001Welcome back to the March 17, 2026 meeting of the Halpog Union Free School District Board of Education. We are back from the executive session. Uh please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. to the flag. >> I pledge allegiance >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone, especially Dr. Murphy. >> And four on the agenda is our updates. Uh our superintendent update. Dr. Murphy. >> Thank you, Mr. Par. I'm actually going to turn it over to my friend Alakin to get us started with the student board update and then I'm going to provide my update over there at the podium. Lying solo tonight. >> Thank you. >> Uh
002ACT testing last Tuesday went over well with students considering the process to have been very ambitious. Battle of the buildings was a smashing success. Even more students than expected came out to see their favorite teachers compete in silly games. Simil similarly, the student volunteer turnout was most impressive with over a hundred kids working the event. Quick congratulations to the Pines for being crowned as our winners of the first annual Battle of the Buildings. In other news, the spring musical Something Rotten was a big hit. Both Fridays and Saturdays shows were nearly sold out and the acting cast really brought the story to life. The start of the spring season has been a great one. The various girls and boys sports teams have been making use of some of the new and improved facilities Hawog has
003to offer. In addition, unified basketball will begin soon. So, any student looking to get involved with their peers should sign up on final forms now. The senior trip to Florida is tomorrow and we hope that our seniors will have will enjoy their mini vacation. And finally, the junior prom on Thursday, April 16th has has released the paperwork and the accompanying guidelines. Students and guardians should go through all the requirements in preparation for the party. Students should take advantage of the opportunity to sell chocolate to offset the price of their ticket. Thank you. Thank you very much. Dr. Murphy at the podium. >> Thank you. Thank you, Alakin, for that update. [clears throat] I'll get to St. Patrick's Day in a moment. Um, first I just want to share some news from around the district. Congratulations
004to the talented cast and pit and crew uh advisers of Hopot High School's drama um club for their outstanding performance in Something Rotten. [clears throat] I attended that show with um my wife and uh her mom and I sat next to Mr. Scrio who was there. Um it was a packed house. There was energy, humor, impress impressive musical performances all around. You know, they always put on a great show. Uh earlier this month, excuse [clears throat] me, following a spirited sendoff from classmates in our local fire department, which was awesome. Thank you to them. Our varsity cheer team, uh traveled to the Nisvah State Championships. uh they advanced through the preliminary round and then they delivered just another strong performance in the finals to earn third place in New York State. So congratulations to that
005team. Historic achievement uh just a a direct reflection of of their dedication and hard work. It's just incredible year after year. Same time our DECA students uh were competing at the New York State Career Development Conference in Rochester. Uh congratulations to Annabelle Adamo Arena Bellisai Allison Winars and Sam Beth uh Karenam for earning recognition uh and qualifying for the international competition in Atlanta. Incredible. Uh we commend Annabelle and and Arena on their induction into the New York DECA Honor Society. Next, our middle school science research students recently had an impressive showing at the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair, earning multiple awards. Special congratulations to Aditri Arun and Pranav Ramkumar. They were named first place winners and will advance to the National Junior Innovation Challenge. This is just incredible. uh coming in first in this
006competition. The [snorts] the honors reserve for only the top 10% of projects nationwide. So, of course, we're just so incredibly proud of our students uh and and grateful to their teachers for their continued guidance and support uh under the leadership of Dr. Wankler. Our middle school students continue to make a difference in the community as well. >> [clears throat] >> In the spirit of uh giving back, I was at this hot pub middle school hosted a pie in the face fundraiser ahead of Pi Day raising $610 for the national multiple sclerosis society. Um m uh high school's math honor society also celebrated Pi Day with their own creative fundraisers. The students nominated classmates. This was a twist this year to be pied by teachers. I think that went over well by the teachers um and
007and raising different donations. 19 classes participated, 32 students were pied. They raised over $1,100 to support Callie's crew um and and Chad TU in their efforts to defeat the IPG. [clears throat] These are this is a charity Callie's crew in particular near and dear to all our hearts. Um, I I do want to add [clears throat] my voice is gone from this morning. I'll explain in a minute. Um, the pi days were uh tremendous throughout the district. I was pied in the face three times last week. Um, my wife is commenting that our laundry smells like sour milk uh during pi week. Uh, but it's so worth it. There's just like incredible energy and electricity uh at all the buildings. So, just incredible job. And that's really Meredith Hansen, math director, who has kind of
008um cultivated that spirit around Pard. Also want to extend sincere thanks to the many community members who joined us for Brett Woods um uh community guest reader day. Dr. Smallley put that together as part of PARP. Uh I I was one of the uh the guests along with Mr. Tasmin and and Dr. McCarthy who visited the classrooms uh to read to students. uh there were retirees, [clears throat] there were colleagues, there were local leaders who were all there to read with students. Uh so just grateful to all of them. And then lastly um today um so yes, this is uh I was thinking about this. This is probably a once in 10 year event that I would come dressed to a board meeting like this. I was thinking about this. Um it has to happen
009on a Tuesday, St. Patrick's Day. We have to have a board meeting that same night. Um, so this is probably not going to happen again for 10 years. I had the board's I think approval ahead of time to come and keep my my outfit on. So I appreciate that. Um, the morning was just incredible and and again I feel like uh just the luckiest uh superintendent out there. When you go to these buildings and um you kind of bring excitement, it's reciprocated and more. you know, the kids are just uh so ready to have fun, to to dance around, to everybody's wearing green. Um the teachers are are dancing with us. You know, all of the the you know, the employees in the building are having a ball and so um it's really a reflection
010of the community because I I just think that that spirit is unique to Hop. Um so I I'm so grateful for it. That's why you're hearing me um losing my voice a little. I'm going to segue into my presentation with one little clip from today, just give you a taste of what was going on in the buildings. And apparently there's plenty more videos online. Um some of my dance moves may be questionable. Uh you know, it is what it is. Uh I do I I'm not a professional. Uh so if you see them online, no judgment, please. But here's one clip from today. >> [screaming] >> So thank you. So that was today. Um again um just uh amazing experience and uh uh I think you need to hop off. So, so thank you uh
011to the community and to our faculty and staff, our teachers in particular who kind of em embrace and make that happen alongside of um Mr. Bar, with with your permission, I'll kind of segue right into uh the budget presentation, >> please. Thank you. >> That is number 5B on the agenda. >> Thank you. So, um, again, I always like to anchor our presentations with our board adopted mission and vision statement, our Eagle's values. For this particular presentation, I'll kind of just lock my eyes on accountability. Uh, just making sure that, you know, when I'm presenting, we're taking uh responsibility for this budget and making sure that it's sound and and aligns with our uh philosophical framework. The mission is the means to get to our vision, right? Our vision is provide safe, challenging, supportive environment
012where all stu students feel empowered to reach their potential. Um so with that I'll start with uh again two weeks ago big picture I always provide the numbers which is um uh last uh two weeks ago's presentation but just to connect back to that big picture our budgetto budget uh number is 2.87% 87% 142,359 kind of working my way up uh our revenues there which I'll dive into in this particular presentation uh we appropriate fund balance and reserves we have other which is capturing a lot of revenue sources in one it's building rentals it's um uh CPSC uh monies that come back to the district uh you know banking monies so there's a lot that goes into that category Then we have pilots which payments in lie of taxes which is a big part of
013our revenue budget here in hop state aid um not a number that we're thrilled about. There's rumors in Albany that they're working on increasing that number. Uh but we have to go with the number that we know. And then our tax levy, which is a formula I'll get to get into here in a moment from one year to the next is 3.72. So, here's that particular tax levy number. This looks like a complicated math equation. It is to a degree, but I'm going to go through it. Basically, you take the prior year's tax levy and you multiply it by a growth factor that's provided to us. Every district has a different growth factor. It it basically tries to capture the growth of your taxable base provided to us. You add in prior year's pilots and
014you subtract out your capital levy. Once you get that number, then you multiply it by the levy growth factor. So, it's either going to be CPI or 2% uh whichever is lower. So, it's 2% this year. You then subtract out what your pilots are going to be and you come up with a new number and then you add back your capital levy share. that share is basically um the amount of debt service uh minus aid that's projected to come back. And so that's how you get to your final tax levy limit. Um consistently with this board of ed, we're not piercing the cap. We uh have gosh at least a decade or more 15 years of not piercing the cap. And so that's what we will propose to our community. Once again, what are the
015drivers of our budget? Um, you know, just there's tons of data points. There's there's a joke in Albany that like when it comes to the foundation aid formula, there's like four people in all of New York State who understand that formula. Basically, comes down to um your school district wealth and some some other factors. But just to kind of focus on the different categories, you have expense driven aids which is like building aid and and aid that comes back from Boseies. You have enrollment driven aids that's that's aid like based upon enrollment which is like software and library funds things like that. Our foundation aid which I spoke about previously and then just to focus on UPK for a moment this number has gone up which is seemingly good news. Um there's still devil in
016the details that we're unsure of, but they've increased [clears throat] the cap per student to $10,000. Uh it was 5,400. So that seems to be good news, except um it's more complicated than that. So, we we're hoping that that 10,000 really does allow us to fund our UP classrooms in a way where we're not leaving money on the table with the state and we're not expending money on our side, which is something that all districts have experienced. They've been budgeting for UPK a number and we haven't been able to access the full number. And this is true for really all districts. It's been this annoying bureaucratic um development over the last couple years that they're trying to solve for just about other um revenues here and that that miscellaneous uh item um interest uh is
017you can see has gone up a bit. We have tuition and and our our normal building rentals. We have tops uh and new beginnings here in the district right here in district office. um we get to see them from time to time playing outside our windows. And then captured at the bottom is is a miscellaneous number that's a bunch of different numbers uh combined together um from self- insurance recoveries to Medicaid rate etc. And again philosophically just to kind of uh round out the conversation about revenues, we appropriate each year um reserves which is uh a way for us to keep uh you know to to mitigate the impact on our taxpayers. We have a bunch of reserves to highlight a couple. We have Ebelar, we have ERS. Uh so what we often do is
018appropriate reserves in that year um for for budget line items and then the goal is at the end of the year to try to replenish those reserves. Our reserves are very healthy um overall. Uh but you know each year it's it's it's a new conversation on the best way to approach the year. Um same for fund balance. Again, uh it's a it's an attempt to to kind of keep our credit rating sound. And we've appropriated fund balance go past since before I was here uh each year. And again, it's a way to um to uh be ready for un un um planned events, but also a way to keep the levy down uh so it's applied to the following year's budget. All of this I just mentioned to the board um today's workshop about revenues
019leads up to to two weeks from now where we'll we'll kind of do a deep dive into well what's in the budget right so we have a a systematic approach to our presentations the first one's big picture kind of 10,000 foot view then we get into revenue then we get into what's in it so that's uh what's happening in the classrooms what's happening on our fields what's happening uh really everywhere throughout the district curriculum instruction construction, security, technology, uh all of that will be included in that presentation. Um I am going to send a reminder out to invite uh people to come to to the next board meeting because I think it's a a great one to attend. I'm also uh inviting uh principles to be here and this way we can um provide uh
020a lens uh that covers all the buildings uh through those different categories. From there, we have budget adoption and the budget hearing. Again, these are all kind of part of our yearly cycle. And then our annual budget vote uh comes later in May. >> Thank you, Dr. Murphy. Questions or comments from the board concerning the presentation? >> Yes, sir. Mr. >> Sco, question as far as um like the buses. I remember when Dave and I first [clears throat] started wet contract now with the fuel oil prices, everything going up. Is that going to affect us at all this year? Um well I it can um you know this is such a recent story. Um we have a really good relationship with Suffach Transportation. They they've been our our partners for a while. So um you
021know I'm in touch with them about that topic. So I'll report back to the board what we can expect. Um, I don't know if the shortterm um developments at the pump uh if they become long-term. I think the answer is definitely, but I I I'll wait to speak to them to find out. >> Sure. >> Any other questions from the board? Questions from the community concerning the presentation? >> Thank you, Dr. Murphy. >> Thank you. 5C on the agenda is adoption of minutes from the uh budget/ community meeting of the board of education of March 3rd, 2026. Do I have a motion? >> Thank you, Mr. Scredo. Dr. Trafford seconds. Any discussion? All those in favor? Opposed? Extensions. 61. Mr. Barstaining. Number six on the agenda. Questions or comments uh from the community concerning tonight's
022agenda only? Do any members have items from the consent agenda they would like to have removed? With that, I'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda, which is all [clears throat] of number seven. On the agenda, I'll make a motion. Mr. Greo seconds. Any discussion? All those in favor? 70. Number nine, um are our uh propositions to the budget? Our capital reserve propositions uh proposition two, three, and four. Uh Mr. Boroski, do those need to be voted on individually or can we pass them all with one vote? >> Pass them all with one vote. >> Very good. Uh so uh we will uh call uh the vote on proposition 2, three and four. I'll make the motion. Mr. Scrio seconds. Any discussion on those propositions? All those in favor? 70. Number 10 is a
023legal notice. Uh the board is asked The board is asked to vote on propositions 1, two, three, and four. Legal notice. Same thing here. Miss Barnoski, can these all be handled together? >> Uh, yes. May. Somewhat redundant, but better. repeated. >> Fair enough. Uh so we'll call uh the vote on number 10, legal notice, the four propositions. I'll make the motion. Mr. Scrio seconds. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> 70. Number 12 on the agenda are discussion matters. There aren't none tonight. Uh do any board members have new business? Mr. something came to light for everybody that people in New York State trying to change people that have so affect like our statement or anything. Have you read about this now that New York is proposing starting 2028 in January that has 11:00 or
024the lights go out? >> Honestly, I did not outdoor light as well. >> Yes. So you can have motion lights. Um but they also must um so I just had some concerns because I know we're putting a lot of money into our our fields and stuff like that. So I think we should be aware of it and just be very costly if we have to. So, we should probably look into it. Um, so if okay with the board, I I'll look into this to determine if the if it makes sense for for any advocacy or or statement on behalf of of the board. Uh, let me let me dive deeper into the to the topic and then I can report back. >> And Miss Barnowski, can your office just look into that >> as well?
025Please let us know the status of the bill. >> I saw this on the news and I advocates and other skyscraper type cities that the wild is getting killed by flying into birds and that's one of the rational >> so they'll protect the wildlife by turning off the lights >> but not protect the humans by keeping them on. I I think the wild might come out. Can >> you imagine lights? >> Perfectly safe. >> It's perfectly >> uh any other new business for board members. Uh I just want to um the fields have uh begun to be used by the sports teams, the outdoor fields. They are uh amazing um great work by everyone involved in that. Um, on the softball field, however, there's uh in left field there's a chase pipe coming up out
026of the ground. I don't know if that was brought to anyone's uh attention, there's a a PVC pipe that's maybe 3 or 4 in above grade. That is definitely uh a hazard. >> Left field, you said, right? >> Left field. Yeah. >> Okay. >> If they can look at that before the season starts and before outdoor practices. Yep. >> Um, >> we'll look at it tomorrow. >> Okay. It's a PVC pipe. You'll see it. >> Yes, Dr. I'm sorry, Mr. discreet. >> I also want to congratulate Mr. Bullis and the Pines, but I did get new shirts for the us because we have to get prepared. So, [laughter] >> yes, the bulis >> I I didn't want to give Pines any, you know, recognition tonight on uh their trophy. Battle of the buildings was won
027by Pines Elementary School, but good showing by district office. I would say all around board members were part of it. Uh I think we represented well. I like it. Mr. Screen. >> Just going down now. Okay. >> Yes. >> Heard enough of the basketball. >> One bit of news. Apparently the Battle of the Buildings trophy has gone missing and a ransom note was sent to Mr. Bullis. This is true. So we'll see how that story unfolds. Yes. >> Uh any other do business for board members? Do business from administration? >> Just one note. Um have someone in the audience tonight who is getting who got the board just approved tenure. So Maria Npalitano is here tonight. Excuse me. I just want to say I've known Marine uh for a long long time. Um she cares.
028She's so invested in our district. She's at the middle school uh helping our kids but also is an artist. There's a mural in the middle school that I've seen which I see Gina nodding which is so impressive. Um we've had a lot of conversations about even common interests outside of work that are enjoyable. Yes. With your husband as well. Um but really it's it's a true pleasure to be here tonight. Uh and I thank the board. Uh it's welldeserved tenure for Marine. So, congratulations. [applause] >> That's it on new business. >> Thank you. Uh questions and comments from the community concerning anything related to the district whatsoever. Anything? [snorts] >> I did. Uh number 15 on the agenda is an adjournment. Uh our next meeting is the budget community meeting of March 31st, 2026. Uh
029there'll be no further executive session as we completed all our business earlier. I will make a motion for the adjournment. Mr. Scrio seconds any discussion. All those in favor? 70. We are adjourned. God bless our pug and God bless the United States. Thank you. Happy St. Patrick's Day.