001Good evening. We're back in executive session coming to the March 3rd 2026 board. We all stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag [clears throat] of United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty, justice for all. >> Thank you. [laughter] >> Thank you, Mr. Good evening, everybody. Just a few updates. First off, since our last meeting, uh the the district, the community, all of the island adored those uh the snowstorm uh which was crazy uh dealing with that over the those three days. I say three days cuz even the third day uh we had a weather report that did not match the reality that morning and I I sent a message uh to staff thanking everybody for their understanding with that craziness in the
002morning. Uh, most of all, and I've been thanking these guys every time I see them. I just want to recognize our buildings and grounds team who, you know, I always say we we don't have the equipment of of an airport to deal with uh these snow storms. And when it's 20 plus inches, it's it's [snorts] just nonstop that these guys are here. They're basically sleeping here. So just working tirelessly to ensure our our our lots are clear, our walkways are safe, you know, salting um all these tricks that Mr. Afini tells me about to to to manage what is just a a tremendous challenge. So uh just truly grateful for that team. So thank you so much to those guys. Um next I want to uh commend um you know the fire department here is
003is near and dear to us. They're such great partners in so many different ways. They had this great idea with this hydrant heroes challenge. I don't know if everyone saw some of the photos submitted by our students. Um there was one student uh yes uh who who was the winner, Grant Kurthers, who laid down in front of the hydrant uh I mean in his bathing suit at least for a minute for the photo to be taken. Um unbelievable. And and let me read off the rest of the winners here. So there was Brandt and then runners up Joseph uh Germa Jermaine German Gmani apologize if I'm saying that wrong. Gabriella Fontana, Haley Bathky, and Savannah Bathy. Um we're going to have lunch with uh all of the participants. Again, the fire department has generously uh
004they kind of decided after all the entries were in to say it's really tough to pick winners. So, they invited all the students who submitted photos to a special lunch at the fire department um this weekend to personally thank them for for stepping up to help out. You know, it it was a a great contest, but there was a real value there because they they cleared the hydrants uh you know, god forbid if the fire department needed to to get access to them. So, uh just great job all around. Just another example of hot pog coming together uh dealing with something and making it fun for kids and and again thanks to the fire department. Um this upcoming weekend, this Friday, our high school students will uh raise the curtain on the production of Something
005Rotten. Actually plan on going there uh with my wife on Friday evening. Mr. Screo apparently has his tickets as well. Uh there's an additional performance on Saturday. So, as always, please come out and support our fine performing arts program, our talented students and staff. Uh, I'm sure it's going to be another great show with with energy and and humor and outstanding performances. Also have a number of student athletes heading to states this Friday. Uh, congratulations and best of luck to our cheerleading team fresh off their county championship victory. Unbelievable that team. Noah Hutsler and Luke Orololis from boys swimming and diving. Rachel Buttkkey and Katherine Duro from our girls winter track team. Uh, also congratulations uh for Rachel Katherine along with Ava Ling Lingan who all they all made the podium at the Long Island
006Long Island Elite Track Meet this past weekend. Rachel was second place in the long jump. Katherine third place the 1500 meter race walk and Ava second place in the freshman sophomore 1500 meter uh race obviously just incredibly proud of all of our students and lastly as we all know Thursday evening battle of the buildings um I'm grateful that we have some uh fire department judges because we're going to be filled to capacity so if we're you know if we're at capacity I'm kind on those guys to let me know if uh we're one one person too many. Um it it's been unbelievable and I just got to thank the PTA Miss Ammed who happens to be here in the audience and Miss Oessy. It's been an incredible amount of time and effort and this has
007exceeded our expectations by a million miles. like um first of all we have I think over 200 participants including many of the people that you see up here tonight who are going to represent district office and even though we haven't practiced Mr. Tasman we're going to be ready to roll um I don't think anyone's beaten us at Hungry Hungry Hippos we we have >> I have to agree Dr. I'm the only concerned about they have all the videos though. >> Yeah. >> The board doesn't have >> Well, I think we our video our video will go out when we win. >> The rumor >> the winning video. >> We need to investigate Mr. Scaro when when the teams are practicing. I mean, we we're trying to investigate how many hours they've been practicing for this.
008>> Yeah, it's all right. We come in with raw energy and we're going to we're going to >> Yeah, she's scouting tonight. She's scouting. So, I I think we're we're looking at something like 15 to,600 uh people coming that night, most of them kids. So, it's it's going to be awesome. And uh I ask for everyone's patience. It's our first time with this event since at least 15 years ago. So, if there are some pain points, we'll get through them and we'll learn and adjust for next year. U so again, thanks to to everybody uh who make who's helped to make that happen. Um, I will say last thing on this, if you are planning on attending or if you got your ticket, we're encouraging car pooling because it's just going to be crowded in
009all the lots on Thursday evening. Um, so yeah, all good. Can't wait. Thursday night, battle of the buildings. Thank you with that. Oh yes. Well, I'm turning it over to Hannah and Alican. And uh before Hannah speaks, I want to recognize her. I actually posted about this on my own Facebook page, but Hannah was surprised. I don't know how this happened that she uh that surprise was kept at PS I Love You Day Assembly at the high school with a scholarship from one of the um the uh the owners, the the uh what would you what's her name? >> Founders. Thank the word I was. Founders. >> Um such a special moment. You were blushing that night. You're blushing now a little bit. Welld deserved. Um the whole the whole audience is applauded. [applause] >>
010With that, I will turn it over to you. >> Yes. [clears throat] >> Thank you. School sports will start Monday, March 9th. All students looking to play this season should be sure that they have a current physical as well the proper information done and final forms. Yesterday's SAT and today's preACT went over smoothly. Students should expect to see their results within the next month. Juniors should be studying ahead of March 10th, next Tuesday for the ACT. This past Friday, IB diploma candidate Abia Sadik's cash project went over well with over 70 people in attendance and NHS facilitate facilitating the event. >> Thank you guys. Thank you both. >> We'll see you Thursday. >> Dr. Murphy7 school. >> Yeah, it's a very brief presentation. Uh but I am just going to go over to the podium.
011I think there's a clicker there for me. Okay. So, can you hear me? Okay. >> Yes. Um, March is a busy month for uh our board. We have three board meetings this month. This is always the first big picture 10,000 foot view of our budget season. I always like to start our presentations uh with our adopted mission and vision statements along with our Eagles core values. I I I think it's probably most aligned at this point with the word accountability when it comes to budget. just making sure that everything we do is in in service of our kids and that we take the accountability when [clears throat] building a budget so we are matching our mission and our visions uh statements. Our mission being delivering high quality instruction, fostering deep learning and building respectful collaborative
012relationships, right? And our vision providing a safe and challenging and supportive environment where all students are empowered to reach their full potential. That's really the goal of every budget is to make sure that we keep those big picture themes in mind. When it comes to our development, again, big picture I just alluded to part of the budget. This is, you know, a theme that is true for all school districts. Our staffing and our our benefits constitute north of 70% of the budget. So when you are building a budget, there are, you know, very few pie pieces that you have control over in terms of making those decisions, but we uh we go through those conversations incessantly leading up to today and then throughout budget season. We're still making decisions. Of course, enrollment and staffing, those
013two are closely related, but there's not the exact direct correlation that there always was because even with declining enrollment, sometimes you have needs in certain areas that necessitate staffing uh staffing additions. And then of course, everything we do is about offering the most robust and diverse um course catalog for our students, K12. And we're constantly looking at what are new opportunities we can bring to our kids. Here's our enrollment. It's leveling off a little bit, but it's still, you know, as you can see, declining. Um, we've been hovering in length of 3,200, 3,100, now just shy of 3,000 uh projected for next year. Um, over the last four or five years. So, that's a trend. Um, that was I would say the slope was a was a little steeper uh years past, but it's still
014declining. in terms of staffing and and again this presentation is meant to be just big picture. We'll be getting into a deeper dive next board meeting into all this. But our teachers unit has actually 14 retirements. It's kind of crazy for me because a lot of these names are, you know, individuals I've worked with for a long time. So, it's hard at the end of the year at at that meeting when we're we're shaking hands and recognizing uh those retirees, but um so we have a healthy number this year. I will say it's unlikely that we're going to replace all of them. Um but we're still working that out with Mr. Tasman's uh oversight there. that's that you know these decisions are all connected to programs and you know decisions we're making K12 in terms
015of other units that's always kind of a a more fluid conversation um other unions in the district again we have a whole presentation for crypto instruction that's coming uh but we have like four pillars that we we always like to highlight when we're going to budget season. How do we maintain just our core instructional programs K12 uh from year to year? We make tweaks, we add courses, sometimes we prune courses, but ultimately again it's back to that theme in the previous slide the most robust experience possible. We continually again thanks to the board. Uh there's really two items here. Actually the final three I'll just align with the board's decision making in the past. The college trips the summer college workshops where we're doing [clears throat] college application help. All of these things that are
016supported by the board uh continue into next year. of course classroom technology um we're now at the point where we have you know refresh cycles this is all under Dr. the records uh domain. That's Chromebooks, that's iPads, that's that's smart IFPS, that's audio enhancement. Again, we'll get into the weeds on that uh in a future presentation. And then, you know, just listening to our student board members talk about the finan student fees for those exhibits. Uh just a tremendous feather in the cap. It it doesn't happen elsewhere. I mean there there maybe one or two districts that does some version of this but nobody's doing it right and the why behind that that I always like to just you know highlight is that the board uh when when they made this decision wanted to remove
017any and all barriers to to a student having an opportunity to achieve so um our students have been taking advantage of this uh in in a good way and and u with So proud to be able to offer that uh again next year. Big picture and then I'll unpack this uh more in future presentations. [clears throat] This is um a snapshot of last year, the year we're in, I should say, and then next year with the percent changes. Our budget to budget is 2.87%. Our fund balance and reserves don't change. Those are revenues. We do have an increase in the other I'm working my way up here. Um that includes everything from rental uh fees for our preschools to interest that we've earned uh in our different accounts to um into fund transfers from debt
018service pilots payment in le of taxes. This line item is pretty unique to hop. When you see other districts, they don't necessarily have a number that high. because of our industrial complex and and that number is due to the projections. You know, we always play it safe, but it's due to rise just a bit. Not thrilled about the initial state aid projections. Um, as you can see, uh, that number is going down a little bit. There is buzz that uh, that number is going to, you know, by the time we have our final number, it will be up, but as of today, that's the number we have to go with. I will say we got a 1% foundation aid uh increase. So some of this is tied to um aid that's attached to our services.
019So it's not exactly the bad story that it appears, but we're hoping that by the time they finalize the budget up in Albany that our foundation aid will increase. And then our tax levy from year to year is 3.72. That's some of that is connected to our debt service. Uh [clears throat] we crazy 2023 bonds. It's three years ago now at this point. Um when you're borrowing, you don't get the e back on those projects until the next year. So you have that one year where the debt service is increasing without um the building aid kind of taking a chunk of that mitigating that impact. So that's a a big part of that. in terms of what I referenced at the beginning which is our three presentations here in March and then what's to come
020by the way not on this slide is um you know our road show with the PTAs we're we're working to see if some of that can even be streamed for them this year uh so just acknowledgement of Jody Roco who's the PTA council president who's helping me with that but in terms of what's upcoming in this room March 17th Yes, it's St. Patrick's Day and we're going to be having a budget meeting. I will be dressed accordingly. Just putting [clears throat] out there now, not changing for the board meeting. Um, so we'll see what kind of press that gets. Um, I'll get into the revenues and the tax cap, you know, much deeper dive. Uh, March 31st, last day of the month. That's the curriculum instruction technology also discussion on health and safety budget adoption.
021This will be here before we know it in April. And then finally, you know, in [clears throat] May, we have our hearing and and the annual budget vote. So, it's, you know, there's a lot going on here in the next three months, but these days they come quickly and fly by. um always thankful for the community comes out to vote and um uh I do encourage anyone who may be listening to come to one of our meetings and and ask whatever questions they have. So again, next meeting is when we'll get into a deeper dive on revenue and tax cap and then after that click on the instructions. Any board members have any questions for Dr. Anybody in the community have any questions? Dr. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you.
022>> Moving on, guys. 5C adoption minutes. I'll make a motion with second discussion. All those in favor to number six, guys. Any questions and comments from tonight's agenda only? Members have questions tonight. agenda. I'll make a motion. Michael's on the second in the >> any policies gentlemen. >> Not tonight. >> The committee reports we're going to punch out. >> I do want to touch though if I can Dr. Murphy letter J. Yes. Ed uh best impact committee. Um it was a very good meeting that's um that we're going to start informing the public more that a lithium battery storage facility may be coming to our neighborhood sometime soon and we should you know let our people know that you know what's involved. >> Yeah, if I can can add [snorts] to that. So, um it's
023great to see a couple of our committee members here. Tara, who leads the um the public best committee, the board um guess it was two meetings ago organized and blessed this ad hoc best impact committee. Mr. Screen, Mr. Michaels has joined me at the firehouse. So, there's there's some really great partnership here. Um, I think to your point that what the community can expect is just more information from the district on how to get involved. I thought that last meeting at the firehouse was very helpful. Um, and we we had some local uh legislators in attendance as well and and one who encouraged us to shower her with correspondence and emails and and so forth and and that she would be uh the one to to take all of our messages. So, I think we're
024going we're going to figure out with with uh our attorney's guidance the best way to manage our communication. Um but there's some really great partnership here going on in our community. So, um >> what's on Super Bowl Sunday? >> That was uh that was a yes on Super Bowl Sunday. I was at a different meeting that that uh Commissioner Monroe organized where I I was uh in attendance for a presentation. So, I'm learning a lot about this as as you are. >> You're all learning a lot. If I can ask you our attorney, um, is this something, sir, when the public has a meeting at the firehouse, is that something, sir, that we can put on our website? >> Yes. >> Suggest we get the next meeting, it should be posted on our website [clears
025throat] to get information. >> Great. >> I don't mean to hijack, but that's why it came. >> Oh, you have. Well, we um we finished the community letter. >> Okay. >> Um which is posted on the website. So, I did bring copies for all you guys. Well, I only copies. >> Let's just make sure the board gets them and then the rest. Um [laughter] >> um so we also made this fly. Um we were I know it's last minute um but we had an idea after the last meeting the letter came together and we really want to try to get the word out to the community. So being that it's going to be such a heavily attended event we were hoping if we could well we were thinking originally maybe if we can put these
026on cards but it's supposed to rain so we wanted to know I don't know >> about Thursday. >> Huh? >> You hang out Thursday. for Thursday. Yes. Like she had tickets. >> I don't have tickets to the event. She does, but we had some volunteers from our committee that were willing to stand out at the end. >> Um this is very simple. When you scan that, it brings you to the community letter for people to sign on. Um >> Tara, you know what we'll do if if you can provide if you email me copies, we'll we'll put those up. Oh, >> people are are yellow. You need um >> You have QR on there. Is that what I see? >> Yes, it's a QR. Yeah, I have like the plane copy. >> Just email me
027and we'll we'll put them up uh as well. This way people can walk with their phones and >> we have an option on the website where everybody can put their information and then we will be able to track uh signatures. Um, and we're also there's an option on there now um to automatically send an email out to um some of the the town of Iceland representative that was at the meeting. >> Don Marie was >> Don Marie. I'm not sure how to pronounce her. I think it's Um and then uh legislator Bergen, but also we have an email that automatically goes out to pretty much everybody. So everybody in the town of Icelip, um the planning board, um even the utilities like LIPA, Suffach County water, our Suffach County legislator, um instead of just Hersburg
028and some of the other people, the senators. So on the website when you go to the homepage, you can click to sign the letter and then there's another button that says take action. That button is where it brings you to the email. So the email will go out. Basically, it's endorsing the community letter. I also saw you have a Facebook group. >> Yes, we also have a Facebook group. >> I I don't know if you have that on the website, but maybe you want to. >> Yes, it should be somewhere on there. And then on the homepage, too, we have uh the watch video um which is [clears throat] a long video that the fire department put out. It's about like four minutes long, informative. >> So, everything is um on there for the community
029for educational purposes. Um I worked with uh the developers that created the schoolboard coalition website. Um, and they were able to get everything up very quickly, which I think is super helpful for our community. So, yeah, we could do that Thursday evening square or something. I don't know because >> send it to me and >> yeah, send it to the committee. You guys, [clears throat] >> whatever we could do, we're going to do. >> Okay. Um, >> and I just want to thank you because I know it's a lot of time you're putting it in putting in here and and we're appreciative uh on this side of >> the day, right? So, thank you. Okay guys, move on to number 10. Discussion matters. Discussion matters. >> Nothing for us. >> Any new business? Any other
030board members have new business to talk about? I just had a couple things. Just I had a couple phone calls in my office about this water thing um that came up in New Day. I guess I have a question and I don't know the cost. My understanding this was a study done a while ago and it's just coming out now or what's the clarification on this? Yeah. So th this conversation is [snorts] um is confusing because when uh a news source runs a story, it seems like it's breaking news, right? And that's not the case here. In fact, I mean, I don't know if we were lucky or unlucky, but News 12 had a story 3 months ago, and at that time, we took that story and responded to it. Hophug did. There may have
031been other districts who did the same. We had already established a part a section of our website about water uh water quality and hop off schools that dates back years. That section we added my letter to the community back in December to that section of the website. To oversimplify this, there was a um a standard that they lowered um I think in 2022 15 parts per what's ppb. >> Yeah. Taz is becoming an expert on this as well and they lowered it to five per schools. It's schools and like Poland Spring but like the water in your home, you know, federal standards. So basically when they lowered that it it meant like every everything that was existing that was now above the five was captured immediately when that happened for hot we took those you
032know all of those water fountains out of production. Um they were either remediated or they remained down. The truth is the future of of water fountains likely in schools and Joe correct me if I'm wrong here. Well, no. Like the ones in the classrooms are are shut down, but the ones in the hallway, you know, when you go up and put your water bottle, they're filtered though, that's where kids are, you know, they're they're they're going with their classmate. They're going to fill up their water bottles that way. So, um, we do not, you know, there's nothing that anyone's exposed to in Hop. Um, News Day likes to sell papers. Um, you know, >> so we don't have the test for it. I didn't know if this came out. We we we always test. But
033but here's the >> here's the thing. Like >> the message is that the testing happens what every 3 years or something. >> Yeah. And whenever we put a new spot in and we change it and test it all together. And if depending on what they test, if they test it, you know, in in the beginning of the day or if they the test results could be different and but they also aren't rushing to test which is sends the message that you know it's not an emergency otherwise they would be testing weekly, right? So um bottom line is for us we don't have any um >> so we can let the community know that >> I already did that three months ago. I I >> this is just Monday. >> Yep. I haven't fielded any >>
034phone all calls or emails if I if if I thank you. >> That's why you're on the uh payroll. >> Um not with a great >> um but yes, if I need to resend my letter, we will we will do so. >> We should just go out there because I don't think Newsuesday should be our voice. >> I 100% agree with you there. >> I appreciate >> Yep. >> Um the other thing I want to remind you Dr. Murphy once again who was a braggard about Smithtown back within the science programs and science contest. So once again as a board member and a community member I want to push our students push our teachers as many things we can sign up for. I'm sure we get things taken care of with fees involved. >> Okay.
035>> As well as >> we know you always support >> like the America 250 coming up. There's homes, there's things that >> we've we've announced uh to [snorts] to our whole student body about um opportunities. Suffach County has a great dedicated website to that where where students can visit different locations and get stamps and then and then Miss Barry actually oversaw this and sometime next year we may ask the board to honor the students who get all the stamps for America 250. >> I think that's fantastic. And then the last thing um is the snow days. >> Yes. [clears throat] >> What I'm saying is so we don't have any left. So I know >> we we actually um we have one left. >> Technically we used our >> we used our three but they
036they granted an this was so rare they they granted an exemption to the 180day rule. I'm just hoping I don't even have to make a decision. Yeah. The snow. The snow is >> I don't even want to put that out in the in the universe. >> No more snow. >> What? What is it? >> I I think it started on St. Patrick's Day last year. I'm knocking on one. Maybe two years. >> Third time you've been in St. Patrick. [laughter] >> Is there a theme? >> Neutralization, sir. [laughter] >> All right. Any questions and comments from the community? >> Any good? Going to move on to an adjournment. I get a motion. Mrs. Collins with a second discussion. All those in favor? Our next business meeting will be Tuesday, March 17th, which I believe is
037St. Patrick's Day. >> Thank you everybody. Have a good night.