001Good evening and welcome to the Board of Education meeting for Yorktown Central School District for June 1, 2026. Can I get a motion to go into executive session to discuss the employment of a particular pedagogical employees and matters made confidential under FERPA. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Can I get a motion to go back into public session? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Good evening and welcome to the Yorktown Central School District for June Board of Education meeting for June 1, 2026. Can we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance to be followed by a moment of silence for our armed forces and those in the Yorktown Central School District community who have lost loved ones, especially the mother of Tim
002Sullivan and the grandmother-in-law of James Cashin. Okay, Dr. Hatter, what do we have tonight? >> All right, I'm going to make my way to the podium to begin this evening's presentation. Excuse me. This is always one of my favorite nights of the year because you all, and I've worked with so many of you so closely, you all give so much of your time. And you don't ask for thank yous. You don't ask for acknowledgement. You just do it. And there's a reason why so many of our administrators are here. I just want to take a moment to acknowledge some of the administrators who are here tonight to celebrate you. So I see Mr. I'm just going to go by the order that I see our administrative team. I see Mr. Di Genaro in the back,
003our high school principal, Ms. Horowitz, our middle school principal, Mr. Barrett, our athletic director, my administrative assistant, Erica, here. Janette Messina, our director of HR. I see our PPS administrators, Ms. Almeida, Ms. Manikas, Ms. Amendola. I see Ms. Sammet from Crompond. I see Mr. Miller from STEM, from our curriculum office. Mr. Casserini is here from Brookside. I see Ms. Fromer. I see Mrs. Berry. Brian, our communicate you all interact with Brian at some point. Forgive me if I missed any of our administrative team, but there's a reason why they're here because you were so important to them and to the work that they do. And I just wanted to take a moment to thank you. So welcome to this special evening. We started this tradition, I'm in I can't believe I'm finishing my ninth year
004already in this district. We started this nine years ago. And it was just a nice way of acknowledging the wonderful volunteers in our school community. We are so fortunate to have such great volunteer organizations that support the work of our schools, which in turn ultimately support the work of our students. The children of the Yorktown Central School District are the better for having you support their learning, their work, and our schools. This evening we'll be honoring each group as part of our school partner recognition night. To be able to formally and publicly acknowledge and honor the outstanding work of so many wonderful volunteers makes for a wonderful celebration. Your service to our district is so appreciated. In a time where everyone is so busy and there are so many things happening, you have your own
005commitments. You have your own demands on your time. Yet you've prioritized service to your district and to your school community. You give so many hours. Hours that we see at events, but we don't see the depth of the work that goes into planning these events and all of the details that you look at. Whether it's a guest speaker, whether it's a dance, whether it's a scholarship dinner or whatever the event is. Yes, we see the event. But no one truly sees how many hours you put in to make these events go off as seamless as they do. For this and for all that you do, we are so grateful to you. This evening we're also saying thank you to our Board of Education. We have the greatest Board of Education that any district can ever
006have and I say that very confidently. I say that very publicly. We have a great great board. I've been doing this for a while. It's very rare that you get a group and I see Jacqueline Guarino in the audience as well who is a trustee elect, trustee and now trustee elect. So when I point this way, I'm including Jacqueline as well in that um We have a great board. We are so fortunate as a community to have the board that we have. We're also going to acknowledge two student ex-officio Board of Education representatives. I wasn't sure how this year would work with having student representatives on the board, but I have been so amazed by Hunter and Luke and we'll acknowledge them as well. So, at this time I'm going to turn it over to
007you. I know that we asked you to say a few words just briefly say a few words about just what you're most proud of. It doesn't have to be fundraising or dollars. It can be an event. It can be something that you saw at an event. Some act of kindness, some act of generosity, some act of community that you saw. But, I'd love for you to take a moment to speak about something that you're most proud of. Because yes, we see some of what you do. But, it's going to be so important for us to hear a little bit more and for our community to hear a little bit more. So, I'm going to begin with a group that I work very, very closely with and a group that I really, really enjoy the relationship
008that we have and I'm seeing them in the front row and I see Ron on there as well. Um I'd like to invite representatives from our district PTSA led by Lisa Buclau, Lori Consaga, Ron Fideli, please come on up. >> Thank you. >> Good, Ron. Go right ahead. >> Good evening, everyone. I'll keep it short and sweet. We're most proud of being able to do whatever we can to help the district, coordinate events, keep the PTAs uh on on the same page and and again, as PTA members we do this all for the kids. One of the things I'm very proud of is the the two women that are standing with me. Their children have graduated, but they're still committed and dedicated to the Yorktown district that they still are doing this and volunteering their
009time. So I'm I'm very proud of working with them and I still only have a seventh grader, so I guess I could still stay here for a few more years. But again, very proud of our relationship with the school principals, the administrators, the secretarial team, everyone. So thank you again for all the support that the families give us. >> Thank you, Lisa. Thanks for staying. Thanks. Thanks for sticking around. Thank you, too, Mom. Thanks. >> They are such a great group. Such a great group. At this time, I'd like to invite representatives of our high school PTA to the stage. Ellen Campana, Gretchen Morfea, Daphne Packard, and anybody else on the executive board who I didn't name, please do come on up. >> Yes. You're speaking tomorrow night. We've had a great year of planning
010and organizing opportunities and experiences to enrich the students' education and then strengthen our school community. Oh, we're especially proud of our partnerships that we have created collaborating with our new PTA board together, the administration, um and the principals. We share a commitment to helping students learn and grow and thrive, and those commitments provide a meaningful difference. Thank you for your support, everybody. Thank you so much. Thank you, Alan. Thank you. >> I'd now like to invite up representatives from our Mildred E. Strang Middle School PTA, Michelle Bendlin, and any members of the Middle School PTA executive board and team. >> Hello. Hi. I feel very short. Okay. You need a step stool back here. Hi. Um, my name's Michelle Bendlin. I am the president this year for the Middle School PTA, and, uh, I do
011want to say thank you to the board for allowing us to be able to do all that we do, Mrs. Horowitz for giving us support when we needed it and a very special thank you to the board that is on our my PTA that has helped make this year. Megan, you probably should have joined us. Um who has helped make us get through the year. I think we have a bunch of things that we are happy and thankful for and proud of. Um being able to have different events like the sixth grade event and the seventh grade dance and especially International Night and Karen is not here. She had something to do with her daughter, but a big big thank you to Karen. Come on up. Who did run International Night and I think that's
012one of the big big events of our district of our our building, so it was a huge success year after year and hopefully the tradition will continue. Um and then just getting through the year is one of our biggest accomplishments considering it's middle school, so sometimes, you know, sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade difficult. So, um thank you to this wonderful board for doing everything to make our students and our children just happy especially with events after school. So, thank you to everybody. Thank you, Dr. Hatter. Thank you. Yep, we're going to go this way. We're going to go this way. >> And real quick, we want to thank you. Not the green bag. >> Not the green bag. >> That's my tote bag. For all your eight years serving on various PTA boards over
013the years. So, that's ever since our kids were in kindergarten, Michelle's been leading the way in various everything practically. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> for all you have done. But she's semi-retiring. We'll see. >> I'm handing my reins to the next group, but I'll still be around. >> All right. That's it. >> I'm sure I'll get socks back here. Thank you. >> Good to see you. >> Thank you. >> Good to see you. Perfect timing. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. >> And now we'd like to recognize our Crompond PTA and welcome Luciana Howitt, Ali O'Brien, and any other members of the Crompond executive board and PTA who are here. >> Um so, thank you. I'm Ali O'Brien. I just want to simply say thank you to my board because
014this was a crazy year for me both personally and professionally and without them holding everything together, I don't think we would have been able to have as many successful events in a year as we did. So, thank you guys. Um and thank you to all the families that helped us get through the year. So, Thank you, Ali. Thanks, Luciana. Thank you. Thank you so much. >> So, inside the bags are the small calendar magnets for the upcoming 26-27 school year. If there aren't enough for your executive board, just reach out to Erica. Erica will make sure that you get even more magnets than Oh, and Erica's got extras already, always prepared. So, we have some extras if if needed. At this time, we'd like to recognize the Brookside PTA. So, Luciano, don't go too far.
015Luciano Howitt, Kelly Slater, and any other members of the Brookside PTA board. >> This is good. I'll give one to my husband, so he knows the calendar as well. Um thank you, and thank you for acknowledging us. I think one of the greatest accomplishments that I would have to say across the board that I've seen throughout the district is the parent-teacher involvement in what the PTA actually stands for. I think that the gift in this community is that we do have what is known as one of the greatest communities. We do come together, and I hope that from what we planted to this year, it continues to plant so that our roots of the community keep flourishing. See, it's not really about the events. It's about which moments really last. Where do the kids come
016from? I mean, I'm kind of thinking we should have student councils coming out of grade schools, cuz all the fundraising we do, kids should know how their dollar keeps growing because so does their intelligence, so does their discipline, so does their integrity, so does their honesty, and so does their care and contribution to other people. And representing Brookside and Crompond alongside other parents with the same like-minded goals is what I think this community is about. And I'm just so honored to be part of it. So, we, as the Brookside board, thank you guys for letting us do our thing. Thank you. Okay, guys. I'm going to just dance across to the board. >> Thank you, Kelly. >> See nobody getting up behind you. >> And for our school PTAs at Mohansic, we'd like to invite
017to the stage Gillian McGovern, Maria Morelli, Maria O'Connor, and any member of the Mohansic PTA board or PTA members. Come on up. >> WE WROTE A LITTLE SPEECH, SO I HOPE THAT'S OKAY. UM our names Oh, yeah, I'm short, too. I'm Gillian McGovern, this is Maria O'Connor, and we are the co-presidents of Mohansic Elementary School. Before we start, we would like to extend our sincere thanks to the board, Dr. Hatter, and Mrs. Amerling for everything you do for our school district and for your continued partnership and support. To Mrs. Barry and Mrs. Fromer, Mohansic is a very special place because of the positive and welcoming culture that you have both created. We are truly grateful for your leadership and dedication. Lastly, we would like to thank Mrs. Hines, our teacher liaison. We deeply appreciate you
018along with all of the incredible staff at Mohansic for the care, commitment, and heart you bring to our school community every day. As we reflect on this school year, it is impossible not to feel incredibly proud of everything that the Mohansic PTA has accomplished together. This year is about so much more than events and fundraisers. It was about creating meaningful experiences, strengthening connections, building a true sense of community for our students, families, and staff. One of the things that makes Mohansic so special is the partnership we have between parents, teachers, administrators, and our community. When people come together with a shared goal of supporting children, amazing things happen, and this year was proof of that. From the excitement of the Turkey Trot to our school dances filled with laughter and memories, the PTA has helped
019create opportunities for students and families to connect outside the classroom. These events may seem simple on the surface, but they are the moments that our children remember. They create belonging, school pride, and traditions that strengthen our school community year after year. >> Our One School, One Book initiative and the Build-A-Bear Buddy activity brought our families together through reading and creativity. It encouraged students to share stories at home, spark conversations, and reminded us how important it is to to foster a love of learning in fun and engaging ways. Throughout the year, our the PTA consistently worked behind the scenes to support our students and staff in countless ways, whether through organizing events, volunteering time, providing resources, or simply showing up when help was needed. The dedication and generosity of our families make an enormous difference, and
020it does not go unnoticed. Most importantly, the Mohansic PTA helped create something every school hopes for, a real community feel. A place where families feel welcomed, students feel supported, and staff feels appreciated. The sense of connection is what turns a school into a home. To every volunteer, parent, teacher, administrator, and supporter, thank you. We would especially like to thank our executive board, Maria Morelli, our vice president, Amy DeRosa, our recording secretary, Janette Golkowski, our treasurer, Kristen Young, our corresponding secretary, Danielle Kucherella, our membership liaison chair, Justine Appi, our district delegate. Thank you for your time, your energy, your ideas, your commitment to making Mohanasic a special place for our children. We accomplished so much this year and I know the best is still ahead. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> At this time,
021I'm so pleased to honor our SEPTA group and I'd like to invite to the stage, Ms. Daphne Packard, Ms. Catherine Kaufman, Rosanna Federico, and Jackie Repecki. >> Um Thank you for having us up here. I want to uh just start by recalling last year being up here and knowing the task ahead of us for the year was to revive SEPTA and um and I've had such joy doing it this year um because of our lovely ladies here. Everybody has come together. Um I didn't know any of these women last year and we have um just really been able to gel and bring it back to life. So, um I want to thank um Jackie Pepi, my vice president, um uh Catherine Kaufman, um recording secretary, and um Rosanna Frederico, uh our wonderful social media person
022who has just gotten everything out there. Um I also want to thank um Jackie Guerrina who started us. Um even though she's now transferred to the board, she started us and we needed that that person to bring us to um a board. And then uh now we'll be welcoming Lisa Bucola. So, we're very excited to um spend another year together, really pulling together what we've started this year. Um I want to thank um our administrators for being at every meeting and supporting us along the way. Um and um Caroline Rosa and Kim, thank you so much. Um and also Deidra for um the little emails thanking us for the flyers and just giving us that little pep, always saying, you know, you're you're doing a good job, you're bringing it back, and um I we
023really appreciate that. It really makes a difference. Um one thing that we really um I think pulled together this year um was the support groups. So, we we now have a monthly support group with a varying um theme every month. And um I I think we're most proud of of that helping other parents and families. So, thank you so much. Looking forward to next year. >> I just have something to say. I usually always have something to say. Many of you know that. I wanted to thank Daphne as our president. I've been in this district as a high school graduate. I have a high school graduate my son and I have an elementary school student and um Daphne is a leader. And we couldn't do it without her. I love you. >> Oh. >> You're
024the best. >> Um special needs moms and dads, we wake up with a mission and um it's emotional, but she is incredible and her leadership and support hasn't been thanked enough this year and we can't wait to rock next year. >> We'll rock it. We'll >> Thank you so much. Thank you, you too. >> This time I'd like to We have a a wonderful partnership with the Alliance for Safe Kids and Liz Calvert has been at the forefront of so much of what we've done and so much of that partnership. So, I'd like to acknowledge Liz and invite her to THE STAGE. >> UM, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH. UH, so my name is Liz Calvert. I'm the executive director with the Alliance for Safe Kids and for those of you who may not be
025familiar with the organization and what we do, um, we are community coalition that connects the community to resources on substance misuse prevention, treatment, and recovery, and youth mental health. And we do that in in a variety of ways. We've had to We've had to go from having, you know, filling this auditorium with the Safe Life program to relying on sharing our tools virtually. Um, but you know, we are we are still here and I am most proud of the fact that we are still here. We've been in the community for over 20 years and have cultivated the most amazing relationship with the school district. Um, I wear another hat also, kind of through ASK. Uh, I'm the adult advisor for the Yorktown Youth Council. Um, and we have one of our original members sitting right
026here with us, uh, Dominic. And uh, when we piloted this program, there there was, um, a freshman who had a wonderful idea. She wanted to connect the youth to seniors in the community. And this year in April, we hosted our second breakfast with the seniors at the Beaver Ridge Apartments and I can't tell you what an amazing, um, experience that was. Uh, the the students, they they created conversation cards, they had an interactive activity. So, there was so much engagement. They weren't there to serve breakfast. They were there to spend three hours with the the residents there. And some people in the community have said, you know, maybe there are other locations you should consider for next year, but I don't know what to do. I would let down the folks at Beaver Ridge because
027they were, you know, so happy we came back. But that's just something that I am really proud of and I just I just thank the district for always supporting the Alliance for Safe Kids. Thank you. >> Thank you, Liz, for all you do. >> We have such a wonderful arts program, performing arts, specifically in our school district. Beautiful concerts, beautiful theater shows. Our students are doing amazing work. Teachers are able to lead incredible performances and they do it quite often with such selfless support from our First Nighters. Our First Nighter group is incredibly valuable, not just to our high school, to our middle school, and throughout the district. You can often see them if anyone has ever come to a concert in this auditorium, there's a group of parent volunteers every single time in the
028vestibule supporting in some way the performance and they are just such a wonderful group and a wonderful support to our faculty, staff, administration. So at this time I'd like to invite Eileen Griffiths, Melissa Nocera, May Jones I don't I don't see Ms. Jones, but you're welcome to come to the stage and be recognized. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Dr. Ryder. >> Hi everyone. Um thank you so much for having us here and for everything that we do in this district to support the performing arts. It's just it's been a really busy concert season. So, we've been selling a lot of concessions, raising a lot of money for students. And so, some of the money that we raise goes to scholarships to seniors. Um going to give some of those out during awards
029night tomorrow. Um I do want to just take one quick moment to say to Rosanna, also, like you left us incredibly huge shoes to fill and it took co-presidents, a treasurer, um social media coordinator, lots of people to fill your shoes. So, so thank you so much for giving us a blueprint for how to proceed. And we have a lot going on, for sure. Um so, our goal this year and um something I think we've been able to accomplish is trying to you know, cast a wider net for performing arts students. And so, you could see the posters in the hallway over there, which Rosanna started. But, um we really wanted to take this initiative and and move to include technical theater students and the dance students and and really everyone who's involved in the
030performing arts. And in that way, as well, we're going to make sure that everyone, every graduating senior who's been involved for a certain number of years, um receives a cord as well. Just, you know, to let them know that their work is really appreciated. So, that was important to us. Um yeah, we're around. We're supporting all the performances, making sure the kids are fed. And and I think that um what what means the most to me and and in addition to like recognizing the kids in the Yorktown news every week. So we see the seniors in there too with their interviews. That's been really valuable. Um Our roster, our members of the First Nighters are there for faculty whenever there's a reception after a concert, you know, there's First Nighters there. Like we're just we're
031we're present and we're always volunteering and we're always ready to assist the teachers with anything they need. So, thank you. We appreciate this. Thank you, Elaine. Hello. >> We have an incredibly supportive Huskers Club as well who supports all of the work of athletics at every level and they are a tremendous group. I know they work very closely with our athletic director, Mr. Barrett. They're there whenever we need them and we really value the relationship and the partnership. At this time I'd like to invite Frank Bielli and John Lucas Santelli and any other members of your board who are in attendance. >> THANK YOU FOR HAVING US. THANK YOU, DR. HATTER, for this great night. Thank you, board. First, I want to thank Gianluca for joining the board this year. I conned him into being
032my co-president. So, thank you for putting up with this. Um Mr. Barrett, um the athletic director, makes his job so much so easy. Whatever we need, it's so easy to work with him on a daily basis. So, thank you, Rob. And to his assistant, Dawn, who's always there to help us right away. So, thank you to her. So, um some of the things that we accomplished this year that were very exciting were we ordered an inflatable um arch that was at all the senior nights um for the pictures for the seniors. Um so, we didn't have to order balloons every time. So, we used that for all the senior nights. Um we host the Husker Club dinner that has over 300 for all the seniors senior at Sorry. Senior athletes and their parents, over 300
033people show up at Putnam Country Club. So, that's exciting. We give out over 100 scholarships. So, um we're looking forward to that in mid-June. Um also, next year, obviously, you see all the work being done on the field outside. Um we're looking forward to uh helping Mr. Barrett brand the fields. And um most important, well, the big thing for next year is the uh concession stand. Hopefully, it's ready next year. There's a big state-of-the-art um concession stand that's um being uh built. Um and we're looking forward to uh working in there. So, again, thank you. And um that's pretty much it. Anything else? I think that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Fran. Thanks for everything. Thank you very much. >> We have an incredibly supportive science research foundation. I don't see Mr. Holmes or
034John Winslow in the audience, but I did want to take a moment to acknowledge our science research foundation. Our science research program has experienced incredible success, not just this year, especially this year, but in years prior, and we could not do that without the support of our science research foundation. So, although they're not here to be formally recognized, I did want to take the opportunity to say thank you to the science research foundation. And last but not least of our school partners, we have the best the best food service program around because we have the best food service director around. So, Jerry has a great team. She is so committed to our students, to their experience in our cafeteria, and to always improving upon their success. Quite often, I get emails. I was actually sharing
035this with some parents this evening at Crow Pond or this afternoon at an event at Crow Pond. I get a surprising number of emails from students with menu suggestions. And it's not something that I anticipate getting often, but I will tell you, whenever a student visits my office to see the artwork on display, or quite often when they're emailing me, they have ideas. And with the students and and often times their parents in my office, I say, "Hey, I know who can make that change happen. Let's call Jerry." And so, we call Jerry and and Jerry knows the drill. When I'm calling, it's generally a student there, and she is so accommodating and so welcoming and always has a can-do attitude. We can do that. We can absolutely get that done, and students feel so
036empowered. They're They're They feel so valued, seen, heard. And it's because Jerry's openness and many times Jerry's openness to integrate their idea into our menu. So, many of the items on our menu, believe it or not, have come from students. Now that this is out there and shared publicly, I anticipate getting probably a dozen more emails about different ideas that we have. So, at this time, I'd like to invite Jerry Mushtello, uh Shondy Lopez, I see Joyce in the audience, and any member of her team to the stage to be recognized. >> Thank you so much, Dr. Hatter. On behalf of myself, Shondy, and the Whitsons Culinary Group, we are truly honored and proud for being recognized for our incredible partnership. I sincerely believe we work at the most amazing school district there is. Every
037day, we have the privilege of being surrounded by dedicated professionals who genuinely care about the students, staff, and our community. The support, guidance, and leadership from Dr. Hatter and the administrators are second to none. And their commitment to excellence inspires all of us to give our very best every single day. We are also extremely fortunate to work alongside the most hard-working, compassionate, and dependable team members anyone could ask for. Their dedication and positive attitude are what makes our success possible. No accomplishment is ever achieved alone. And we truly could not do what we do without the support of our staff. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with such remarkable people, and we look forward to continuing to grow, succeed, and make a positive impact every day. Thank you so much. >> Thank you.
038>> Another group of volunteers who play an integral role in our district is our wonderful Board of Education. I mentioned this earlier. They maintain such a high standard of excellence for our district. Their leadership and governance has guided our district with integrity, clarity, and compassion. Yorktown is so fortunate to have such an extremely talented group who so generously and graciously volunteer their time for the betterment of the school district and the betterment of our community. Lisa Roll, our president, Reshma Bose, our vice president, Peter Bassatgia, Jacqueline Guarino, Mike Mignani, Cheryl Reynolds, Catalina Tindall, and welcome to new trustee Adam McDonald. On the surface, it would appear that our Board of Education comes together twice per month for anywhere between two and four hours for meetings and work sessions. During those meetings, they ask incredibly thoughtful
039questions, they provide updates on the status of the various committees, they scrutinize and approve recommendations, they celebrate the great work happening in the district through our good news. What you probably don't see are the hours that they spend in policy meetings each month so that the board may ensure that our district sets policy that's consistent with best practices and ever-changing school law and SED requirements. You may not see the hundreds of hours that our steering committee invests each year to ensure that our facilities are commensurate with the high-quality education taking place within the walls of each school building. You probably don't see the many hours spent scrutinizing the district's finances and audit reports to ensure that we're responsible stewards of taxpayer monies. You likely won't see the many evening and weekend hours that they invest
040to review each and every report, safety inspection, budget document, personnel recommendation, policy revision, contract, memorandum of agreement, and anything else addressed to the board. We have a terrific Board of Education in Yorktown, and they're a pleasure to work with and for. In front of each board trustee is a certificate of recognition, and Jacqueline, I have one, of course, for you as well, signed by uh myself and Westchester Putnam School Boards Association president to acknowledge your service to our school district. I thank you for your dedication and service to our community. And last but not least tonight, I want to acknowledge our two newer trustees. Hunter Mezattesta and Luca Evangelista did a wonderful job this year. Hunter was our first ever student BOE member and he was excellent in his role. I'm so proud of him
041and I know that he has a bright future ahead of him. We wish him well next year at the University of Virginia. He'll continue his studies and his lacrosse career. We look forward next year to welcoming Luca Evangelista as the ex officio Board of Education member as he enters his senior year at Yorktown High School. Luca has done his an excellent job in his role as alternate ex officio board member and I know that he'll be great in his next role on the board this coming school year. So, Hunter and Luca, I have a certificate of recognition for you both and I'd like to invite you to the podium. To all of our school partners, thank you so much. The this means so much to be able to do this, to be able to honor
042you even if just for a few minutes till we see you. We appreciate you. We value you and we look forward to continuing to work with you. On behalf of all of the administrators who are here tonight, our Board of Education, thank you for everything that you're doing to make our school district an even better place for children. At this point, that concludes our recognition ceremony. I'll turn it over or we'll take a quick recess. Okay, we're going to take a quick recess. Uh it's about 5 minutes or so in duration. You're welcome to leave at that point or you can stay. I'm going to give a presentation on the year in review of the 25-26 school year. Really exciting, but you can catch it online as well, posted to our website tomorrow morning. Thank
043you so much for coming tonight. >> To public comment number one? Nothing. All right, then we'll turn it over to Hunter. >> Good evening. Let me pull this a little closer. Good evening. The Yorktown schools have been very energetic over the past few weeks with musical performances, preparations for science and other competition, inductions into the National Honor Society and other academic recognitions, the WISE class career project showcase, and final games and playoffs for many of our spring athletic teams. The next few weeks will be continued to be equally as active. Tomorrow evening, Tuesday, June 2nd, both Mohansic and Brookside will host their art shows from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30. On Wednesday, June 3rd, Crompond grade 5 will host its band orchestra concert at 5:30 p.m. in the YHS auditorium. And then on Thursday, June 4th,
044Crompond grade 4 will host its choral concert uh also in the same place. On Monday, June 8th, Yorktown High School will host its spring sports signing day. Congratulations to all of the athletes signing to compete at the next level. Thursday, June 11th will be the last day of classes for senior at seniors at YHS. And on Friday, June 12th, all the seniors will celebrate senior day, including the opportunity to go back to the nest to visit their elementary schools. I'd like to take a moment to highlight the incredible success of many of our spring athletic teams. For the first time in school history, the Huskers flag football team won the section championship. Congratulations on this incredible accomplishment. Congratulations also to juniors and twin brothers Joe and Kurt Carey for their successful golf season. Joe won
045his second consecutive Section 1 golf boys golf championship and Kurt finished in second place. Congratulations to the Carey brothers. And then congratulations to the boys varsity baseball team and girls varsity softball teams for incredible seasons and incredible playoff runs. And both the boys and girls varsity lacrosse teams will compete in their section championships games this week. Good luck to all the athletes. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh Dr. Hatter, we'll turn it over to you for the superintendent's report. >> Okay, I will take that report from the podium. Excuse me. When we get into June, I always like to provide the board and our community with an update on some of the things that have happened. It It's impossible to capture all of what's transpired during the 25-26 school year in a single presentation, but
046I do think that there are some some high points that we can certainly touch upon. So, the it always begins with our mission and vision statement. Can I advance that or did you, Eva? You did. Okay. So, we have a very clear vision in our district. It's on the screen. I won't read the slide to you, but it has been consistent for the past 9 years. And it's something that certainly guides a lot of our work in the school district. Our enrollment has been relatively stable. So, I share that as a touchstone for you. We're seeing about 3,400 children in our school district, just a little over 3,400 children in our school district. And then, as we look at the enrollment by grade level, I included pre-K in that count. This year was the highest
047enrollment since the inception of the program with 166 students. We're also seeing cohorts between 217 and almost 300 throughout the district. So, our enrollments continue to stay stable. We've been relatively stable. We do not necessarily know right now what the impact on the residential developments will be on our enrollment moving forward, but we have been relatively stable over the last number of years. For this year, there were six areas of focus that the board set. And the board sets areas of focus for our school district, and then myself, our administrative team, both at central office and in the building, looks to advance those goals and those areas of focus. So, the six areas are listed on the slide. I do want to acknowledge that just because something is an area of focus does not mean
048that we're deficient in that area. There's already great work happening in each of these areas. But, how do we take our work to the next level is a question that I often ask. And so, some of the things that we did during this school year to advance those areas of focus is we designed new courses that we'll be implementing in the fall. AP cybersecurity is one that we're really excited about. There are courses in AI that we're excited to be implementing. Those are relatively new but based on student interest. The weekly communication blasts have have been very widely viewed and read, whether it's the Yorktown Minute or the weekly newsletter that accompanies the Yorktown Minute. My thanks to Brian Marchiauser. The production is quite simple. It's me sitting at my desk and Brian's holding up
049his iPhone to to film. So, it's a very simple production that we employ and I appreciate it though. His editing is terrific. It makes me appear uh more articulate than I actually am. So, Brian, thank you for all of your efforts in that regard. Um we're looking to develop and advance our work in mental health and supporting mental health of our students. We established an exclusive partnership with Westchester Medical Center Health, which has given our students access to mental health care that may not have been available otherwise. So, our students, if needed, if if they utilize this partnership with Westchester Medical Center, are able to access mental health care within 24 to 48 hours and sometimes it's even the same day and it's almost instantly. So, it is a a terrific program. We're looking to
050expand that partnership uh that work with a partnership with student assistance services and that is expected to take hold January of 2027. We continued our modified zero-based budgeting. Ms. San Filippo and her department do an incredible job of managing the finances and the audit reports year after year after year demonstrate the effectiveness of the controls that they put in place. Under Ms. Amerling's leadership, we've really examined our instructional program through the use of data teams, our MTSS coordinators, our literacy coaches, and all of the other work that goes in to looking at our instructional program from a 360-degree perspective. You'll see some of the results momentarily. We've continued our sustainability efforts. We've done incredible work. And to just put a number on it, we've installed 1,281 LED light fixtures throughout the district just this school
051year alone. It has been a remarkable effort led by Mr. Verboys and our O&M staff. We are looking to put new smart controls on our HVAC systems. Again, to just make things run a little more efficiently. As I look at our 3 through 8 ELA proficiency data, I wanted to include 2019 for perspective. To give a pre-COVID perspective to see just where we were prior to COVID. There's a lot of talk about pre-COVID, post-COVID. So, I included that just in the spirit of transparency. And if we look at 2025 and we look at where we were in a pre-COVID environment, we we do see gains. And we see substantial gains. We get the same trend in mathematics as well. Again, this is 3 through 8 at each grade level. And and both of these slides
052are the mean scale score. So, it's essentially the average score and the percentile rank based on our average mean scale score. And again, you can look at the pre-COVID numbers in 2019 versus where we are today in 2025. On the next slide, we have Regents exam data. And I just I included the last 3 years. So many Regents exams have changed over the years that it's difficult now to get a longitudinal comparison because of changes whether it's to the assessment itself or to the scoring of the assessment or content of the assessment. So, I I went back 3 years. You'll even see some NAs because uh the the it's not applicable in terms of a direct comparison. But, you can see that our students are performing incredibly well on Regents exams. When I go to
053our next slide and I look at our advanced placement data at our high school, this was an exciting year for us because we see uh exceeding 90% in the percentage of exams with a three or higher. And that that's just a wonderful testament testament to the teachers in the classroom and the wonderful job that that our high school teachers specifically are doing, the administrative work, the preparation, the resources that that we're allocating, the students for putting in the time and the effort to achieve what they've achieved. We offered a substantial number of tests, and we saw some great results as a result. On the next slide, this is just a sampling of our district. 22 different courses in AP, 16 college-level courses offered. Our proficiency on the bottom left, you can see where we are
054versus the rest of New York State. Top 3% in terms of our academic performance in the country. So many wonderful activities for students, 62 different athletic opportunity teams, 92 clubs across our middle school and high school, just a an absolute wonderful assortment for our students. Some additional recognitions. I'm not going to go through the slides, but I do think it's important to share that we had three students go to the International Science and Engineering Fair, and they performed incredibly well in Phoenix, Arizona. In fact, we had some students who finished two students who finished fourth place in their respective categories. That's fourth in the world in their respective categories. And we had two students who finished fourth in the world in their respective categories. That that is just absolutely amazing, especially for a school district
055of our size to be able to produce results like this. It's it's extraordinary. There are so many other wonderful accomplishments. We had students named to the top 300 scholars, the Regeneron Science Talent Search top 300 scholars. We had three students. This is all across the country. 300 children were recognized. Three of those 300 were from Yorktown High School. It's incredible. Absolutely incredible. We have wonderful recognitions in music. I I wish I would have mentioned this earlier when our first niners were here, but for the second year in a row, our district was recognized as best communities for music education. That is just such a wonderful honor and a testament to all the great work happening within the department. Our students took part in in different performances and and different adjudications and have done incredibly well
056in that regard. Our athletic teams have been equally successful. We have several section championships just this year. Boys volleyball, girls volleyball, wrestling, flag football. We had a golfer who won the section championship. Congratulations to Jack Carey. We have our lacrosse teams who are playing for section playoffs. Some great things happening. We had our Yorktown lacrosse goalie, who happens to be on stage here, break a decades-long record in saves, in career saves. And that is just a tremendous, tremendous testament for a program with the rich history that Yorktown's program has. To break any record in the program is incredible, but to break the saves record is even more incredible. So, so many wonderful, wonderful things that are happening. As we go through some additional recognitions, the Superintendent Student Council, something that I'm incredibly proud of personally
057and professionally, was recognized with a national promising practice award for 2026. I say national, but there were schools from six different countries that that were recognized. So, some could even argue it's international. But it's our second consecutive recognition and third with this organization. So, we had a national merit scholar, just so many wonderful things that have happened. And I always talk about the greatest success that our school district has experienced is the individual success. Every student has experienced some level of success this year. And it success looks different for every child. We have 3,414 children in this district and success looks different for everyone. And my greatest joy is seeing those individual successes. Whether it's a grade, whether it's something that happened in PE class, or for a student who wrote to me the joy
058that they had with a lunch menu item. And how proud they were because their friends told them, "That's only on the menu because you advocated for it." They didn't use the word advocated, but I'm using the word advocated. But the students are so proud of something. And and I'm proud of them. They've done such incredible work throughout the course of this year and we have been recognized by just about every organization under the sun. We've done great things in the building and outside organizations have taken note of that work. And what I'll share is we have done all of that, all of the new programs, we've done that with the fourth lowest fourth lowest tax levy percent increase over the last 9 years. So, we've added wonderful programs, robotics, aeronautics, engineering, you name it, we've
059added it. Different sports teams, different opportunities for our students. I listed, I think it's the top 15 school districts on this slide with the lowest over the last 9 years. We're fourth. One of the schools above us does not have a high school as part of it. So, we have gotten really, really creative in how to deliver a top-notch education while demonstrating sensitivity to taxpayers. On the next slide, that's all the backup data. That's posted to our website. That's a link to the Westchester Putnam School Boards Association website that gives you the actual data year over year over the last 9 years. We're incredibly proud of what we are building. We haven't built it yet. We continue to build each year and we continue to grow, we continue to get better. This year was a
060great year. We're proud of what we've accomplished, we're proud of all we have done, but we know we have more work to do. The entire administrative team and faculty know that we have more work to do to continue to get better and we need to continue to get better. And so, I I share that with you. The last slide is just any questions or comments, if there's anything that I can clarify during the presentation, maybe that wasn't completely clear, I'm happy to do that at this time. >> Um before we go to questions or comments for Dr. Hatter, I just wanted to point out for the board that typically this time of the year we talk about our board goals for next year. However, because of the way the vote played out, Jacqueline's not being
061punished because she's sitting by sitting in the audience. The way the votes ran, she's off the board until July 1st and then she'll join us again. And I thought it would be important since she's going to be with us for a few years for her to be a part of the discussion. So I thought we would table that discussion until July when Jacqueline can join us. Um with that I'll turn it over. Any questions or comments for Dr. Hatter? Pete? >> No, I'm >> Carol? I'm good, thanks. >> Reshma? Mike? >> Yeah, actually Dr. Hatter, um when I look at some of the data cuz you put up a whole bunch of different data, but particularly some of the um proficiency scores 3 through 8, etc. Um it I know it's hard to tell if
062there's a trend or not, but some of them seem to have gone down a little bit in 2025. And I'm just can you kind of interpret what's going on there and and tell us what actually is going on? >> Yeah, no, absolutely. So the tests have moved There are a few changes and I appreciate you pointing that out. So I'm never the one to make excuses. So I won't mention it unless it's it's asked, but I'll tell you as we moved over to a full computer-based testing and that's relatively new for children. So you have 8-year-old children testing on a computer. That's not for everyone. I can tell you that it's not for me either. I I need to have a booklet in front of me to test and I trust that that many children
063are in a similar situation. So I'm not I'm looking at our mean scale score and saying it's great, but you're right, there is a decline. That's one thing that I would point to that has changed. Also, the the number of students who are refusing assessments will vary from district to district. We have seen an increase in the number of students who have refused the assessment. And and that's certainly a parental right and uh parental decision and we support whatever it is that the parent decides, but we have seen that and that does impact the scores. So, when you look at um maybe it's 80% of our students to and we're comparing our results to a district where maybe 90% of their student body took the assessment and 60% in another district, it's difficult to glean
064comparisons. Today, it was a little easier to do so and the tests meant a little bit more a few years ago. Today, we we don't have everyone participating in the assessment, so it's difficult for me to look at the results and give you a conclusion or help to draw a conclusion from these results. So, I I share that and I appreciate you referencing it. I share the data only for the purpose of transparency, that that our students are doing well, but there are so many other metrics that I would prefer that we use, so many local metrics that I prefer we use, but I can't use that as a basis of comparison to other school districts because they're local. So, I I do appreciate your mention. I do think the computer-based testing, I think the
065number of test refusals, not just in Yorktown, but across the board, does impact how we compare against other school districts. Um I don't think it's a curriculum issue. I I think that we certainly address the standards in the curriculum. And Ms. Ameling, actually, if if there's anything that you want to add to the discussion or if you feel that it's it's been captured. >> Um not too much. I I know that any dip is is a concern. Um so, we are looking at that. It These scores were the first year of the CBT. Um, we do it's computer-based testing. Um, we do very much so work with our data teams to really do item analysis on every single question to look to see is it an issue that we need to improve within the curriculum.
066Um, is it the style of the quest the questions that are being asked? Um, is it the text complexity that was being used? So, we really do do a deep analysis of it. Um, we and as Dr. Hatter shared, you know, we have so many other metrics that we look to see how well our students performing. Um, this is one, but it certainly is very public one, which is why we um, we're just going to be transparent and and share it as it is. >> And and I will share um, and something I'm proud of is pre-COVID, post-COVID. That we have not seen that decline in our scores prior to code. And that's why I do share that as well because there is a lot in news media about the dip in literacy and mathematics.
067And I just share this for whatever it's worth just in the spirit of transparency, which is why I go back to pre-COVID as well in our in our presentation. >> Adam? >> Um, >> Okay, great. Thank you, Dr. Hatter. Okay, we will move on to our policies. Can I have a motion to approve the second reading and adoption of the following policies? 5151 education of students in temporary housing and unaccompanied youth, 8131 epidemic and pandemic planning. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Any opposed? And then we'll move on to policy deletion. Motion to delete policy 8131.01 health and safety measures during epidemics and pandemics. The relevant language is now incorporated within policy 8131. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Any opposed?
068Okay, we'll move on to the consent agenda. Um I should have mentioned this last week. I need to pull out personnel cuz I have to abstain. Um so I'm not sure how I do that now. Can I just make a motion to pull it out of consent? Okay. I'm going to make a motion to pull the personnel matters out of the consent agenda and and vote on those separately. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Any opposed? Okay. So then we'll go to um we'll do personnel, we'll get it over with. Um Upon recommendation of the superintendent, a motion that the following be approved and all the um appointments are listed there. And I'm going to abstain from the vote uh cuz I have a relative on the list.
069>> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Any opposed? Then we'll return to our regular consent agenda um for board matters, business matters, PPS matters, and gifts, grants, and donations. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Any opposed? Okay. And we'll go down to public comment number two, Evette. Then we'll go to board comment. I'll let him off the hook. I'll start with Pete. >> No, just that a wonderful night, the recognition for all the the important groups and and people in our our community. It's just so nice to um see them get the public to see truly what's being done out there. Um so thank you all for for what you do. >> Cheryl. >> Dr. Hader, thank you for hosting this night
070tonight because because I think it's so important. As I looked out at our audience when they were here during that section of the agenda or of the night, um I noticed there are so many volunteers who have been here forever. You know, back when I was volunteering in the PTA, they were with me there and they're still with us now. We appreciate them And I see so many volunteers who do double time at two different two different roles, three different roles. And then I see so many volunteers who are new to us, and we appreciate them all. And we thank goodness for them all because they really do what's what's needed for us to provide a full experience for our students. And they truly have the students, you know, at the forefront of everything they
071do. So, we we thank them very much. Arshni? >> Um thank you, Dr. Hatter, for um honoring our community partners this evening. We honor them tonight, but we know they work tirelessly every single day. I've had the um honor of working with so many of them over the years. And uh so, thank you for uh inviting them tonight. Um also thank you for the year-end review. I really appreciate that every year um at around this time. Um the information contained in that, you know, we've seen that before over the whole year, but it's really nice to see it concisely in one place. And uh we can we can see how far we've come uh in a short period of time. And congratulations to Jacqueline, Mike, and Adam. Um I look forward to working with you
072all. Mike? >> Um yeah, thank you, Dr. Hatter, for putting together a wonderful evening. Um and thank you to all of our community partners who support the district in so many ways that are um so beneficial to the children. So, thank everyone for that. I also want to thank the community for uh coming out and supporting our budget. Um the administration, the fiscal advisory committee work really hard on developing the what we think is an appropriate budget. And it's nice when we get uh such overwhelming support from the community to support that so that we can uh continue supporting uh all of the great things that uh our community deserves and our children deserve. So, thank you for that. Um and congratulations to Adam and and Jacqueline um for uh winning election and I look
073forward to uh continuing serving on the board for number couple of years. Thanks. >> Adam? >> Uh thank you um for this wonderful evening. You know, what a great first night this was, you know, to celebrate such a great community and how uh you know, how proud I was to see everybody out there. Um and congratulations to Jacqueline and Michael again for and I look forward to uh to working with everyone. >> Um yeah, I'll just echo that. Congratulations to Mike, Adam, and Jacqueline. Um we really do look forward to continuing to work with Mike and you guys joining the board. So, um I'm I'm glad you're with us and and thanks for the budget. Um the first uh the community partners night is a special night. And like Cheryl said, we see people that
074we've been seeing for years and years and years. And it really is a testament to our community. Um and I was jotting down some words I heard while the speeches were being given. And I think it's really exemplary of what our district's about. Teamwork, support, connection, community, and appreciation. Um all that really starts at the top, Dr. Hatter. So, thank you for providing the forum for everyone to um to contribute the way that they do. And also, thank you for the year in review. Um you know, just so Jacqueline and Adam know, we every year we set the board goals of what the board would like to see focused on um over the next school year. And then Dr. Hatter presents this year in review, and he really takes what our board goals were and
075and explains to us how he implemented them. So, it's really very important um to us as a board cuz we put a lot of thought into that. Um and so, thank you for taking the time to put that presentation together. All All Can I get a motion uh first I have public comment no board comments, okay. Uh can I get a motion to adjourn? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Aye. >> Have a good night.