction of a new Walen Elementary School on a new site for a capacity of 430 students estimated annual impact approximately 300 42 for the year and lastly construction of a new Balden Elementary School on a new site for a capacity
070of 540 students uh estimated impact of approximately $365 for the year we will post this information on the website thank you all right any questions on that before we move on okay all right thank you all right um so the board received the feasibility study asked questions and heard the committee's recommendation on October 30th on November 14th we attended the town hall where the community shared questions and comments about Walden's future now with this discussion the board will have its first opportunity to discuss the study recommendations and share with each other no decisions have been made regarding the future of Walden and the board has not set timelines for making a decision decision each member will have time to share comments or questions in a round robin format questions that can be answered will be
071answered by our experts who are here and anything else will be researched and responded to accordingly any topics or additional requests not covered in the study that require action will only proceed if the majority if there's a majority interest from the board so basically so you hear somebody say something it doesn't mean it's going to happen later on we'll discuss and the majority the board has to want that to happen that's that's how it works on the board um so if there's time we'll discuss all those items at the end if not we'll carry over um into the next meeting so we're just gonna go around Robin and I'm gonna go first all right so I want to start by saying I'm glad we're here to address the needs of Walden I know we've been
072discussing this for several years and I'm pleased that we're taking steps forward I want to thank our superintendent in central office for driving the process and the Walden committee for their diligent work and exploring options visiting schools and hosting many tours at Walden um thank you to all the village and Community residents who came out to get informed and be heard uh the committee recommendation for a new school wasn't a surprise to me and I also understand the desire of the village residents to keep the school within the village I want to say I'm not opposed to the recommendation but the projected costs are very concerning to me while our primary focus is finding the best solution for Walden we have to remember that any decision will ultimately require the support of the entire Valley
073Central Community which for me adds an additional concern we've talked about the process of the recommendation and once a decision is made it goes Army comes back for the vote and and that can be very time consuming and again we have to remember this is a a districtwide solution a districtwide decision having said that I have four sizable request that I would like the board to consider as we evaluate the best path forward in no particular order I feel that whatever the decision whenever the decision is made if it's not supported by the voters we're going to have to start all over so I propose we survey the community to get a better understanding on their views on the recommendations that we have and how they feel about the projected cost that we just saw
074uh prior to sending it to the state any any uh early information we can get is going to prevent future delays if we go up and the voters reject we're starting over um my next consideration would be to look at our district lines uh I think our district lines were less looked at 1970 something is um yes so I believe there was U the redistri being that I I think I believe it was in the mid to late 90s was the last time that the lines were adjusted uh and at that time a number of of students that would have gone to wden Elementary School Prior were redistricted out to cenam and real okay okay so I I would propose that we we look at those lines to make sure that they reflect the current
075demographics and shifts as well as what we what we just heard in the study um next uh Mook I would propose that we explore reopening NE Brook as an elementary school this could help address capacity needs of other schools and I believe we don't currently get any funding from Ab Brook um I recognize that may impact ALC I'm a big fan of ALC but I think we also need to look at the effectiveness and cost of keeping that program and last I would propose that we evaluate the potential benefits of implementing a Princeton model or grade level Center School for possibly our third fourth and fifth graders whereby we have Elementary School maybe that's K through two or three and then we have an intermediate school for the higher Elementary grades uh we have a
076lot of room right outside the doors here at Berea and I think this approach could allow uh our schools to remain in their current locations while meeting the needs of the students through strategic Renovations across District starting of course in Walton so I know that's a lot and those are my proposals that we can come back to all right Diana we're going to go to you okay can is this on yes um first I want to say that um I started my career in Walden Elementary School in 1986 and I was there for 32 years when I retired in 2018 so I am very very familiar with all of the issues that exist in wal also I sat in convocation day for just as many years and during convocation day the teachers and the entire
077Walden uh the entire Valley Central Community staff members are in there and we hear from central office about all the wonderful projects that went on throughout the district and we heard about this renovation in this building that renovation in that building and Walden would get a parking lot with lines painted and it was disappointing to see Walen get ignored for so long so I am thrilled that there's now a spotlight on Walden as there really truly deserves to be um with that said um also I was a part of the committee of Walden and I also was not surprised at the recommendations that came from the committee um and I am not opposed to those recommendations either I agree with you Joe and that at the same time I do have many concerns as well
078well and I poured through um the surveys and through the feasibility study for the past couple of weeks and before I just said I want to go with this option I wanted to look at reasons why I really didn't like certain other options too and when I looked at the um the the feasibility reports for those options where there are renovations to be done or um the additions what really concerned me was the displacement of students and also the costs because I didn't see costs of displacement of kids like what Portables would cost or where those would go how we would heat them how we would cool them even cafeteria how would we get food to those students it just seems like when I was looking at those costs I I I admit I had
079sticker shock when I looked at them but I was wondering if if we those costs weren't added in how much more are those numbers coming closer together from the lower to the higher end um because when I'm looking at these costs I want us to get the biggest bang for our buck for them um you know if we're going to spend more money I want it to be we're really getting something for that money so I I think that's important do you want to can you address that address that now or do you want to carry it over um well just in response uh it is definitely some thoughts that we've had as far as how that transition would look um we took the position of let's let the board ask the question or um
080at least evaluate the options if staying there on that site is something that the board wishes to consider and would like us to come back with a recommended plan on what would happen during that time period we would be happy to do so but um you know I would say without you know without a doubt there would be some there would be additional costs um and yeah so okay so those jumpers would get a little bit my other question too would be would those costs be put into the bond or would that be something that would have to come out of an annual budget um that's a good question and I haven't been through it before so I'm going to turn it over to uh perhaps Tom or Jason How would how would we handle
081that so if if we had what we call leasing expenses for portable classrooms or needed to do improvements um in order to some temporary site work to make them accessible how would we handle those costs um I know in our experience we've seen projects that have had Portables that can be charged to the project I don't know the same SE as well so it's certainly if it's Quantified and put into that reference when that's put forward to the voters and there's for that the budget then that can be put to the project and receive building Aid within the allow limits you know certainly with with the direction of the board it's something we're happy to look at thank you I appreciate that um Joe I also share your concern about the about being able to
082pass a project to the entire Community I do worry that somebody in somebody outside of Walden might not have the interest in this building but they're going to be paying the bill um so I would like to explore some ways that we could you know get around that problem in some way also the survey results too um out of the 880 respondents we did get a lot of community members and parents but we didn't know I don't know how many of those are Wen people and how many of those are outside so I I do agree that I would like to have another survey to find out what people outside of the Walen Walden um parameters would think about a project of building in Walen of that kind of nature um and the last thing
083I have is I also you read my mind when I was thinking you did when I was thinking about about how um we could get more Community buying to a new building I was also thinking about an intermediate possibility of an intermediate school three through five and um that way everybody gets to keep the Community Schools we'd still have to do some work in Walden obviously I wouldn't want that to go down the drain because the building does need attention and a lot of it so I'm done all right thank you Sarah um first of all I'd like to thank the um Walden building committee for all the hard work they put into the committee and presenting a recommendation to the Board of Education I appreciate all the time you put into the process I
084was able to attend one of the meetings early on and I know it's been a long road for everyone involved uh the board has not discussed this or really asked a lot of questions yet as a board and I think we've just been taking it all in at this point when I read the feasibility study and I look at all of the recommendations I think that if I sat on the committee the entire time I probably would have come to the same conclusion and made the same recommendation as they they have when you look at all the data it's hard um really hard to be in compliance with what state Ed recommends for educational spaces and stay in that building as it is um I would love to give the Wen Community a new school
085and I think it's important to keep it in the village I was not on the board at the time of closing Maybrook but I do remember the trauma of them losing their Village school and I don't wish to see that happen in Walden um if we were able to build a new school I would love for it to stay as close to the old school as possible and a perfect world um I do however have some questions or concerns about the project my biggest question maybe concern is the process of obtaining land for the project um I I worry that the process of obtaining land is very complicated and that the Stars kind of have to align perfectly uh for it to happen and I uh my question is is I was wondering if there's
086any data available from other districts that may have been through this to know what kind of success they've had with this um in the past I don't I don't know we can do some research I can just tell you from experience here where we've tried to acquire a very small piece of property at one point and it did not go well but you know the board is different the times are different I this is definitely a a different situation than than that was the property next to the Middle School um we could uh see I don't think it is very often I don't know if Pedigo has more experience than I do with some of his other clients purchasing property but I I don't believe it happens too much Dan would you like to speak
087hi um I would agree it's uh it is a difficult process the stars do have to align uh and because in order to acquire property typically you need an approval of your community not only to buy the property but also to construct a new school can can can you go over with us again for ways that a a school board can acquire property sure I can do that um under the education law uh schools can acquire property in several ways they can acquire it by a gift a grant you know someone actually donates property to the school um they can acquire it by purchase which would require negotiation of a an offer they have ask on the price and that is that Prospect is subject to voter approval that's a general rule um if if
088a price cannot be agreed upon uh school boards do have the authority under the education law to acquire property by emminent domain um that also requires voter approval and um a much more complex process because you have to actually go into court to have a taking and uh then you have to usually have a a litigation concerning what the value is so there's a lot of steps in that involved with that um and the only other way I know of is that if a district had property and they sold and they exchanged the property for other property that would be a that would be the fourth way that is a general rule uh that may not require voter approval per se if there's equal equal property swap thank you um I also worry that we
089haven't gotten too much feedback from people outside of Walden um we as a board our task not only with figuring out the best option for Walden but what is in the best interest of the whole district and so far we've only really heard from the Walden community and the Walden Community itself seems divided on what they think is best for the school so I think it's important um that we hear from everyone because we need everyone to support this um I think the district has done a great job with trying to engage the whole community and get their opinions but I'm not sure how much of the other communities in our district have gotten involved um I'm very interested to know also how everyone feels before we make a final recommendation um no matter what
090we choose it'll be very expensive in the whole District will have to rally and support this uh for it to pass um my other question uh is about the catchman areas for the district um and if the stars align here and we are able to build a new school um what is involved in bringing back some of the Walden students that go to the other elementary schools and would that mean that we would revise some of the other Elementary School lines um I guess I think if you're going to do a project like this there might be um a need for some thought to put into more of a master plan that figures out some of the other logistics especially with getting some of the uh updated demographic information that we got tonight uh my
091other question uh it's been mentioned that once we send out our options here to the State Ed for their preliminary approval that we could Lobby for more state aid is there any data on um how often they give Aid extra Aid and how much they might give and does it makes sense to send an option up there with hopes of getting increased Aid even if we kind of think it's too expensive do we send it up in hopes that we get increased a so I think um overall it probably doesn't happen a lot but it does happen Tom has experience with one of his client districts I I'll leave it up to Tom whether he wants to name it or not I do know there was an article uh probably a year two years ago
092in one of the nisba on board um um Publications that talked about a a school district out near Buffalo that had lobbied for some addition state aid but then I think it was also noted in the article that that either loophole or that ability in the state budget to do so was closed but I I'll let Tom share his experience yeah the district you're referring to was Tanda and that loophole they they continue to close that Loop um the State education department when you present this they're going to basically calculate building a uh as its own building so this would be calculated if it was new construction on the new con construction we would also have to justify that new construction if it included um new building on a new site as opposed to a
093new building on the existing site or renovation of the existing building additional Aid is very rarely given but usually has to take the route of uh legislations we recently did this with bton project actually votes tomorrow and when the budget got approved this year in the state um Bingington for this one Elementary School was allowed to increase their maximum cost allowance by two times so they get two times the cost allowance which provided them access to about another $13 million in building Aid and in maximum cost allowance and their building a rate is 96.7% so pretty significant and it allowed them to um you know keep the project uh essentially at no cost to the tech payers because the district has been also reserving capital reserve funds for for for this purpose as well so
094but that's a long road and Binghamton it took us almost two years to get this to get the uh the additional cost allowance uh first through legislation which eventually got vetoed and then uh again working with the Senators and the politicians uh going back to the Department of budget at the request of the governor and then ultimately was into the budget and once approved they they're they're now allowed access to the S that's a good point one other point I just want to mention too the numbers that we presented tonight didn't include applying any sort of reserves or fund so that could help that a little bit you also mentioned about what would be involved in bringing uh some of the students back and so depending on the the on the situation or the scenario
095that has chosen it would definitely be a phas in approach so that it wouldn't be we would have to plan that out but it would depend on the option that was chosen yeah I think that's how it was structured in the 90s when they redistricted is that it was a phased in approach over a number of years parents could choose if they wanted to go you know to the new District they they could but it was new regist um new student registrations they were forced to go into the next the new lines thank you Sarah Katie um so one of the things I'm taking into consideration here is that the way students our learning is changing and it's not only the traditional classrooms that are important other spaces are just as important um education is
096changing and will continue to change I feel like in the future teaching will conform to students rather than students conforming to teaching um we've already been looking at different Pathways different ideas on how an educational Journey can and should look so I think as a district we need to be ready and equipped for all of this looking into the future um when I'm looking at the options available any additions renovations to me seem like a Band-Aid for a 100-year old building with deficiencies it's a beautiful building there's no doubt about it but there's many deficiencies um if we go addition and renovation route we're still insufficient for minimum SED standards we have to take into consideration the longevity of the building um our Roi return on investment is not the best with these options and
097in the September 2024 survey some of the issues that got the most percent of um voting talking about outdoor space parking space for performing outs Equitable resources fizet and place Bas these are all things are important to the people that took the survey and going addition renovation route doesn't really address or make any of those better when we're looking at a new school on a new site and a new school on the old site costs between the two are pretty negligible um I think my biggest concern with a new school on a new site is what are we going to do with old school um regardless of what happens updates are needed there's accessibility there's safety issues in this school are we going to just sell it as is um and if we don't then
098there's going to be more money for the taxpayers and another huge project for the district figuring out what we're going to do with it what updates we need to do all that stuff um when I look at the new school on the current site um there's still deficiencies based on the current feasibility study the site can be cramped There's issues with parking and outdoor space so I think for me I would love to see a rework rework of this option um putting a new school on an old site I would love to see if there's a way to keep it at or above minimum s standards without any deficiencies at all um I also have taken into consideration the possibility of reopening NE Brook um I don't know how many May Brook kids are in
099the other elementary schools but I would think it'd be a good idea to look at school lines and see how that affects and maybe that will alleviate some of the stress on the space requirements for Walden and help some of the deficiencies I don't know but I think it's something worth looking at um and so I guess my questions um would be how many kids from Maybrook go to other elementary schools and I would also be interested like a couple other board members said at looking at redistricting and how that would affect this and if that would alleviate some of the issues um with building a new school on the current site and like Sarah I have concerns about the amount of state aid we may get um and just is there any other are
100we not thinking outside the box enough when it comes to other money that we could get towards this school I don't know the answer that but I'd be interested in in doing a deep dive into that um just a few comments one is um the recommendation from the committee was to increase the capacity of Wal right recognizing that there's approximately 100 students that are Village W residents that we pass out so in theory uh if the board chooses that option to build a larger Walden that could help capacity issues elsewhere um neighbor uh certainly it's it's one of our greatest buildings but that that building is going to be in need of Renovations and repairs at some point as well it doesn't have an elevator classrooms are still um we would have to do an
101analysis to see what the square footage was but I would say they're still probably small compared to today's standards um layout is is not ideal for the current elementary school um one we had uh the non-board members of the committee had a chance to visit uh a local new elementary school and it is a very very eye-opening experience even though it was built uh in opens three or four years ago um we went saw West Point Elementary School it is it is it shows you a a modern um layout a modern design of an elementary school and it's like wow just so much different than the traditional you know cubes that we have even in a building like this which we would consider one of our more modern so uh I would recommend if the
102the board could get a tour of of one of those spaces to to go do it and feel it and see what it looks like um Middletown is another probably the newest eletra School in the uh in the area that one's close um even that one is probably 10 years old yeah I know it's more 10 years old now so um in school lines we we can certainly uh as I was mentioned before we could certainly look at it I would say if you look across our class sizes at the elementary levels right now they're pretty they're pretty balanced so you know you shift one line one way you're probably going to have to shift another one another way and not that I have a lot of experience with um foundary changes but I think
103you are going to um run the risk of creating more angst and negativity in the community against any project that we're also asking them to support right U we recognize that we need their support for Walden but you know you're already now you're telling me my my child may have to go to a different school where I really like where I am so just all things to to be considered I ripped a Band-Aid br um so just one additional comment we are we are making plans to visit uh Highland and we're also making plans to visit uh oxa not oxa orang County Poes the the new renovation over there okay we're gonna move on to Jane um I wanted to Echo everything you said Sarah about all the time that was spent um put going
104into this study by the Walden Community um very much appre appreciate it um I do have quite a few comments I'm very sorry all right so in the feasibility study um I my first question is why was it decided to study um prop bothos buildings with capacities of 430 and 540 students when the current operational capacity of w Wen Elementary School is listed is 583 students and current enrollment is 447 students um the next question is you want to you want to answer as we go let's answer as we go okay yeah I think um um well Tom can speak to the 4:30 enrollment was a point in time that was picked and that's what the enrollment was at that was November started when we started the feasibility report last year yep and then the
105540 was considered because looking within the boundaries of the Village of Walden there approximately 100 plus students that are being bust out uh to schools like Berea and coldenham that um would would be considered to to go back they were originally there so um to look at going back okay I mean so I guess my question is so right now the operational capacity of Malden is listed as 583 students so we would be going to a smaller school um so that's why I said we have to be careful with the values that the the sufferes used I think um we can certainly take a look at it but I think I would prefer to to go with Tom's analysis on square footage because it's it's spes that would be deficient right we can we can
106squeeze them in but it doesn't mean that they're sized appropriately okay um in the um report we talk about um the acreage of land um that is available at each district property but I'm just curious what the usable acreage of land would be so not um currently encumbered by existing improvements sweetlands um or any easements um just to know what's what's remaining on each each parcel um it would be interesting to know what the Equity evaluation of the May Brook School building would look like if it had if it was open as an elementary school and that is um ALC um how much additional outdoor space could be um gained by going with a taller school or more more stories um I understand you don't want to put a 10 story element School up but
107um just wondering if more more green space can be gained um Jane are you saying a smaller footprint but go higher correct where on the existing s okay yeah um and then there was a a lot of um written comments that were provided in the feasibility study that um I don't know how we would do it maybe AI could do it but put to you know provide a um summarization of those written comments of as to how people you know there's you know how many responses 900 responses um it was kind of hard for me to take the time and read through every single one so if those um responses could be summarized um as a proon kind of thing and then beyond that you know obviously we can't look at this decision in a
108vacuum without considering the entire District as a whole um like you all have said before this um I'm curious to know if homeschooling Trends or people sending their kids to private schools is you know are are more um children doing those things rather than to public schools and that may affect our enrollment Trends um based on the current number of residential units in the district um there's um industry standard planning multipliers to figure out how many expected School AG children um could be in a in our district um and then looking at that to compare what our actual numbers are um because we may be we may be on target with those planning numbers or we may be totally off you below those numbers um but I think it would be interesting to know based
109on our housing stock in the area how how many potential children we we could see at some point was that was that like in the demographic like is that usable that's what that's what I um good question I'll follow um enrollment for the past I know in the um actually do the planning does the planning study go back or it just starts at today's um I would I'd be interested to see historical um enrollment um for at least you know last 20 years to see where we where we've been um what is the what is a realistic operational rate for schools so I know 100% is is unrealistic but what is what is the Target that um we're looking for um we had a long range uh financial plan prepared for us um at the
110beginning of this year I wondering if we could see what that would look like with the 15-year and 30-year bonds for the potential School Renovations or constructions included in that I also had questions about catchment areas and the um um district lines as we've already talked about I think all of the other questions um they' already been brought up oh one more thing um how many new schools have been constructed in New York state since the cap instit J just want to clarify um the question around oper operational rate that's how much the building being use is that correct yeah utilization right I'm assuming it's even lower sure yep followup question but yeah okay good thank you all right Angela yeah so um I moved here to this community and back in 2004 and um
111when my my as an educator by trade um I looked at our school system and how um our elementary schools are structured and um just overall the feel of the community and that's when I decided to to buy a house here I was first introduced to Walden uh four years ago when Mr heidelman gave me a tour um I found the Walden staff to be so welcoming dedicated and most importantly um invested and we continue to see that so I'd like to thank the Walden committee Mr heiderman and everybody um for all the work that they've done um I also distinctly remember superintendent aila's um in the very beginning of her tenure here that Walden was on her Forefront and I remember that I don't remember what I did five minutes ago but I do
112remember that Walden has has been a passion of yours since the beginning so thank you for hearing the concerns um I Echo several of our sentiments um that I'll I'll talk about um and I've read the feasibility study four times since receiving it there's coffee SS all over here um in the middle of the night um I do have several concerns about all four um all all the options um you know I worry about the hidden surprise cost cost um what are we going to find once you knock that that that wall um I worry about the students you know and the cost of all the the portable the trailers um and how much that's going to cost that was something like where where are these kids going to go um and and seeing Brad's
113report of the new uh the new developments and the potential families moving in that's also concern uh not not not a concern but where are these kids going to go so when I take a view at this and making hopefully making a decision soon or whenever we we decide um I'm looking at through the through the through the lens of an educator we I think we're really we're really fortunate for is that we all come from different backgrounds and with that that sometimes drives our our opinion our comments I'll be taking that of an educator um and I Echo I believe it was uh Katie that said about the new our new learning standards um graduation is and I graduation standards are changing um there's a new portrait of a graduate this is this will
114not begin in high school this is going to be beginning in kindergarten um the group work the collaboration that Community feel I don't know um if our classrooms are are equipped for that or or have the tools to be able to go into the next century having said that I feel although I was beginning to feel challenged um I'm going to change my going to change my mind frame and look at this through an opportunity I feel like we have an opportunity to reimagine our district um and breaking it down keeping neighborhood schools but also a and I'm it's our first time hearing um I'm glad to hear about the the an intermediate school um I do like the concept um I feel like we have a chance to really um do this right this
115time this time around um and as educator I I strongly feel that um it's about time that we we start thinking of of our of our you know the the next era um having said that uh many of the concerns or I am curious about the surveys you know quantifiable data in terms of how many of those how many of the people who who answered were Walden you know I I'm afraid that the whole Community doesn't um to have their support how are we going to have the support because if we don't have the support from the community we'll be just going we're going back to square so I would support another survey um and how you know we can all collaborate together and many of the other questions were answered that's all I have
116FR yes very powerful well I will Echo a lot of the sentiments that have been expressed I do want to give my thanks and appreciation to everybody that has worked hard in bringing the feasibility study to us um both external committee um central office uh I've listened it's nice to be the last because I get to listen to everybody and really think about my questions and what I was going to pose but also what I'm hearing is the concern about whether or not people living outside of Walden will support you know the Improvement of Walden and what I hear is we need to unify this District so that no matter where you live in this District you care about the education of every single student and that means that every student gets quality space um
117and access to all of the resources we we know and believe and I agree that the Educators that have provided the the schooling to our students are topnotch but they they haven't always had the resources and I don't think that that's just wal and I'm sure historically it's been low on the list but I think it's happened in other places I think it happened in Maybrook and I was you know sadly post on the board when that decision was made and I do agree that it was a very traumatic decision because taking a school out of a village you know where children live where families are is not great um so I I hear you know that we need to work so that everybody that lives in this district will support improvements no matter where
118they are this year next year five years 10 years because because we want all of our kidss to have a great education so um I think I'd like to reframe that you know it's in in terms of like surveying people but also like we're all part of this District whether we live in Walen or not we should want to make sure that there are improvements I actually did have a question about the possibility of repurposing neor back to you know a village school but I also um believe that that's going to have to come with some kind of improvements as well because we don't want to just sort of open up a school without making sure that the quality of Education that's going to be delivered in that school is going to be equal you
119know to all of the other school buildings um see so I wanted to put out there that I feel that we need to provide some reference to how long of a process this is going to be because you know no decision has been made you know we have not even talked about a timeline of like when we would hope to try to get to a decision and then at that point how long does it take from that point on so I think it would be I think it was help for me to think about that that it's this isn't like an immediate this is going to be a process and I want the community to be aware of that [Music] um I have a question about the swap um idea that you mentioned you know
120what would it be for us to gift the Walden elementary school if we did go with the option of building you know accepting the recommendations and going off site you know what would that be like and what what what power do we have have to be able to do something like that where the building stays in the village and is connected to the Village I'm a social worker by trade I've worked in the Bronx you know I've seen what happened in pyy with their you know School how they repurposed it into a community center old buildings still have value um within a community and can really be repurposed to you know have the capacity to to be utilized you know seven days a week through the evening um and actually can you know Revitalize you
121know the surrounding Services um bring Services into that Center um and also Revitalize the you know um private sector so I just would be interested knowing what that process would be and reversely um if the village has some space parcel um you know what would it be like for us to be able to capture that in order to be able to keep a new construction in the village we want to hear more about the exchange what it is there anything else that you would want to say on that at this point or not really no equal value sorry uh there not much I get obviously the devil's in the details right so but uh conceptually that is a that is a potential option you guys asked a lot of questions that I have done I
122guess the other comment that I had is the whole emminent domain you know I I that's a scary notion to me and if I was somebody that had possible property or um you know that I could see that being a cause of some some concern so I don't know if we could either push that off the table or put that on a discussion to actually consider that as an option or not an option at all how much property do you have no I don't have any no not 8 I'm just I'm just if it's from what I understand it's a really complicated process and I because it's been put out there as a potential option I just think that's not something we're going to consider it might be you know it might be good idea
123for us to just toss that off the table and while I while I would accept the committee's recommendation I do think it would be valuable to take a look at um what the costs would be if we were to use existing property that we do have um and consider the reconfiguration possibly the Princeton um option that you were mentioning and one question the do the numbers that we received in terms of the cost do they include the purchase of property or that's completely separate cost two two billion I don't know you say that I thought I heard that I think those are my main question great thank you all right so that concludes our round robin I think um we can take these questions I hear a lot of typing over here and we will
124consolidate uh look at the questions also make a list of items that we need to discuss I think there's a quite a few items that require additional discuss discussion for majority so we'll gather all that uh for the for the next meeting and have that as as an agenda item as much as possible I think there might be some research that might be needed on some of those before we do that but um but anyway I hope uh every everybody had a chance if anybody has anything else they want to do before we close this topic we're good okay so um I think if nothing else it shows that a decision has not been made I think it is great to hear everybody else's thought on um where where we stand on this and there's
125a lot of uh good good topics that came up so thank you you mean book was wrong all right we are going to move on to new business now and um first item I need a recommendation for the approval uh bid recommendation actually to reject recommendation for additional review of the drainage sale mainten can I get a motion to approve second Katie all in favor opposed pass 7 Z thank you um I get a motion for the approval of the bid recommendation for a wrestling match at the middle school and high school motion to approve Sarah second Diana all in favor opposed iOS okay uh six to one uh notice for the approval of bid recommendation 2023 capital projects phase one can I get a motion to approve I'll make a motion Angela second second
126Katie all in favor iOS 70 thank you approval of the contract with train USA for uh unit ventilators for phase one motion to approve Katie Sarah second all in favor post 7 Z thank you motion for the approval of valley central Teachers Association and Christen K kesy this is for insurance for a therapy dog that we use can I get a motion to approve I'll make a motion Angela second I'll second Katie all in favor oos 70 thank you this approval of agreement with Orange County alcohol and drug asuse alcohol abuse Council for on-site space motion to approve I'll make a motion Fran second second Jane all in favor I oppos 70 next is the approval of agreement with uh children neurological neuropsychological Services they do independent evaluations for us can I get a motion
127to approve I am second I'll second Angela all in favor I oppos 70 thank you establishment 2425 Health and Welfare Services rate can I get a motion to establish I'll make a motion Katie Sarah all in favor opposed all right s z okay next uh we're GNA do well I'm not going to do the whole readings I'm going to summarize they are available for you um what I'm going to do is I'm going to summarize and I'm going to uh ask that we wave the second reading so that uh we can Implement these policies due to the timing of the updates and the timing of our policies so the first one is 11:20 and basically this is just an update to a policy regarding the employee notification of disciplinary reference request um so that's the
128first one and the next along with that is i2r which is basically the same thing they added the paragraph saying the same language that with the r as the rules and regulation document so I'm going to ask for a motion to wave the second reading and approve 1120 and 1120 R I'll make a motion who is it Fran Katie second all in favor post 70 thank you next is the uh reading of 95206 this is an updated policy which uh updated to play pay employees to express breast milk at work and also um that they can't be required to stay late or come in early to express breast milk so can I get a motion to wave and approve this policy I'll make a Katie second Jane all in favor clst 70 thank you okay
129so that brings us to the end of our regular meeting I want to thank Craig and Greg for being with us tonight streaming we are going to go back into executive session to discuss negotiations and Personnel we will not take any action when we come out of executive session so at this point I will take a motion to go into executive session at 840 Sarah second Diana all in favor I close 70 thank you very much