001Good evening and welcome to the Yorktown Central School District Board of Education meeting for April 13, 2026. May I have a motion to go into executive session to discuss matters pertaining to Yorktown Congress of Teachers contract negotiations, the employment history of particular pedagogical and non-pedagical employees and to consider a matter related to a specific student and matters made confidential under FERPA. So move second. All those in favor? I I any opposed? May I have a motion to return to the public session? So moved. Second. Second. Good evening everyone. Welcome to the April 13th Yorktown Central School District Board of Education meeting. May we please stand for the pledge of allegiance which will be followed by a moment of silence for our armed forces and those in the YCSD community that have lost loved ones especially
002the father of Mindy Spiridigliozzi the mother-in-law of Lynne Golio the mother-in-law of Christina Marsella the mother-in-law of Joann Venditti and the grandmother of Elizabeth Reis to the flag of the United States of America and to theublic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Dr. Hattar, we have uh Brookside School here with good news. We sure do. I'm excited to hear this presentation. Before we introduce the presentation, I just want to take a moment to acknowledge Friday night. I saw many of you in the audience there. We had a basketball game, police verse, teachers. What a great night for our community. It was so wonderful. You all know we have a great relationship with the Yorktown Police Department and it was so terrific to just kind of share
003the basketball court. So even if only for two hours we were on different teams, the other 625,000 hours minutes of the year we are on the same team. Um and I also wanted to acknowledge our lacrosse team. Last week, Thursday, we beat the number two ranked team in America. And the goaltender is right there sitting at our table. So, Hunter did a tremendous job to play against uh the number they're number two in the country or they were number two in the country until they played uh our team. Um but to let up only six goals against a national powerhouse, uh congratulations to you and to your teammates, Hunter. Well done. Um, so now we have a wonderful presentation in store for us. Our Brookside students are here. I see so many faculty and staff
004here. To faculty and staff, welcome. It is wonderful to have you here at our board meeting. I'd like to turn the presentation over to Brookside School principal, Mr. Caserini. Mr. Cassarini, welcome. Just want to thank you for having us here tonight. I'm going to invite two of our wonderful third grade teachers, Miss Rampino, Miss Daddona, to the podium to explain the presentation. Stand over here. Thank you, Dr. Hattar and the board of education for inviting us here today. At Brookside, we plan an amazing schoolwide event called one school, one book that spans over more than a week and celebrates our love of literature and reading, community involvement, and other areas of study like east. One school, One Book or OSOB as we call it is when an entire community reads the same story which builds
005on shared vocabulary and strengthens the homeschool learning connection. We bridge literacy fostering reading interest, fluency and comprehension all together with East Steam. The children didn't just read Fort Builders Incorporated the Birthday Castle. They lived its theme of innovation, teamwork, and empathy. This one school, one built. This one school, one book helped us deepen our Yorktown ESTEAM skill development in several ways. When we celebrate one school, one book at Brookside, it's a tradition to always develop a way to give back to organizations that relate to each book's theme. This one school, one book was super special because we were able to give back to the local community and the students were involved in the construction of it all. Our entire school community came together to make this a success. From the decor to reading the book
006to building forts in school and at home to assembling the birthday boxes. Our goal this year was to transform the entire school into a big castle to immerse the students in the book. We made cardboard chandeliers, castle windows with torches on either side, and drew bricks with student names on them outside classroom doors and hallways. Each classroom had a flag with the class code on them. And there was even a life-sized fort castle made of cardboard boxes, just like in the book. Students walked into the school on kickoff day in amazement. Students also helped with the decor by making kindness castle banners. And their banners hung from the ceilings in the hallway, showcasing ways the students have been kind or can show kindness. Many people from the school community came together to help decorate. Before
007school and after school, faculty and staff met in my room to help create the vision. The night before the one school one book kickoff, parents and teachers stayed until late hours to complete the decorations. It truly was a group effort and we wanted to thank the Brookside PTA for their contribution to materials for our decorations and their continuous support of this project. Tonight we have some third graders here to share our schoolwide project with you. They will begin by presenting some of the story from the book and then go into details about this event and how they learned about reading, engineering, empathy, and cooperation. Now we would like to introduce our students. My name is Christopher from Miss Spiridigliozzi's class. My name is Ava and I'm from Miss Spiridigliozzi's class. My name is Jack. I'm
008in Miss Meyer class. My name's Alana and I'm from Miss Meyer's class. My name is Sam from Miss G's class. My name is Connor and I'm from Mr. Daddona's class. My name is Mason and I'm from Miss McAleer's class. Hi, I'm Emily and I'm from Mrs. Velardo, Miss Gallinelli's class. My name is Harmony and I'm from Miss Rampino's class. My name is Karina and I'm from Mrs. Daddona's class. My name is Emily and I'm from Miss Rampino's class. My name is Mason. I'm from Miss G's class. My name is Adriana. I'm from Miss Velardo and Miss Gallinelli's class. My name is Chloe and I'm from Miss McAleer's class. The book we read was called Fort Builders, Inc. The Birthday Castle. It was a story about friends who learned how to overcome obstacles, work together, and
009build a business to help their friends. Caleb, one of the main characters, could really use a bit more spending money. He needs to buy the next book in his favorite series so he can see what happens. But what can he do to raise funds once his allowance runs out? Caleb puts his head together with his best friends, Jacks, and a couple other kids in their neighborhood and comes up with a brilliant idea. They are going to start their own fort building business. Good forts are always in demand and who better to design and construct them than kids. But when Ford builders ain't get their first gig, the group has trouble agreeing on the right way to go about it. Can they learn to work together in time to build an incredible force? Or will their
010business be over it even begins? Here are some themes in the book that the kids has trouble figure out. Collaboration over competition, perseverance, and empathy development. One theme in the book is collaboration over competition. The characters Caleb, Jax, and friends have different strengths. The story highlights how their diversity of thoughts is what makes the birthday castle successful. Another theme is perseverance. When things go wrong with the building of the birthday castle, as they do in real life, the characters don't quit. they pivot. This is what we learn when we learn about growth mindset. The story revolves around making someone else's day special. Our culminating event allows us to experience the exact same emotional reward the characters feel in the final chapters by constructing the birthday boxes. This event also helped us strengthen our great home
011to school learning connection, including spirit days and donations from home. We had a whole week of spirit days that matched the theme of the book. We were so excited to read wearing our construction outfits to kick off one school, one book. We also dressed like royalty, made forts in school and at home and had an east themed day where we dressed as a scientist, technology expert, engineer, artist or mathematician. We also had the opportunity to dress in our birthday best or wear school spirit attire to assemble the boxes during the culminating assembly. We had staff, administrators, and officer roar pitch in which connected our school to the community, and they recorded themselves reading a chapter in the book for everyone to follow online. In East team, each grade level created a personalized specific item that
012was placed into birthday boxes to make the project more meaningful. Students in kindergarten made playmats. First graders made popup birthday cards. Second graders made keychains. And third graders made stickers. Lastly were donation birthday boxes. Each grade level donated specific items to create the boxes. Some ideas were cake mix, spirit sprite cans, frosting, sprinkles, birthday banners, birthday party blowers, candles, and aluminum pans. We had enough items to make 100 birthday boxes. Each grade level came into the assembly and participated in three stations. They placed items in the birthday boxes to help assemble. them them made crowns as a certificate of being part of one school one book and for finishing the book and then they got to build forts. The birthday boxes were donated to local food pantry so all children in our local community can
013have the chance to enjoy a birthday cake on their birthday. We wanted to bring a little bit of that empathy and kindness to you today. I would like to thank our teachers and our students for turning a learning activity into such a positive impact on our community. The following food pantries received the gifts. First Presbyterian Church of Yorktown food pantry, the community pantry of Mount Kisco, Ossining Children's Center, and the Fran Boylan–Holy Spirit Food Pantry in Cortlandt. A number of pantries expressed to us their profound gratitude at how our birthday boxes were extra special with what the students with what the students handmade and that they will certainly make their famil family's days more special. The community pantry of Mount Kisco wrote to us, "What happens when a school reads a book about building joy
014and then decide to live its message?" At Brookside Elementary School in Yorktown Heights, students in the kindergarten through third grade did just that. As part of their one school, one book program this March, the school community read Fort Builders, Inc., the birthday castle, and turned the story spirit into action. For their culminating project, the students work together to create 20 birthday packages for children at the pantry who are celebrating a birthday. Each box contains uh includes cake mix, frosting, candles, plates, placemat, and a birthday card along with handmade touches like cards and stickers. We are so grateful to the Brookside Elementary community for partnering with the pantry in such a meaningful way. Thank you as well to Christine Breen. pictured uh by her car delivering in the packages. I believe it was in one of
015the pictures in the presentation. This is what it looks like when young people build joy for their neighbors. Thank you all for the opportunity to share our one school, one book initiative. And now the students would like to show you a sample birthday box. And I would also like to provide each of you with a small token of appreciation for making sure that we have everything that we need to complete wonderful educational experiences such as this. Jackson gets his mom. So that was incredible. That was absolutely amazing. It one school, one book. It became quickly obvious that it wasn't just about literacy. And I really, really appreciate the community building, the generosity. How cool and how innovative is that idea to create a birthday kit to donate to local food pantries. I I think that
016that was really cool. Um, students, you did a lot of great things up there. You spoke confidently. you read confidently in front of a room full of adults. That's not easy to do. Some of the adults in this room uh might find that hard and you guys did it really, really well. I am so proud of you for that. So, beyond the learning, the public speaking was really, really impressive. Parents, I just want to and families, thank you for sharing your children with us. You're here. It's a Monday night. You just started the week. I'm sure it's going to be a long week. The weather's beautiful outside and you're here supporting your child's education. So, thank you for the partnership. We know it's not easy. We know you have lunches to make and bath time
017and all the other routines that go into getting ready for the week. So, we appreciate you being here. Faculty, staff, thank you. Uh, this doesn't happen without you. And so I appreciate you taking one school, one book, which is in and of itself a daunting ask and then just going another mile or two beyond that. So thank you so much for bringing the opportunity to our students and I'll turn it over to Miss Bose to add on to Brookside students. You are phenomenal. Thank you for sharing your message uh here with us uh tonight. um you spoke so eloquently and thank you for always thinking of others and uh to our parents um thank you for sharing your children uh with us every day and and our Brookside faculty is amazing um so thank you
018all and I'm sure my colleagues would like to share a few words Mike thanks R boys and girls that was wonderful and I love the uh themes uh collaboration and teamwork that you brought came together um and then expanded it beyond the school uh and took it out to the community. Um just a great job and as I'm always so impressed with our young students who can cut up there and stand on a stool and and uh speak in front of all of you. So uh great job boys and girls. Thank you. Everybody said what I was going to say, but I would like to add it was so great to see everybody read a book at home and encouraged to uh bring it to from home to school. I know we built quite a
019few forts at our house during this week and the dress up. So, just thank you to the Brookside staff and teachers for making it happen. Everybody just spoke so beautifully and confidently and I think because you guys just lived it, the pictures, making everything at home and to the teachers so creative. This wouldn't have been without you guys. I mean, we took it to the school, to home, and the parents, volunteers helping decorate, and I will add it to my Brookside 3D keychain. So, thank you so much. Yes, to the parents, thank you for bringing your children out and sharing them with us. And staff, thank you for what you do, too. But I again, Dr. Hattar said it so well with regards to getting up in front of a room full of people and
020speaking so eloquently, reading so well. Um, it it never I've been doing this a long time and our children where this district has come, it just continues to amaze me. So, thank you very much. Oh, we are going to take a quick recess. We have plenty more meeting to go, two presentations. You're welcome to stay, but if you choose to depart, have a great night. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll just take a quick five minute recess. Well done. Thank you. All right. Uh, do we have anyone signed up for public comment one? Okay. So, we have a public hearing on the agenda for tonight. Uh, so could I have a motion to open partial real property tax exemption public hearing for volunteer firefighters and volunteer ambulance workers? So, move second. All those
021in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. So, we will start with a presentation uh by Dr. Hattar. Okay. So, what I wanted to do for the board and for members of our school community was to just give a little context and a little information about partial tax exemptions. So right now, just for the community's understanding, there are essentially three partial real property tax exemptions on the books in our district and they were adopted in December of 2014 and they all pertain to veterans. So this was the language of the resolution. I'm not going to read the language of the resolution. It's on the screen, but it's essentially a basic exemption, a combat zone exemption, and a disabled veteran exemption. Those are already in existence. Now, the exemption under consideration for this evening, the subject of this
022public hearing is whether the board would grant a partial property tax exemption to volunteer firefighter and ambulance corps members. And there are certain parameters that are important to consider. This is all governed under real property tax law section 466.A uh point.A. Um and again there there's a cap. I'll talk to you about what our neighboring school district is doing and and some more context to provide to you. But the eligibility requirements are pulled directly from the law for this slide, which I know you're obviously familiar with. Our board is obviously familiar with this. So, there are a couple of things to consider. Do we want to impose a minimum number of years of service on this? Do we want to determine what percentage? How do we determine what percentage we're going to offer and start
023with? So, lots of points for consideration here as part of the law. We did an analysis in town to better understand the district's exposure should we move toward any exemption. As we understand it, there are 37 parcels according to the town of Yorktown that would be impacted by an exemption for volunteer firefighter and ambulance uh core members. at a 5% exemption. I'm making some assumptions here because I wanted to quantify this for the board and for our community at a 5% exemption and we can deter the board can determine two years of service to 5 years of service. To give you context, the town of Yorktown and the Lakeland School District have adopted two years of service as their baseline. So, under the assumption of a 5% exemption, two years of service to be eligible
024for the exemption, the impact would be just under $20,000 in the aggregate. And so just the way a real property tax exemption works or a partial real property tax exemption works is it essentially shifts the burden from the parties receiving the exemption to the remaining parcels that are not subject to the exemption. So in sum in substance it it equates to 0.02% and on a $10,000 tax bill it would roughly add $2 per year. So I just wanted to quantify that and the impact for the community. So, on a $10,000 tax bill, which is where many of the parcels in in town uh are assessed at for school taxes, we anticipate that that $20,000 spread across all of the other taxable parcels in town would equate to about a $2 a year increase. I want
025to just share a just a point of urgency for the board. If the board is interested in adopting this exemption for the 2026 tax role, we would need to approve the exemption in April of 2026. So essentially, the board has this meeting and you have one more meeting next week to to make that determination. and for members of our community. If we if the board does adopt a partial property tax cap ex uh tax exemption for volunteer firefighters and ambulance court, although it would be on the 26 tax role, the impact would not be felt on taxable parcels until the 27-28 school year. So, we just want to make sure that we clarify that for the community. There are other exemptions and and I think it's important um just to clarify um 5% I believe
026is an appropriate starting point because there are other exemptions that are being discussed not just locally but at the state level as well. So just a few other exemptions that have come to light in recent weeks and months increasing the current veterans exemption. So at the time back in 2014 when the board initially adopted the tax exemption, you did so at the maximum levels. Subsequent to that, those levels have increased by the state in terms of what school districts can do and what municipalities can do with regard to the percentage of exemption. So that's going to be a point of consideration at some point. There's a relatively new cold war veterans exemption that has been added. So that's another uh point of consideration. and and certainly most recently surviving spouse exemptions for fallen police officers.
027So that that's another um point that I'm uh assuming the board will consider at some point once we get a little more information. And then there are other real partial real property tax exemptions being considered at the state level. So I share with you just some thoughts on this 5% exemption. Again, you can go more than two years if we want to be consistent with where the town is and where uh our neighboring school district is in terms of verifying the years of service. The town's at two years, I believe that it would make most sense to follow the town. Just in terms of the eligibility piece, the percentage is certainly within the purview of the board, but to determine eligibility, it would be helpful to be consistent with the metrics that the town has
028in place. So, I leave this slide on the screen for your consideration and then I'll turn it back over to the board. Happy to answer. We have Miss Sanfilippo here. She um has probably a better handle on real property tax exemptions than I do, but we're both here to answer any questions that you have. Thank you, Dr. Hattar. Um do we have anyone here for the public comment for the Oh, wonderful. Sir, would you like to come to the podium? Hi, good evening. Um, for those of you who don't know me, I know some of you. My name is Jeff Wilson. My kids um are older. They went through the district. I've been a resident here for 30 years. And I stand before you as the president of the Yorktown Heights Engine Company, number one,
029better known as the Yorktown Fire Department. That's what everybody knows it as. But we kind of have two two separate entities which just understand you have the tax district which the commissioners oversee the tax bills. That money handles the purchase of the apparatus, the maintaining of the firehouses, training and things of that equipment. Um the engine company is basically the manpower. That's us. That's the residents and the the people that come to your house when there's a call. Um we are 100% volunteer. We receive no, you know, financial um paycheck or stipend. We get some small little benefits and perks along the way. Um but we are we're we're coming to a point where we're struggling. We're seeing a lot of our members who were junior members mostly um from the high school and we
030have our um former leader of the uh junior corps which can attest to this. They come through, they turn 18, they're hanging around now they're going to college and now it's time to graduate, set up shop and it's very difficult to stay here in the town as we all know it and a lot of them move out. So, it's it's tough to keep the young, vibrant, um the kids in here. Um but we do we we we still maintain it. We still get out on the calls. Um we're averaging anywhere from 7 800 calls a year. Seems to be increasing every year. Um all fire calls, unlike uh Mohegan, we do not do EMS calls. So, they're all fire and rescue calls. Um and I don't have to tell you, they they come at all
031times of the day and night. We leave our families, we come out. You saw this winter we had some very uh terrible fires. Not only we fighting the fire, but we're fighting the hazards and everything else that come with it. Um the training is increasing. Um tonight is our our Monday nights are our training and maintenance night. That's why I'm the only one here. I had to come. The chief would have been here, but he is also back at the firehouse training tonight. That's where the rest of the membership is. And you could see us there on any Monday night. come down and and see us, watch us. Um, and so we're doing hundreds of hours of training on top of the 7-800 calls. In addition to that, we're doing a tremendous amount of effort
032u for outreach. Um, we do a lot of work with the different schools with uh fire prevention. Um, I think we have one at Mohansic coming up next week, I think. Uh, fire prevention or touch the truck. We'll have, you know, four or five firefighters out there with with two trucks. Um, we do one of our biggest events, which Dr. Hattar knows exactly where I'm going to go with this one, is at Thanksgiving where we do the meals. We, um, we work with your social workers and we go out and we deliver Thanksgiving meals on Thanksgiving morning to 175 to 225 people. Um, which has become a it's it's a good event. It's a fun event. We enjoy it and it's great to work with the with the district um, on those kind of events.
033Um, and the members like that. We're not just here to answer fire calls. Yes, that's our our number one job, but when they're answering more and more calls, it it's tough and tough to get them out to do these extra events. Um, which they they do come out. We all do come out. Um, so what we're looking for hopefully is to get another little incentive which will hopefully entice not the 19-year-old because he doesn't own property. if he does, I'd like to know how he's how he's doing it. Um, but as they get older, we do have some older members and families that um, you know, now that the husband and or wife, the kids are older, they're looking for something to do, they come down to the firehouse and they volunteer. Um, so they're
034not the 19, 20 year old kids running into the fires. They might be in the 30s or 40s, but they still can provide service to us. So, we're trying to show um or or get something that we can show that the district and the members and the taxpayers appreciate our work. We know that you guys do. Um we know that the town gives us a uh incentive in that tax break. Um and I know Dr. Hattar touched on it a little bit. You know, it's not it wouldn't be every member. You know, when I sat down with Dr. I had her about a year or so ago, we started talking about, you know, who would get this and we may have 70 or 80 members on our roles, but not all of them would be
035qualifying. Um, right off the bat, they have to make a certain every member has to make a certain percentage uh of points to be active and to be in good standing. Um, and there's a a variety of ways to make your points from training and community outreach and things, but the number one uh point behind that is fire calls. If you're not making a percentage of the fire calls, it doesn't matter how much outreach you do and how many outside activities, you're not getting your your status as being a good member. So, you have to make your fire calls and then on top of that, additional points through um depending on years of service. Um and then from that group of people, you have to look at how many of those are are owners of
036properties. So, out of 70 that might be on the rolls, and I'm kind of just giving you round numbers, we might have, I don't know, 40 or 50 people, and then of the 40 or 50 people, maybe 30 make their points. And of the 30 that make their points, maybe 20 are property owners. So, you could see it it dwindles down. And I think that's where Dr. Hatter kind of got some of the numbers. Um, so yes, if you look at our roles, we have a lot of members and they all provide a different value of service. Some it's just it's social. They come down, they come and they help out and and they do what they can and they clean up a little bit and then they go home. And it is the others
037like myself that were out answering calls and we're the ones that are making our points. And with the town, our secretary provides a list at the beginning of the year, the tax year of members that would qualify for the town tax break that have met our standards and are in good standing. they've met the points depending on their years of service and that gets turned over to the town. As I mentioned with Dr. Hattar, we would do the same if that's how um it would work for you guys. If not, if there's something else that we could do to help make it um easier to to maintain, but it wouldn't just be like a blanket list. Oh, here's our attendance sheet. You know, everybody on it gets the break. It's like I said, we're probably
038looking at maybe 20 people that that would qualify for that. Um, and we're hoping with this if we if it does, you know, with your approval, you know, that number for us would be great if it came up because that would mean more members are staying around. They're property owners or taxpayers. And it might look worse because that dollar amount is going to go over that $20,000 mark, but that also means we have more people are here and we're on our rolls. Um, so, you know, anything that you guys could do, um, we would certainly appreciate it. Um, you know, 5% is great, 10% is even better. 50% would be fantastic. I know you're strapped, but I got to at least try for 50 if I can't get 50. Um, but if um if there's
039more information that you need that we could provide, Dr. Hatter has my name, number, emails. Um, we can provide whatever you guys need. if you need to speak with us. The chief said he would also be willing to come in and sit down and talk if need be um to to explain something or just kind of show any kind of numbers that we could help you with. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else here for the public hearing? Okay. So now we will move on to the discussion. um part of the uh public hearing uh with the board and the administration. But we'll start with Peter. Um I think that I I mean we've been uh talking about this for for a while. Um the the merits of this are are there. Um I I do
040think as Dr. Hattar kind of talked about other um groups that might be coming down the pipe. We do have to be mindful of uh what that might be, what we're doing today, but I I do think there's merit to something to um for our volunteers. Um and I I think it's important. So, I agree. Thank you for your comments as well. Um I think it's important too. um they do a lot for our community. So um I agree with Peter. Mike, there's no question that um I would you have a tremendous amount of respect and appreciation for our uh volunteer firemen and ambulance uh corps and um I see no reason why we wouldn't consider um the proposed exemption. You did mention Dr. had her um details regarding uh the other district uh in
041town and you mentioned the two years. Are they at the 5% level? Yes, I believe they're at 2 years and 5%. I believe the town is at 10%. Yeah. Lakeland is at 5%. Okay. And the town is at 10. You said I believe the town's at 10. 10 and two. Okay. Lakeland's at 5 years. No. Oh, and two years and 5% for the neighboring school district, two years and 10% for the town of Yorktown. Okay. Yeah, I'm I'm in support of uh the proposition that you put forth. Yeah, I'm in support as well. I mean, they are members of our community delivering really important services. We rely on them heavily and um I'm definitely in support. Uh me, too. I uh agree with um everyone at the table. I would like to thank Mr. Wilson
042for coming out and I've lived in this town for 22 years. So, a lot of what you said I knew, but it did help to hear it all uh you know together. So, thank you for uh coming out and sharing uh that with us. Um would anyone else like to bear anything else before we close the public hearing? Do we need any clarification on qualifications? Are we going to follow what the town does? I know the state has and I don't know if the town follows what state has a very small tax exemption that you guys can qualify for, right? That um has some parame I guess it's the point system that you talked about, Mr. Wilson. So, I mean, do we have to quantify that or clarify what we're going to use? Just from
043my perspective, following the model that the town follows because the town does collect taxes on our behalf. following the model and consistency with the town would make most sense at least to start. So employing whatever model the town employs to verify participation and points is is the one that I would recommend we start with and then we can pivot from there if we decide that we need a change to the model. But I I think following whatever it is that the town does from a minimum year perspective to the metrics that are used to determine a member in good standing would be sufficient for our purposes. I agree. Anyone else? All right. So, may I have a motion to close the public hearing? So, moved. Second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? So, we
044have a um proposed resolution um on the agenda. It's a long one, but I will read it. Um motion to adopt the partial real property tax exemption for volunteer firefighters and volunteer ambulance workers. Whereas the board of education wishes to adopt the provisions of section 466A of the real property tax law, which would grant a partial exemption from school taxes of certain res residential real property located in Yorktown Central School District used as the primary residents of certain enrolled members of an incorporated volunteer fire company or fire department and incorporated voluntary ambulance service located within the school district. Therefore, be it resolved that the board of education, after having given the public an opportunity to be heard at a public hearing, hereby adopts the provisions of section 466A of the real property tax law and
045provides to volunteer firefighters and volunteer ambulance workers who have at least 2 years of applicable service in an incor in incorporated volunteer fire company or department or incorporated voluntary ambulance service located within the school district. a partial tax exemption from school taxes to the extent of 5% of the assessed value of the property as certified by the applicable assessor and subject to statutory requirements for assessment roles prepared on the basis of taxable status dates occurring on or after May 1st, 2026. And be it further resolved that the board further adopts the provision of such law that grants volunteer firefighters and volunteer ambulance workers that accrue more than 20 years of active service as certified by the applicable assessor the 5% exemption from school taxes as set forth above for the remainder of their life as
046long as their primary residence is located within the Yorktown Central School District subject to statutory requirements. And be it further resolved that the board adopts the provision of such law that extends or reinstates the tax exemption to any qualified unremarried spouse of a deceased volunteer firefighter or volunteer ambulance worker as long as the deceased volunteer firefighter or volunteer ambulance worker had at least 20 years of applicable service in an incorporated volunteer fire company or department or incorporated voluntary ambulance service. and had been receiving the exemption prior to their death as certified by the applicable assessor and subject to applicable statutory requirements. And be it further resolved that the board further adopts the provision of such law that extends or reinstates exemption to any qualified unremarried spouse of a volunteer firefighter or a volunteer ambulance worker
047killed in the line of duty. As long as the volunteer firefighter or volunteer ambulance worker had at least five years of active service in an incorporated fire company or department or incorporated voluntary ambulance service and had been receiving the exemption prior to their death as certified by the applicable assessor and subject to applicable statutory requirements. and be it resolves that the district clerk is directed to send a certified copy of this resolution to the assessors of any municipality which comprises the Yorktown Central School District. May I have a motion, please? Motion to move uh discussion. Yep. I think we should just um clarify the parts that we didn't just discuss which are the lifetime exemptions and whatnot. Is that is that how you come to the 37 number? I mean so what I'm what I'm
048understanding though is that number is going to continue to grow as we accumulate years of service and people stay in the community right? Yes. Yeah. So the number of parcels as the department hopefully grows the number of exemptions would grow. the points that we didn't discuss in too much detail and this is this exemption is comparable to what the town and and what our neighboring school district have done. So two things there. The first is if a firefighter or ambulance core volunteer firefighter volunteer ambulance core member has more than 20 years of service the exemption is valid um through the remainder of their lives. Um the additional piece obviously with the provisions there as long as their primary residence is within the school district's catchment area obviously and then the surviving spouse benefit. So should
049somebody with 5 years of service or more be killed in the line of duty, the benefit would be passed on to their surviving spouse. So I I summarized that. It was a whole page I summarized in about two or three sentences. Lisa, if there's anything that you think I should add, I'm happy to add that. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure that we had that for for the community to understand exactly what we were passing. So, thank you. Doesn't change anything for me, but just want to make sure we got that on the record. Yeah. Um, do I have a second? Second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. Uh the next item on the agenda is our student report. So Hunter, I'll turn it over
050to you. Good evening. The Yorktown schools have been buzzing over the past few weeks with musical performances and very active successful spring athletic seasons underway. On Wednesday, April 8th, the girls lacrosse team hosted Play for Share game in honor of our teammate Sheridan Gorman. The stands were filled and a love for Sheridan and her family with our community was evident to all who attended. It was a very special night for our Yorktown community. On Friday, April 10th, we host our annual Yorktown Madness Battle of the Court basketball game in which is Yorktown Police Department faced off against the Yorktown teachers. The event had a great turnout and was a lot of fun for all who attended this year. The teachers took home the win. Congratulations to all who participated in this. Our schools will continue
051to host the their spring musical performances this month. And I want to encourage members of the community to attend. On April 17th and April 18th, Mildred E. String Middle School will host its performance of Finding Nemo Jr. 700 p.m. in the Yorktown High School auditorium. On April 22nd, Mohansick's kindergarten classes will host their spring concert at 9:30 a.m. On April 22nd, Brookside will host its family book fair and literacy night at 5:00 p. p.m. On April 24th, the Mildred E. Strang Middle School will host its grade 6 night out at 6:30 p.m. in the Mildred E. Strang Middle School gymnasium. Throughout the month of April, artwork created by Yorktown students in grades K through 12 will be displayed at the Jefferson Valley Mall. I encourage everyone to visit the art show and to view the
052incredible pieces created by our talented students. Finally, on Friday, April 24th, Dr. Hattar will host his senior citizen breakfast at 9:00 a.m. Anyone interested in attending should call the superintendent's office to reserve a spot at the event. Thank you. Thank you, Hunter. Uh Dr. Hatter, um you have a budget presentation. I do. I do. And it was a wonderful game. Just to touch base on that, I see Sergeant Beyrer in the back. He played on the uh on the other side. And uh our teachers were incredibly talented when it came to uh just great sportsmanship, great game. It was a good community night. And um I just want to emphasize our teachers came out with the win and and it wasn't even close. So we'll get bragging rights for a year. Okay. So this is
053the final superintendent's budget presentation just to explain this to our community. So at this point until the board adopts the budget which is anticipated to happen on April 20th. Until that occurs, it's referred to as the superintendent's budget. And once the board adopts the budget, it becomes the district's budget. And I anticipate that'll happen next week at the April 20th meeting. So this evening is really designed to talk about well a couple things. The first what's changed from the original presentation and then to answer any last questions that the board may have before they go into the adoption meeting a week from tonight. So with regard to the presentation, it is the same presentation except for one difference from last presentation. So again, I will go quite quickly through this, but I but it's not
054to diminish some of the amazing accomplishments that our students have achieved. We have um so many wonderful things happening in our school district. In fact, that too should actually be a three with ISF qualifiers. So I'm seeing that now. But absolutely wonderful things in educating the whole child. And that's what our budget is built on, educating the whole child. We invest in all areas of the educational experience, not just in the classroom, but certainly outside of the classroom, on the playing fields, on the athletic courts, and uh on the stage. With regard to enrollment, we have been relatively stable from an enrollment standpoint. We do anticipate that some of the housing developments in town will begin to impact enrollment. We're seeing some impacts in the non-instructional areas at this point with regard to transportation and
055traffic and adding a couple buses at this point to to kind of counteract some of the effects of traffic on route times and duration bus rides. Our programs are second to none. We from prek all the way up to 12th grade. We have some wonderful programs in our district and and I shared more about that last week uh last meeting. You also recall Luke speaking about some of his experiences in our school district and that has been um certainly really really heartening to see again our high standard of excellence. So many great things happening and our children are achieving. We've been recognized by so many different organizations nationally, internationally, just again one of the best school districts in America. And that's just by every metric that that rates schools. In terms of next year, and
056this is probably the most um salient slide for the conversation this evening, these are the potential additions or the proposed additions to the budget that I'm recommending in my proposal to the board. So certainly class sizes would would stay at or below board levels. Uh the current programs would continue. UPK would continue. Our flexpath program would decline. And we heard Miss Almeida mention the that going from 18 to 14 seats. It was part of her recommendation in the budget. And I certainly support that recommendation. It will give a more personalized approach. We don't want the program to get too big. We want students to get the individualized support. And we found that 14, which is what we had in the first year of the program, was was that number that that was really most appropriate
057for the needs of our students in the program. We're looking at an additional social worker at the high school. The student needs from a mental health and behavioral health standpoint have really increased and we want to be sure that we're equipped to meet those increased needs. We're adding a psychologist at Crompton, but the psychologist will do so many things within that role. It's a multi-faceted role. They'll do some behavior interventions in addition to the work of the psychologist. We're looking to add more district tech support. So much of our reliance has has really been around technology and that department is having demands placed on it by every other department in our district. So we are finding the need to bolster their department a little further. We're adding a section for class size purposes at Crompond
058fourth grade. Boys volleyball assistant coach. That is, I believe, the only varsity sport at this point that does not have an assistant coach. So, we're looking to add that. Now, this one is new and it's new for tonight. And we're looking at adding a varsity girls wrestling team. And so, we have heard from students a lot of interest. And we have not been able to fill that interest thus far. So, there are several other school districts in the region and in the state that have a girls varsity wrestling team. And so, we're not new to the idea. I think we're catching up on this. Although it's not widespread. It's not in every high school in our region. It is certainly growing in popularity and you see it at the youth level and you'll see it
059carry through. So, there was an interest meeting held and and as our community knows, our board certainly knows students really drive our programs. It it's based on student interest and we want to meet the needs of our students and so we have received a lot of interest for girls wrestling and so I'm hoping that we can add that into the budget. That's a really exciting get for our district programmatically, something that we have not had previously. Uh we're looking at contingency positions. There are some unknown student needs at this point. So, kindergarten enrollment is always one of the unknown factors at this point in the school year. So, we're looking at that. Also, special education needs, there are caps and mandates on class sizes. So, if we're in a 121 program, there's a cap on
060the number of students who can be in that program. At this point, we haven't fully identified all of the students who would be identified for for the respective programs. So there are some contingency positions built into the budget. Also the after-school care I put that here not as a budget addition but as a potential reduction to our budget. Right now as an example from Mohansic we send two buses after school to daycare every day. If we can reduce that number to one bus and keep students on our campus there there's a benefit there in and of itself keeping children on our campus. But there's also a financial incentive for our district if we can reduce the number of buses that we're putting on the roads. So that that's a piece that I I share for
061consideration, not as a budget addition, but rather the opposite. And then some exciting new courses. We're still exploring the viability, the feasibility of offering these courses, but some really, really exciting courses in AP cyber security, AP business and personal finance and AI. So lots of other courses as well that we're exploring. But this budget proposal brings some new and exciting courses to our district as well. So that is probably the most relevant slide for this evening in terms of well the second most relevant slide. U this is the other most relevant slide is what is the financial impact to our school community. So the budget is tax cap compliant. That's really important to emphasize. We are within the allowable tax levy cap. So, a simple majority would pass this budget. We are not seeking an
062override. The tax levy change is on the right and that's 2.38%. However, what that equates to, what that really means for taxpayers is on the left side of the slide. We believe in the tax in the town of Yorktown, the estimated tax rate increase will be 2.11%. And for the board's aware of this, but for the viewing public, our tax base is made predominantly up of Yorktown residents. 96% of our tax base uh is in the town of Yorktown. We are seeing a tax rate change in Newcastle. That's less than 2% of our tax base, but we're seeing taxes in New Castle, we estimate, decreasing by almost 7%. and a tax rate decrease in Cortlandt of almost 10%. I'd love to take credit for a 10% reduction, but the reality is the school district has
063nothing to do with the tax rates. We set the levy and then the tax rates. There are all kinds of formulas that are used for equalization rates and a tax rate is generated through the town's assessor town assessor's office using uh a formula model and the and the al algorithm. So 2.11% Yorktown, a decrease of 6.9% in New Castle and a decrease of 9.98% in the town of Cortlandt. And again we are within the tax levy cap. We have been and our community knows this. We've been incredibly responsible when it comes to taxes. We take raising taxes really, really seriously. Our business office is incredibly diligent in looking at programs creatively as our curriculum office, our technology office, we're we're all scrutinizing programs and and to the credit of our school building leaders, they're doing
064the same. So we have been incredibly sensitive to taxpayers and I think this next slide says it best but it's difficult to read. So my hope is that when we put this on our YouTube channel, this slide will be full screen. Someone can pause it, really take a look at it and understand that over the last nine years, we have had the fourth lowest tax levy percentage increase in the region. And we've still been able to do some amazing things programmatically. and and that's just a a testament to the creativity of of our our business office, our curriculum office, our school administrators, our district administrators, our board looking at things differently. We've added within this time frame dozens of programs, dozens of sports or maybe a dozen sports, not dozens of sports, but dozens of
065programs. We've added school resource officers to every school within this time period. We added security personnel outside of schools, not just inside the schools during this time. We've done some amazing things. And we went through a historic pandemic with all of this as well. So, not that it was unique to us because everybody went through similar circumstances, but not everybody was able to do it within the tax levy increases that we were able to do this within. So, I share that with regard to STAR. Our STAR is still in effect. That is not administered by the district. It's a state program. There have been so many presentations that have been given. They are all posted to our website. If you have not been able to attend a meeting, I would encourage you to go on
066to our website, yorktown.org, and you'll be able to access all of our budget presentations there. There are some important upcoming dates. Next week, as I mentioned, I anticipate the board will adopt the budget with with any modifications, obviously, if any, that the board proposes. May 11th, we have a budget hearing, and the budget vote and trustee election is May 19th. It's always the third Tuesday of May. Polls are open 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. French Hill School where we have uh held it over the last several years. And at this point, I'm happy to take any questions if there are any from the board. Anybody with questions? I just have a question about um the if you put the girls um wrestling into the budget and there's not enough interest, would you look to open
067like another modified or like where does that money go then? So if the money is unspent, it would generally go back into the general fund. So it wouldn't be spent. It would be used for either other unanticipated expenditures. it would go back in and go to fund balance. It would not be if there was a need, I would certainly come to the board and express that need. If we if there was interest at this point, there has not been interest in another program. So, we have not declined requests for another program in favor of girls wrestling. So, I don't know if there would be another program that would replace girls wrestling. My expectation would be that the funds would just go back into the general fund. And Lisa, correct me if I'm wrong on Thank
068you. Um, any other questions? Just to clarify, the the budgeted amount for that program would would be nominal. We're between 20 and $25,000. That includes the coaches, that includes about 10 meets, the boys and girl meet. We had this conversation today actually, can we lower that cost even further by combining transportation because that that's where a big portion of the cost comes from is transportation. Girls wrestling is becoming more and more popular that the meets are actually standalone meets for the most part, which is terrific. It's a great thing to see that the sport is growing in popularity. So there are some instances where we'll be able to share some transportation. So I'm hoping to get the cost down from that 20 to $25,000 number, but the majority of the meets are separate. So I
069don't think we'll get the cost down too much, but the cost in the aggregate we anticipate will be 20 to $25,000 for the year. Okay. And is that a program that we would consider, you know, co-oping with another district like we do for some of our sports if there was enough interest? That was my initial thought. As of right now, we there were 14 students who showed solid interest and that would be amongst one of the bigger teams in the region. Should we have a team of 14 students? So there wouldn't be a need to merge at this point. However, that that option is always on the table to be able to merge to share costs. Absolutely. Okay, just um with the economic environment that's out there, Ron, the team's done a phenomenal job getting
070the budget where the budget is. Um I think uh it could have been a lot different. Um but still when you look at the programs, when you look at what we've accomplished and what we continue to accomplish both programmatically, athletically, um it it's it's really been phenomenal and and that over the last nine years, um it's pretty impressive that we where we've where we come in. So thank you. I echo what Peter said. Um I think staying tax compliant in today's um economic environment is a difficult uh task. Um and we haven't stayed status quo. We have added teams, programs, coaches, classes, courses. Uh so we're we continue to grow and remain under the tax cap. So I think that's phenomenal. So Dr. Hattar, uh Lisa, uh Sanfilippo, Deirdra, you know, kudos to you. Um,
071couple of things I guess still to point out, right? We don't have uh final aid numbers from the state. They were due April 1st, I believe. Uh, they've filed two extensions now. Is that right, Lisa? I'm I'm I heard the last one is till the 20th, right? So, that's next week when we adopt. So, so hopefully we might have something by then. Maybe we'll have not expecting a big swing one way or the other, but you just never know, right? Usually not. But just to be aware of that and I think um the other thing to point out uh Dr. Hattar you did a great job showing the the the consistency with which we've maintained our tax rate and um that's not by accident. You know I've been um chair of the fiscal advisory committee
072uh Peter sits on Rashmi has uh Jacqueline does now. Uh we've had a since I've been involved, we've always maintained that it's better to have a consistent rate each year than to see um swings. I I know that as a taxpayer, I I I don't want a zero one year and a plus five the next year. Um I'd much rather have a somewhat predictable pattern and and consistency. And by doing that, we've been able to increase our programs and um maintain that level without having to um disrupt that pattern, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. So, um it's it's important that I think we continue to do that going forward. It's what it's what allows us to not have to cut back at any point in time by be maintaining that consistency. uh
073we could easily in any given year, you know, throw some reserve money at it and get the rates down to zero. Uh but that only that only makes a bigger problem the following year when we don't even know what the uh you know what the obstacles are going to be because there's as you pointed out on your other slide, there are a lot of things that change year to year that we have no control over. And so um by maintaining good reserves and maintaining that consistent rate uh it's helped us keep the programs that we've been able to institute. So um kudos to you and your team for um putting forth such a comprehensive and and well thoughtout plan. So thank you. So just to uh summarize the uh timeline. So, at the next uh
074meeting, next Monday, April 20th, um the board is expected to adopt the budget and then May 11th, we have a budget hearing. Um yeah, and then May 19th is the budget vote. Okay. So, we are now going to go to policy. We have some first reads. Uh policy 1240 visitors to the school. 4821 ceremonies holiday displays and observances. 5312.1 tobacco drug and alcohol use/abuse. 5550 student privacy 8635 information and data privacy security breach and notification. Any questions on the first reads? Uh the following policies were reviewed with no substantive changes. 1741 homeschooled students 4600 counseling and guidance program 4771 early graduation 5220 school sponsored student expression 5421 distribution of potassium iodide 5454 student automobile use. We are going to go to items 11 through 15 for um the consent agenda item. So resolve at the
075Yorktown Central School District approves the consent agenda which includes a uh agenda items 11 through 15. 11 is board matters 11.1, personnel matters 12.1, business matters 13.1 through 13.4. for pupil personnel matters 14.01 and gifts, grants, and donation matters 15.01. Can I have a motion? So move. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? We are up to board comments. We'll start with Peter. Catalina. Just another great night and um just shows us how creative our teachers and our administrators are. Every year the one book they just come up with different themes and just so impressed. Yeah, it's truly impressive to see these children, their students, uh their teachers, their support, the parents, um just how creative you can get, not only with books read at home, but it was about the entrepreneurship, starting businesses, taking
076that home, and it's just wonderful to see. And again, again, kudos to the budget and, you know, seeing the consistency, I think it's really um it's admirable. So, thank you for all your work. I agree. It's a great night. always fun to see the children and um the community outreach part of it really struck a chord with me. Um really taking it beyond the the borders of the school um makes it so much more special. So thank you to um our faculty and staff for really going the extra mile with that great meeting. I don't have anything to add. I I think everyone's covered uh what I was going to say. Um public comment number two. Okay. All right. So, may I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? So, move everyone. Um, does everyone
077um all those in favor? I I Any opposed?