001Good evening. Welcome to the Yorktown Central School District Board of Education meeting for June 2nd, 2025. Can I have a motion to go to executive session to discuss the employment history of particular pedagogical and non-pedagical employees? The personnel history of a particular tenure employee matters made particial under student under matters of a particular student made confidential under federal law, family educational rights and privacy act and for the advice of legal counsel. So move second. All those in favor? I oppose. Thank you. Um motion back to public session. Some move. All those in favor. Opposed. Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Yorktown Central School District Board of Education meeting for June 2nd, 2025. We stand for the pledge of allegiance and then remain standing for a moment of silence. For armed forces and those in our
002community that have lost loved ones, especially the mother of Brian Pod, the mother of Tony Gleti, and the sister of Kelly Jennick. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. [Music] school partner recognition night. This is always one of my favorite nights. So, welcome everyone. And again, I am so sorry that we're a little late coming out. It's um Monday night. you have a lot going on in your own lives and you're here and I apologize for keeping you waiting. So, this is one of my favorite nights of the year. There are we're in the season of celebration. We're celebrating our students in the schools. We're celebrating tenure at at our last May meeting. We're celebrating our
003retirees and anniversaries. And it's just so wonderful to be able to celebrate the people who from our community make the organization run and help the organization to run. And our district is so fortunate to have such wonderful volunteers. I see a lot of the same faces for many of you. I've seen your fa I'm in year eight going into year nine. I've seen you each year that I've been here and our relationship has only grown stronger over the years. And it's just so wonderful to see so many faces. cuz I like to see some new faces. Also, I'm sure you would too. It would give you the opportunity to to step back into your roles. But amidst all the busyiness in your schedules, and I get it, everyone's busy. Everyone has demands on their time,
004yet you prioritize service to your school district and to your community in a way that very few people do. Please know that we see you. I enjoy our PTA meetings once a month where I get to meet with liaison from all the schools and all the organizations. It's such a special time to sit around that table. I don't know how you feel about those meetings, but I enjoy them. I enjoy being able to spend time with you, hear what happening a little bit in the buildings, hear what your questions are, hear how invested you are in the success of our district, but most importantly in the success of our students. Later on today, I'll be giving a presentation which we'll pause and give you the opportunity to leave if you want to if you want
005to head out. But if you want to stay, we're going to be talking about some of the great things that are happening in our school district. It's such a wonderful time in Yorktown. So many wonderful firsts. We've received recognitions, two national recognitions in the last month. One is in music. I know the first ners aren't here, but their contribution to our community is incredible. And I'm so happy that Yorktown was named a national best school, best community for music education in 2025. That is such a wonderful honor for our school district. We don't do that without great teachers, without committed students, and a supportive parent community. So, thank you for making the time. Thank you for helping Yorktown be that special district. We talked about the Yorktown difference. That's one of the things that I
006impressed upon the staff on our first day back and we continue to talk about that Yorktown difference. It's different here. I interview candidates, teachers, administrators, custodians, nurses, coaches, and every other area of our organization. The one thing that I hear consistently is it's different here. And yeah, we're part of it, but we have such a great community and that commitment, that work together that we do just brings that community, our community to to another level. So this evening, we're saying thank you to you. All of the nights that you've spent away from your family in service to our school district. All the days that you either had to alter your work schedule, go in late, have to leave early to get to a PTA event or a district event. We see that tonight. We're saying
007thank you for that. We've had meetings middle of the day with the Husker Club to look at fields and bathrooms and concession stands and you gave up part of your workday because you're invested in this community. And I can go around the room and Liz, I can talk about all the work that we've done bringing great programming and great resources. And you've been the catalyst for all of that. I can look at the Wigson's group and just say, "Wow, how lucky are we to have you as part of our group, as part of our district and to each parent organization, I say thank you." We also are acknowledging our board this evening. We have a tremendous board. There is no board that I would rather work for than the people on this stage. They are
008so committed to your children, to this community, to this district. And I can't tell you I I say that not just as superintendent here, but I'm a resident here as well. My kids are in the school just like many of your children are in the school. And I am just honored to have the board that we do. Complete professionals, respectful of their role, respectful of the administration's role. And I tonight I say thank you and there are certificates in front of you. I signed them all. I figured you you should have a certificate of appreciation because I and we appreciate everything that you do for our district. Many in our community may see the two-hour meetings that we have twice a month. What you don't see are two-hour policy meetings and every other week having
009facilities meetings and audit meetings and fiscal meetings and other planning meetings that we have. There's a lot that goes into being a board member here and this group does it better than any group that I've ever seen do. So, at this time, I'd like to call out each of our school partners for recognition. I think I shared with you in the letter that I sent you that I'm going to ask you to say a brief few words about something that you might be proud of over the course of the school year given everything that you've done. and and trustee Lisa Ro mentions this at many meetings as we look at the gift grants and donations. It's like wow, our parent groups are unbelievably supportive. So, you have so much to be proud of and so
010much to share. I'm going to ask you to do it in a limited amount of time because we want to give every group the opportunity to be recognized. And of course, we've got to begin with our big room, which is a district BPSA. And I'd like to invite up Lis Bula, Ron Fidelli, and any member of their executive board. [Applause] You didn't bring a gift. waking you again. Yes. Whoever. Thank you, Dr. Hanner. So, okay. So I appreciate working relationship that the PTA has with the district. We have a common goal with it the children. We meet monthly as Dr. Hatter mentioned and share information and ideas. It's a true collaboration between all the schools uh and community organizations and the PTA. This year we continue to support the district initiatives and programs and look
011forward to continuing providing our support. But Karen Silver would like to give you guys a little treat. So we appreciate you all and thank you. I'll re reiterate what Lisa says. It's really a collaborative effort. We truly enjoy the monthly meetings where Dr. Dr. Hanner takes time out of his schedule uh very often. Um Mr. Dling will be there, freshman will be there for the board of ed representatives. And again, this is how we we come up with the ideas. Some from the district, some will come from the parents and again we we are able to follow through with one vision what's best for the children of this district. And that's what I'm most proud of is that we have that vision together and we are a different type of district because of that. Thank
012you. Don't go anywhere. Don't go anywhere in the shed. [Music] We are. So, the next group that we're going to honor is the Yorktown High School PDA. They're standing up here with me already. Dominic, come on up. And Daffany, please come on up. And any other members of the high school PTA board. So, if there's anything specific, I know you spoke, Lisa, about the district PTSA, but if there's anything specific that you'd like to say about the high school, please do. Secretary Dominic. Thank Thank you, Lisa. And thank you, Dr. Hatter. At the high school, it's a little bit more, should we say, difficult because the role of PTA is is different than a lot of the other schools because we're all a lot a lot older. But the the our mission is the same,
013to do whatever we can to support all the all the students here. And one of the things that we're most proud of this year is helping to facilitate the college admissions panel with the guidance department here at YS and bring that great resource for the students. And in terms of that role, we're actually we're actually put out a survey to the community to figure to figure out what people want to see from the high school PTA and what else we can do to support the students. And of course, we're looking forward to doing back to the nest again. And I'm looking forward to going back to Mohansick. So, a lot of great work going on at the high school PTA and we're very happy to work with all of you. In just two seconds of
014a personal note to share this stage with my son after all these years of working on my PTA is just very thank you for everything. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. How are you? Thank you so much. Good luck to you. I hear my son graduated there two weeks ago. And I'd like to now recognize our Mildred East Middle School PTA. We have some members who are not in attendance, but we have Ken Felber and Karen Cesy here. And I'd like to invite you to the stage. [Applause] So, it's in the bag. You're going to be the first to get the 202526 calendar magnet. So, there should be enough for each member of your executive board. If not, reach out to my office and we'll send you we'll send you more of them. That was
015a tough act to follow. We don't have presents and we're not the presidents either, but we're here and we're very happy to be here. Um, so my name is Karen Sesny and I am the recording secretary at MESM's boarding uh board standing in for our presidents Rosanne Bracket and Ana Muzi. Um, but we are again thrilled to be here. This is my lovely board member, Carissa Jun, who I think you all know, and she serves as our treasurer, and as many of you know, she is a very beloved Italian teacher at the middle school. So, we just want to say thank you so much to Dr. Hower um and the school board for this lovely evening. It's a wonderful partnership. We're really thrilled to be here. Um thank you to Mrs. Horowitz and her staff
016for being so amazing and making the middle school experience so wonderful and enjoyable, which is not easy to do considering the age range you're working with. Um, just the PTA has been an amazing experience. We've been on it for many, many years with our kids, you know, back in the days of Mohansic and I see Mrs. Barry was in there. You know, pleasure really to see you guys from you guys started it out for us and it's just been a fantastic experience and an honor to be part of this. It's a really it is a beautiful district and um you know it's just fantastic to be again you know able to collaborate with you guys and really the biggest thing I mean we're most proud of I would say for us at heart school it
017was international I think that was a really fantastic collaboration truly a joy with the families and the staff it just worked out beautifully um but overall it's just an honor to be part of this and in a position to work with all of you and strengthen the you know to strengthen the connection with the people who are so influential in our children's lives. That's all of you. So, thank you so much. [Applause] Thank you for everything. Pleasure. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. told Kin not to go too far because come on over Kin. I have you as our Crown representative and uh Gina I know you're part of that group as well. So I'd like to welcome you to the stage to spare share a few thoughts on the front PGA. [Applause] Good evening everybody.
018I'm Gina Scokus. So I I apologize. I'm going to be reading a little bit because we want to this is my second year serving as a president. Last year was co-president with Karen and um and I will also introduce Amanda Richter who is our corresponding secretary this year. So um for the past several years um past two years I want to thank so many people. So I had to write it down. there's no way I can remember all these names. So, I think um our of course PTA executive board and um honestly the PTA does not work when we don't all work together. And without these two people standing on stage, there wouldn't have been a compound PTA this year. So, I'm so grateful. Um and the PTA isn't successful without the help of everybody
019here. Um the board of education, thank you for your support. Of course, Dr. Hatter right behind me and um and assistant superintendent Jamberling. Thank you for all your support this year as well. Uh it really just doesn't work without the people of uh of our district as well. Um the volunteers I call my mom and and our uh dad tears. Um without them this year, it just wouldn't have been successful. So I'm so grateful. So um I I don't want to forget some other people, so I apologize. So I also of course have to thank our compound staff and faculty especially Eileen McCannon who I don't know how that school would ever run without her. The entire custodial team and of course principal Jacobs, assistant principal salmon for their support all year long. And thank
020you to the Yorktown PTA council, Lisa Bugal, Ron Fidel. Uh we follow in your footsteps and the entire board for all that that you do to support us during the year. So what are we what are we most proud of ladies? I think we wrote down our top 10 events for the kids this year. Um, our back to school celebration is huge. I think it's also important to note that for for for students, especially in fourth and fifth grade, without having these events, it's their social and emotional connection. It's when both of the elementary schools in our district come together. So, it's it's one of those things that the back to school event is so crucial because they all get to meet, the two elementary schools come together and meet for the first time. So
021that's always a big event for us. Fright night at Pro Compound, I think, is a memorable event. It's so much work, honestly, but it is it pays off when you see these kids' faces and when they dress up. It's it's so amazing. It's really it's it's so rewarding. Uh this year we had an incredible holiday shop. We did a a coffee. We we called it our hot chocolate uh make your own hot chocolate bar, which was obviously a big hit with the kids. Although this year we forgot the whipped cream, but it still was extremely successful, right? We had like 30 cans of whipped cream. Yeah. Um we did something new this year too. A new spin. Um so for the rising fifth graders, uh excuse me, for the rising Yeah. For the fifth graders
022at Compound, there is a a tradition where they celebrate New Year's Eve every year. This year we actually put a little spin on it. We did a winter fun experience which was really incredible. The kids loved it. Um, and we did it during January instead of the holiday season. So, it was our big event. Um, I think it's important to note, uh, spring fling is always fun, but KJK live, it's an afterchool theater program. I think most of you are aware of what KJK productions is. This program is so crucial to the fourth and fifth graders at Procon because there isn't any theater program in elementary school. So, it's their first experience if they've never been on stage. And my son this year did that program and I have to say it's just phenomenal to
023see them um at the beginning of the season not even want to be on stage and then all of a sudden you see them transform and um it was really incredible. So I I truly hope that it's a tradition at compound that that they keep doing and and I want to thank Dr. Hatter for showing up because the kids were so appreciative for that. It made all the difference in the world. And um so I I think it's also important to add that you know the PTA doesn't obviously we don't exist without everybody coming together. And I think it's important as a tradition for next year to remember. It's the we it's the working together and to put the students first, all students first, not just your own student. When you go and you walk
024into a school, it's putting all students first. So thank you everyone for your support and I'm just I'm really grateful. It's been a a really an honor to serve the past few years and I'm I look forward to working within the district, too. Thank you very much. Thank you. [Applause] [Music] Thanks, Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our Brookside PTA has done so much to support the students staff at Brookside School. At this time, I'd like to invite Kathy Gingerson and members of the executive board of the Brookside PTA to the stage. [Applause] I'm going to keep it pretty short and sweet. Um, so this is my first rodeo, so um I kind of have like a little bit of notes all over the place, but um I just wanted to
025thank um Mr. Casterini and Dr. Sandor for helping me this year and, you know, guiding me through it all because it was it was my first time so I really didn't know what to do. Um, I was kind of thrown into it, but I was kind of glad that I was thrown into it because um, I learned a lot about myself and I learned a lot about my wonderful uh, board over here. So, this is Jennifer Ponz. Um, she was our reporting secretary, but also our yearbook lady and our yearbook queen. Um, this is our VP, uh, Fran Pers. She was my right-hand man through it all, and we did, uh, a lot together this year. We learned a lot about each other. Um Anna uh Screeching Cole, she is our corresponding secretary and she's
026done so much for us as well. And Shannon um Wang is our treasurer and she was she had to put up with me through it all as well. Um but yeah, one thing that I'm most proud of this year is that um I I feel as if we brought uh our whole community together um with, you know, regarding, you know, volunteering and the all the moms coming together and volunteering at every single event and raising money for our school and um our field trips. We've got to fund over $14,000 for all of our grades. Um, we did a lot of fundraising and Jen was really good at fundraising and you know, I just we were just had a great year. So, um, thank you for being with me and thank you guys very much for
027your support. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] The Mohansik PTA is another great group. Always supportive, always present. I'd like to invite to the stage Julian McGovern, Maria Morelia, members of the executive board of Mohansic. [Applause] Hi, how are you? We were just laughing. We're all teachers, but then we get nervous when we come up here with the microphone and everyone's staring at us. I think it would be easier after 20 years, but it's not. Um, my name is Maria Varelli. um one of the co-presidents of the Mohansen PTA along with Jillian McGovern. We have Kristen Young, our corresponding secretary, and Maria Okconor, our vice president. Um we just want to say thank you for inviting us tonight. Thank you to our board to the members who couldn't be here tonight, Carmela
028Gabriel, Justine Abby, Danielle Cucherella, and Amy D. Roza. Unfortunately, it's June and sports and our own school events and stuff. So, thankfully, thank you guys for making time for tonight. Um we'd like to first off thank our admin team, Mrs. Barry and Mrs. Crowmer. Um, they're amazing to us. No matter what crazy idea we come up with, they just say yes and they're there. We're like, "Hey, we want to do Build-a-Bear. We need 500 lb of fluff. Sounds great. Cafeteria snowstorm." They're on board for it. We're going to do a turkey trot in the middle of the winter. They're on board. We want to, you know, do something crazy with just a third grade. No problem. Sounds great. We'll be there. So, we really appreciate your support, your flexibility, um, and most of all, just,
029you know, your trust and your confidence. Our custodians, um, Danny, Rob, and Haroon are lifesavers. We're constantly texting them, constantly begging them, "Hey, can you help us? Can we run into the building? Can we do this? Can we do that?" Because we all teach during the day, so we're getting there at night. And they are so wonderful. They're always trying to carry stuff for us, do stuff. I mean, they are just the absolute best. We love them. Um, the unsung heroes of the PTA, our families, we're all volunteers. They're volunte. Um, our husbands, our children, they're the first at every event. They're the last to leave. They're dealing with the phone calls, the policy changes, the emails, the meetings, the Zooms, the nights out, the leaving and balancing and doing everything. So, we just really
030wanted to thank them and make sure everybody knew, you know, without their support, we really couldn't do this. You know, we work full-time and this is a whole another full-time job, and without our family support, it would be impossible. Um we ended the year with 440 members which is a great turnout for Mohansic. Um according to our treasurer this is our highest grossing year to date. Um that money goes directly towards new events and activities, trips, teacher requests, assemblies and going towards our students in need. So we're pretty proud of that. Um we don't really upcharge things but it's just great with the turnout that we have um and the support of the families and our mealans community that are attending everything. So we decided we were just going to talk about our favorite events
031this year. Um, my absolute favorite is kind of my baby. It's trunk or treat. Um, in the years since I've taken it over, Mrs. Barry's taken that leap of faith the first year when she's like, "You can have 15 cars." And I showed up with 41. Um, and then we've taken it to Wilkins thanks to the Pratt family. So now we're offsite. We have tractors, hay rides, all sorts of stuff. We had 500 people this year. We had 50 trunks. Um, it's an amazing event. We had, thanks to the high school, we had um the drama department came. They were wonderful. They were pirates. It was just a great sense of community and a great day. Uh, we also had our dances. Kristen Young and Danielle Cucherella are our dance queens. They make everything happen.
032They make the most beautiful displays, beautiful everything. We had great themes. Um, we had the decades dance for our second and third graders. So, we got to go back and dress like we did at a middle school canteen back in like the '9s and we felt so cool. Um, and our kids and the adults, everyone embraced the themes. our younger kids had under the sea and it was just really really nice to see everyone dressed up. Um and then lastly, we started something new this year. We did a senior sendoff when our current third graders, my oldest son's grade came in, they were still in masks, so there was all the mandates. They really didn't have any events. We didn't get to the school until the end of the year party. I remember Ron letting
033me in to go bring back a can, and I was like, I get to go in the building. This is amazing. So, we really wanted to kind of throw it back to them and give them something special. And thanks to Mrs. very support. We had that. We had a club fit event right before the holidays where thanks to Jillian, all of our third graders were able to go. They rotated through events. They had a night out, their first ever drop off event. We had our dance with Brookside thanks to Kathy. And then we ended with our partnership with Summer Trails. They had a night drop off event at Summer Trails where they got to do everything. Um, so it was really, really special. Uh, for the first Can you hear me? I never know with
034the microphone. Good. Okay. So, for the first time this year, we did a turkey trot. So, having two PE teachers leading the PTA, of course, we wanted to make sure that the kids have a chance to be physically fit with their families. So, we were able to host that in November. And um for staff appreciation this week, we were able to provide the teachers with five days of events. We had the pop and pancake cart come. We had salsa fresca cater. We had the build your own bouquet and a bunch of things like that to show them our appreciation. Uh we also did build a bear. So as part of one school, one book, we had the kids like Maria had mentioned, they got to come and build a book buddy where they got to
035stuff their own teddy bears. And I know my kids sleep with them every night and it was a really really cute special event. Um, we're proud of all that we've done and the memories that we are making for our children and we hope that one day they'll look back with pride of how hard all of us have worked for them. So, thank you to Dr. Hatter and the board and we hope everybody has a wonderful rest of the school year. [Applause] Thank you so much for everything. All right. Thank you so much. You our SEPTA group or special education PTA is such an important group that spans districtwide. And there seems to be one person who continuously steps up when needed to keep the organization going to keep the good things happening within SEPTA going.
036And Jessica Blinds, that's you. And I just want to thank you first of all for stepping up, volunteering again and again and again. And I'd like to invite you to the stage for the members of your executive board. [Applause] So, I'm Jessica Buddies, aka Gavin's mom, which started Gina at KJK in Crommont, and I became Gavin's mom. Um, so it was a it's a great program, so I happen to agree with you. Um, but I would like to start off by expressing my gratitude to Dr. Hatter, Mrs. Amberly, and the entire board of education. A special thank you goes to Caroline and her staff. Without Cat's efforts, um, Septto would not be here today. She kept it running last year and into this year. Um, Lisa's help in assembling the board uh, for this year
037and candidates for next year was greatly appreciated. Daphne and the two Jackies and Rosanna, their presence was truly invaluable. Finally, um the other PTAs, thank you for your support and helping us keep this going. Um and now I'm going to turn it over to Daffine, our incoming [Applause] president. Um thank you, Jess, Catherine, and our current board. um Jaclyn Repe and Jaclyn Corina couldn't be here tonight uh for coming together and just the past three months breathing life back into SEPTA and keeping it in active status. Um even following a 9 month hiatus uh SEPTA was fortunate to be able to provide three grants totaling $2,000 for both in district and out of district students. Uh we also provided an end of year um a a pizza party for the pioneer team and a dessert
038tray for their dinner dance. Um we are looking forward to um having a presence back in each of the schools and supporting the families that need our help. Thank you. Thank you so much for taking I don't believe we have representatives from the first nighters here. We certainly honor them and thank them for their contributions to all of our arts programs. I don't believe we have representatives from the science research foundation here or the foundation for excellence as well, but we certainly appreciate all of their efforts uh from the science research standpoint and their contributions to our extraordinary science research program. We have a couple of other clubs here, organizations that I'd like to make sure that we honor this evening. and we'll move to the Husker Club which has been so instrumental in supporting
039the athletics and they've been so instrumental in so many things that you see and that you don't see. So I'm going to invite Anthony Michello, Frank Bale and members of their executive board to come to the stage. [Applause] a little short. So, thank you very much. Um, first off, I wanted to say that we come here and everybody says thanks to us, but more importantly, I think it's for us to say thank you to the people that help us get to where we need to go uh as an organization. And that really starts off with Rob and his team, the coaches, Dawn most importantly uh in dealing with us and communicating with us. But mo more than that is always having Dr. Hatter at the events where we could see him at the football field,
040we could see him at the baseball field. He's everywhere and supporting us in everything that we do. and most importantly the inclusion that you bring and allow us to be participants in what's going on around the the the projects on the fields and and the upgrades that are going on. It it when you say that this place is different and it's special, it truly is. It's one of the main reasons why as a lot of us that are here are alumni of this school. Um actually the majority of the board is alumni of this school and we came back purposely to raise our families here because of what this school brings to and what this community brings to the table. So thank you to all of you for making that community happen. Um so as
041we go through we have Frank Belly who's the co-president who'll be taking over next year for us. Um Mara Torabi and Jan Judge and Frank Scalera. several other members couldn't join us tonight because of sports and all the other things that go along with life these days. Um but um the the last bit about what we're really proud of and what we were excited about is we're no longer just a football booster club. We we are a sports club that is inclusive of all the sports. We want to be able to deliver a message of support for every team and allow that team to have opportunities to buy specific and do specific sports uh activities and uh things that they need to enhance their program. But more importantly, we're proud of what we call our
042our uh you know, kind of our event of events, which is our senior dinner where we offer large amounts of scholarships. I can't remember the actual amounts. If Missy was here, she would tell me exactly, but it's a a decent amount of scholarships to our athletes, and it's a great event for the the parents to come and celebrate every athlete that participates. I believe Rob said once it what is it 78% of our students participate in an athletic event seven which is probably higher than many many other organiz uh other school districts and that has a lot to do with the the community and and and the events and we really appreciate that. Um couple of other events you see the beautifification of the the the signage that's up the tennis courts to the flags
043to uh more that's coming. So we continue the branding efforts so that we can make this campus feel more and more like a college campus around not just athletics but all of the uh the branding associated to our uh our um campus. Um, and then the last thing I wanted to mention is as we go forward, I think we've just we've just passed the uh expense to uh get a real Husker or porn husker mascot. So, we'll be delivering a real porn husker mascot that we hopefully will see not only at sporting events, but we'll see them at other events, including maybe even here one, right? But that's to me something get going forward and bringing it towards um what we need what we want to do as far as bringing the campus to a
044higher level and enhancing everybody's experience and making it fun. Other than that, thank you all. Thank you Dr. [Applause] I like the I like the so we have two more extraordinary groups school partners that we're going to honor this evening. And I'd like to begin by honoring the Alliance Crusade Kids. Liz Talbert with ASK has been such a tremendous partner in this work. There's a little bit [Applause] like Hi everyone. Um, the mission of the Alliance for Safe Kids, also known as ASK, is to connect the community to resources that support youth mental health, substance misuse prevention, treatment, and recovery, and opportunities for thoughtful service. And this is achieved in a variety of ways, and most recently with our virtual Save a Life Wellness Fair, which we're very excited about. This free tool allows the
045community to connect to vital resources by either visiting the website or downloading the app on their phone. So, I would encourage all of you, please visit the ask website, receive some more information about it, and download that app on your phone because you never know when you, a friend, a family member, a neighbor may need to be connected to important resources. So, ASP relies heavily on our partnerships with all sectors of the community to strengthen the safety net that protects our youth and families. One of the longest and strongest partnerships is with the Yorktown Central School District, and I'm so appreciative of that. I'm grateful to be invited into the schools to share information with students and families to be included in the district PTSA as a community organization to assist with facilitating presentations, collaborating
046with your student assistant services counselor, and working with some amazing students from MESMS YHS as the adult adviser to the Yorktown Youth Council. And I'm looking at one of our founding members right in front of me, Dominic Fidelli, who is amazing with youth council. So, I'd like to thank you very much for this recognition and for recognizing all of the volunteers in the room tonight. Thank you. [Applause] [Music] And last but not least, it's the group that keeps us fed throughout the course of the day, which I would argue is one of the most important tasks around the district. They prepare thousands of meals each day. And truth of the matter is when the Aaron Mark contract came to a close last year, I think a lot of us were a little nervous. I was
047too. But in reality, what kept me grounded is that it's not about, and I said this to food service director Jerry Mishelli. I said, Jerry, I don't care what shirt you're wearing as long as it's you wearing the shirt because it's about people, not programs. It's about people and not necessarily what organization you're working for. And we have a great food service director. Jerry is one of the best people, not just professionals, but best people that I've worked with. The relationship that we have is incredible. She's always so supportive. I quite often do superintendent for a day or activities where students come to visit my office and inevitably the conversation when I ask them if they were superintendent for the day, what would they change? Inevitably for a second grader or a first grade student,
048it has something to do with a menu item. And I say, you know what, come over to my desk, sit in my chair, and we're going to call this extension. And so we call over to Jerry. Jerry is always so wonderful on the other end greeting the student as Mr. Superintendent or Miss Superintendent and is always receptive with a can do attitude and it's it's so much more than keeping the students nourished. Their voices are heard when we interact with Jerry. They feel valued, seen, appreciated, and that their perspective, regardless of their age, matters. That's Jerry. And Jerry, I'd like to invite you [Applause] should all be up there. Too many of you [Applause] Thank you, Dr. Hatter. We are so proud to be partnered with such a wonderful school district. My 22 years here
049speaks volumes. It has truly been an honor to be part of a district that values excellence, dedication, and teamwork. We are incredibly fortunate to have such an amazing staff and to work alongside the finest administrators and board members. Dr. Hatter, we are especially grateful for your exceptional leadership and unwavering support for our food service program. Your commitment makes a lasting difference and we deeply appreciate all that you do. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. [Music] I don't think I forgot anyone. I hope I did not. Um, what a special night. Before I turn it over to members of the board to make any comments that they would like to make. I just want to acknowledge some people who are here. I see Trish Harris in the back. Trish
050does such a great job of interfacing with all of the PTAs and the groups for facility requests. So Trish, I just want to take a moment to acknowledge you. Our building administrators are here. There are just way too many administrators here to mention by name, but I see so many of you here, whether you're a district administrator from central office or a school building administrator. Thank you for everything that you do in partnership because I think it was Maria who mentioned that that it's kind of a two-way street here. It was a two-way relationship and I heard it more than once. But thank you for everything that you're doing from the building and district level administrative standpoint. It's a great great group. Everyone here, you're just so terrific and valued and appreciated. And I hope
051you feel terrific, valued, and appreciated because we all value and appreciate you. From my colleagues in the buildings to my colleagues in central office to members of the board, thank you so much for everything that you do for our district. And it's important to to our board to set aside one of their meetings during one of the busiest times of the year to pause and say thank you to you for giving your time throughout the course of the year. And to our board, I thank you for your dedication to the children of Yorktown. And and at this point, I'll turn it over to you if you want to make some final comments. Well, I think a lot has been said, but I'm going to head on down to Mike to see if there's anything you'd
052like to add. Thanks, J. No problem. Thank you everyone for coming out tonight and all that you do all uh during the course of the year. Uh as Ron stated, um every every organization contributes so much so many different ways and it's an enormous amount of time and energy expended on behalf of our children which is what we're all looking for. So, thank you all for that. Sure. Um I I think I speak on behalf of probably all the board. We've all done what all of you do. So, I think we have the greatest appreciation for all the time and efforts you put in. Lisa roll and I started when our kids when our oldest children were five years old and we've been together ever since. in every PTA from starting at Mohanse to the
053high school. Um, so we really know what time and commitment you put forward as well as the time that your family has to put either without you or with you when you're here, you know, bringing in boxes or helping at different nights. The only other thing I would add is it's nice to hear that some of the programs that we were a part of when we were working working at and um are still around. It's also equally as nice to hear that you brought new programs. That's very refreshing and really re relevant to what's you know what's interesting today for all of our students. So, and that's the harder part is actually building a new program. So, we appreciate you. Um, we know how much time you put in and we really we couldn't do
054what we do and have such a phenomenal district without what all of you do. So, thank you very much. Well, thank you and congratulations to all of you. Um, I have the honor and the privilege of working with so many of you and it's it's been a pleasure. Um I was uh very happy to see the gamut of programs, all the fun things, the trunk and tree and the elementary school buildings and of course all the college counseling um uh sessions that you brought at the high school. So thank you for supporting our children and u thank you for everything you do. So I'll just echo everything that that's been said. I mean, uh, when Fright Night was brought up, I almost had flashbacks as well as fond memories because Fright Night is quite an
055ordeal to get through, but thank you for keeping that alive because it was one of my favorite events as well as my kids. Um, you know, Dr. Hatter did say that I I do mention when we do our gifts, friends, and donations that every time the PTA comes through, every time there's something from the PTA, and that's a tribute to all of you. So, thank you so much for everything you do for us. Peace. Thank you all of you for all the time and effort you put in. And I know there's a lot of tenure like summer, first year, second year, 15 years. The ones that are early on in their volunteerism don't realize that it is an 18-year commitment and um and beyond. So um so again, thank you. the impact you have. Give
056yourselves a pat on the back because it's really, really important and it makes us the district that we really are because of you guys. So, thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you all. Um, and like Pete said, it is an 18-year commitment. I look at somebody like Ron Fidelli who has been here in every capacity, sometimes in two or three capacities in a year because he would never let the district down. So, and there's many of you like, he's just the one I'm picking out because I can see him, but there's a lot of you. Jessica's does the same thing. And it's just we're just so appreciative that you have never let a building down, any of you PTA members. So we're we're grateful to all of you. We're grateful to the Huskers, to all
057the other organizations. Liz, your organization is great. Um, so we just thank everybody for all of their hard work. We appreciate it. Thank you all. So if it's okay, we'll take a brief 5m minute recess. We're going to give you the opportunity to exit if you choose. We've got our construction manager here. We're going to talk about energy performance. I'm going to be giving a year-end update, but if you'd like to leave now, you certainly may. We'll take a brief 5minute recess. Have a good evening. Thank you. What are we up to? Public comment number one. Yep. All right. Can anybody sign up for public comment? No. So, we're going to move on to your reports, R. Okay. So, we're going to begin the superintendent's report with a presentation on energy efficiency and sustainability. And
058to deliver that presentation, we've invited Paul Tazzy of ARIS Construction. and Aris serves as the district's construction manager, long-standing construction manager. And we asked Paul to put together a presentation to just help us continue the conversation and advance the conversation that we've been having with regard to energy efficiency, cost-saving measures, sustainability as a whole. And so at this point and and specifically we talk about energy performance contracts. Is that really uh a viable pathway forward for our school district or not? So we've invited Paul here. Paul can provide some information and certainly give the board the opportunity to ask any questions that they have or that we have. Paul, I'll turn it over to you. There is a slide advancer on the podium or if you say next slide, I bet's happy to advance the
059slide for you as well. Okay. Thank you. Um I appreciate u being here to talk to you about this. This is set up as a discussion, not necessarily I'm not set up to um promote anything individually. It's just a discussion about energy performance contracts, what they are and al um how to basically get into them and the alternatives. I'm your construction manager, so I handle um right now we're working on the bond project that passed. So, we're uh engaged in that. Like Dr. I had her said we've been discussing we've been having facilities meetings uh bi-weekly um since the be since the the bond passed and at most of the facilities meeting a discussion arises um in facil uh in uh energy performance contracts benefits pluses minuses that the whole thing. So really what we
060want to do is just move it forward from there so that we can get a direction on um which avenue uh you feel most comfortable with. So in that we are going to uh the agenda basically that I put together is um uh energy performance contracts what why and how district objectives and potential u energy conservation methods renewable energy systems uh energy performance contracts downsides district options and alternatives and then next steps with a discussion. So the first uh item that for those that aren't sure what an energy performance contract is. So this is a um paragraph directly out of the energy uh New York state energy or in article 9. So an energy performance contract is an agreement between a school district and an energy service company or ESCO for the provision of energy
061services in which energy systems are installed. uh maintain and manage to improve the energy efficient of or produce energy for a facility in exchange for a portion of the energy savings or res revenues. So really we're looking at putting together um how do we save energy in the school and make that self-funding is the intent of the energy to performance contracts. So on why you should consider or why opt to consider an EPC energy performance contract the you're looking to assist the district in becoming as energy efficient as possible through the installation of energy conservation methods and upgrades reduces the burden on taxpayers allows the districts to save money annually and are self-funded. The project's scope must be funded out of the energy se savings that the upgrades will yield over time. It improves the
062school and classroom instructional environment. Um, a large part of that is ventilation and lighting, and it does not require voter approval, but uh, districts will qualify for an additional 10% building aid, uh, if it's part of a referendum and EPC's are not subject to competitive bidding. So, in there, a lot of districts get involved in uh, energy performance contracts because it doesn't need voter approval. So they can put a program together uh they discuss it in a public session such as this but the board actually is the only one that vote on it. Uh in our discussions at the facilities meeting uh the um if we go if you decide to go with an energy performance contract the 10% uh building a u is the incentive that they was um chosen that they'd like to
063go for. Um, so how does an energy how does an energy performance contract work? It starts out with the district's required to obtain a comprehensive energy energy audit to identify the improvements that will save energy at the district's facilities. So, it's a team that goes through and goes in and out of every room and every system that you have discussing with your maintenance department, your facilities uh director uh to understand the entire building and what systems are aging that could be replaced or upgraded and go through and do a visual of all the lighting in the district to basically understand what lighting can be upgraded today to save you money. So with using the results of the energy order, the district determines which improvements to incorporate. So really you see a long laundry list of
064items that can be incorporated. Um and that's when everybody needs to sit around and say, "Okay, let's pick these and not those." Some have a longer payback, others are paid within a shorter period of time. So that this and then moving forward on after you've chosen what you're trying to go after. The district either selects an ESCO. An ESCO is an energy service company. Um you can either pick your own or you can put out an RFP, a request for proposal for multiple ESCOs to respond to the E APC. So they will give their interpretation of what they want to see or we direct them to basically uh give us pricing on a specific scope. Um the ESCO responds to the RFP with an energy consumption savings or the cost savings over the life of
065the APC. The ESCO may guarantee that the improvements will generate cost-saving sufficient to pay for the project over the term of the EPC which is a maximum of 18 years. However, it's the savings are not required for a successful project. So, you have to have the savings pay for the um the uh ECMS the methods, but you can add uh items into it. So it's not um a um it's not based on just savings. So what are the objectives of an EPC? And the objectives really are to replace or upgrade aging systems. The example is lighting systems. Now LED lighting is is used throughout and it's also in the building codes. So, uh, any new portion of the buildings that we're working on, LED lighting will be incorporated. Uh, control systems which help, uh, manage
066your heating and air conditioning system. You have them, but sometimes it's it's we need to look at them to see if they need an upgrade to it. Ventilation equipment. Um it's very important to make sure that all your ventilation equipment is operating to um and replace uh equipment that is uh starting to age out and to look at electric we look into electric motors to make sure that they are um energy efficient motors. So the um another objective would be to improve the occupancy the occupant comfort and learning environment. uh studies have shown that when you uh add air circulation better air circulation air changes into a building and increase the lighting uh if there's a benefit to the students. So and then another objective would be to increase sustainability and reduce the carbon the
067district's carbon footprint. That's a goal generally for all districts and and everybody I mean that's a pretty important goal to basically look at at the same time. um lower operating cost by imple implementation of energy conservation uh methods. That's a great one. You know, anytime you want work that into your house and and um and you start realizing these savings um you know, it uh becomes beneficial. So then you look at okay what systems what uh energy man uh any energy conservation methods um should you be looking into. So, some of the ones here, and there's a large list that the state recognizes, but some of the ones that I've just uh pulled out was to replace the interior and exterior lighting uh to LED. Um, install automatic lighting controls, replace aging HVAC equipment with
068more efficient equipment, upgrade HVAC building management systems, um, building envelope improvements to reduce air infiltration, replace aging roofs, uh, install renewable energy systems, uh, solar arrays, uh, replace domestic water heaters to more efficient ones, and install pipe and tank insulation we're missing. There's a number of methods that can be gone through. These are the ones that we see um through most of the districts that we work in that um are the main uh methods that we that are addressed. So in there I I also talked about in one of the ones is renewable energy systems and you knew there's a lot of discussion on the cost and the benefit of renewable energy systems. uh the solar BB raised um to atomize the cost savings on this and everything has to break down into a um
06915-year payback over an 18-year term. So, what has to happen is to understand the cost of solar systems um in installing panels in your district, we have to review the panel mounting locations. Are you looking at mounting panels on a roof? Doing uh mounting panels on the roof, roof mounted, a parking lot canopy or ground mounted system. The roof mounted system, everybody's seen those. It's the panels on top of your roof. uh a canopy. Uh they're doing a lot of these now, building canopies over top of the parking lots. And a ground mounted system, if you have a lot of property, which you don't really uh for panels, um will you put a stench in there and put panels on that. So for the roof mounted system you we need to do a complete structural
070analysis of the existing uh roof systems and review the remaining useful life and warranty balance of the existing roof systems. Here's the problem with that. Um everybody has to to analyze at the same time. You look at the roofs and say that's a great place to put a lot of panels on. But in this district I haven't analyzed every building but I know we put a lot of these roofs on for the last 15 years. So in the last 10 to 15 years that you've been doing roofing, do you want to put a 20 year product on top of a roof that you're going to replace in 10 years? So that's what we have to consider is the useful life expectancy of the roofing you have to understand whether or not panels will work on
071that building without having to take them off when you're going to replace the roof. You'd like the panel system and your roofings to age out at the same time. So looking at that, one of the the buildings that you really do need a roof on would be French Hill. So that would my recommendation would if you want to go down that road, that would be one of the first buildings that I would look at. For ground mounted cat or canopy systems, uh you need a a a geotechnical survey with borings uh structural engineer to develop the stansions and the uh supports u the canopy system or the ground mounted system and design that. Uh and the reason why I bring all this up, every one of these items has a cost to it and we've
072got to factor in all the costs associated with building these systems. um so that we can understand the savings that are going to be built in based on what type of system. Obviously the uh roof mounted systems are the most economical. The canopy systems are the most expensive. Um and then we have to perform ground penetrating radar to understand what's under the ground on the pathways that would be uh the subgrade pathways for wire. So what we would do after we did put all this information together um or whoever does it everybody has to go through the same procedures uh provides an estimated cost of the installed systems and the useful life of the the PV um you know systems and the panel systems. So you want to b like I said before you want
073to balance the life of the system with the life of the roof or the area you're going to be putting it in. We um so we analyze the cost associated with the uh with the anticipated degragation of the lifetime of the panel efficiency and factor that into the overall cost. The panels right now are basically a 20-year product and the degrade over time. So that that there is a factor that you would build into the cost and understand your energy savings over the course of time is going to lessen every year as you get closer to the end of its life. So we would uh basically factor that in at the same time and then we have to identify wheertative rebates are available. Now one of the things I you know on my certain rebates
074and we go over that one of the things that I've looked into um that I was talking to Dr. matter about is that um we've worked with other districts on the clean clean green school initiative um and helped get them a considerable amount of money but uh we can't do it here. We're not Yorktown is not an eligible district in the state to take advantage of those programs. So we had to uh abandon that and start looking at other ways to make this to make a project work for you. So one of the things and and if you know this is not a sales pitch. I'm not basically pushing EP uh EPCs. What I'm doing is trying to give you information based on EPCs and what other alternatives are there so you can make an
075informed decision on what pathway you want to go in. So I I in doing that I have to run some downsides of the energy performance contracts. So um so in doing that um energy performance contracts generally have a higher cost uh of energy conservation methods installed. Um the reason for that is the ESCOS which are doing the majority work both uh in um the calculations and in installations um work on a um sizable markup generally a little higher than what's in the the uh standard bidding industry. U there are complex contracts CPCs can be complicated to negotiate and understand. uh they become require special uh knowledge to ensure favorable terms and and avoid unfavorable commitments. So um your attorneys are uh well skilled in that and that basically goes back and forth with the attorneys
076on making sure that your interests are protected. uh performance risk risks. If the energy savings proposed do not materialize as expected, the school district might not realize the anticipated financial benefits from the guaranteed savings offered. Now, every esco that you go to basically says, "We're going to guarantee the savings and they do and they have a measurement and verification process that they go to to guarantee that savings and show that you're getting it." But in in all the years that we've been doing or been associated with energy um performance contracts, I've never once seen uh a district be able to take advantage of the u s not the savings, they take advantage of the savings, but if it doesn't um generate the savings, I've never seen anybody be able to collect on it. So it's
077it's there uh but it's there as a uh to basically entice you. Um it's very difficult after you start a performance contract and after you build it to get down to exactly uh what the savings is because every day you have an additional load going into the systems. You plug in more computers, you um you know more electric items are introduced. So the more electric you introduce the less uh efficient the building becomes and you start using the energy. If you didn't put the energy performance contract together or energy methods uh your bill would just increase and might stay the same this way. You also have limited control. The district may have limited oversight over certain aspects of the energy systems or ECMS once contracted which can lead to concerns about quality and responsiveness. When
078you're when you're going with an energy performance contract, you're really not picking the light fixture or the motor or the system that you want. The ESCO is picking that based on where their best price is. So you what you're doing is yes, you will get LED lighting. And one of the uh things I've indicated is design limitations. Uh most energy service companies, escos look to perform lighting retrofits in lie of new replacement fixers. Um two things. One is uh lighting retrofits uh are not aidable. So you don't collect your state aid on those. What a lighting retrofit is in especially in your district. We have um new lighting that is in there between 15 and 20 years ago. So that's when we put the lighting. They're fluorescent lighting threeb systems. We the retrofits, they remove
079the lamps, they remove the ballast, and they install uh LED bulbs, lamps, replacement lamps. They're not as efficient, and that's why the SED will not aid them. They're not as efficient, and they won't last the uh timeline. Generally run about 5 years in those uh lamps and then you're replacing them again. So, what what do you do? There's good things about an EPC and there's bad things about an EPC. Um, so basically if you the energy performance contracts can be a great way to uh introduce more energy savings into the districts, but you could do the same thing without having to go down the road of an energy performance contract. similar to like right now we're we're doing the bond work and every building that we're going to be in, every addition we build or
080every renovation we put in will have everything that you would normally build into an energy performance contract built into the work already. So you could do the same thing on your own. Uh by on your own meaning putting together a package to uh basically uh create the savings and do the con you know the calculations to see where it falls. So one of the there's really three methods to go. one is the EBC that I talked about, but um you can also save energy money without participating in the formal EBC program by focusing on simple lowcost energy saving methods. Some of these options could be through changing behaviors, culture, um more active management of the buildings and equipment along with strategic planning. So really what you're what you're doing is trying to change the culture
081of the rooms that don't have occupancy sensors, turn off the lights, and I know you do some of that, but it would be just promoting it a little further. Um, and then developing a district-wide energy conservation program that increases sustainability and lowers the district's carbon footprint on an annual basis and funded as a budget line item. These are alternatives to just going into a full energy performance contract. So really what you're doing is you're developing a full energy conservation program with the yearly cost savings data and then u well this is another option and present it to the community as a neutral cost referendum. So you can either go through an EPC, which is an energy performance contract, build the same work into a project and then put it out for a public referendum or
082do it as you want to build it and you know a program over the course of time and build it into a u a yearly uh program. So you decide I want to spend x number of dollars on energy on energy conservation methods and build it like that. So really what it is, there's multiple ways to go about this and I wanted to offer you a couple of alternatives so that you have things to look at. So that was a real quick presentation and run of EPCs. So now I'd really like to open it up to discussion. Well, can I ask a just a question? If if we went to that alternative approach, which is to save money and energy without participating in a formal energy performance contract, the f the first step to that
083process, would there be maybe having someone come in to audit energy to look at, okay, well, these rooms, you'd be able to save money and be more efficient with LED lights or or would there what would the next step be? actually no matter which program you pick, it starts out with the same process and that you have to do an energy audit throughout the district to identify what um systems will save you energy and be able to fund it. Uh the ESCOS want to do the same thing. They have to do the same thing. See, with an ESCO, there's a couple of different ways of working with anesco. One of the ways is there are companies out there and we've discussed a couple of different ones that will set up the process for you. Um,
084and their fees aren't paid uh you don't have to pay them directly for the fees. What happens it's built into the overall cost. So their fees are built into the cost and they still have to turn the project around for cost savings and then they will basically put it out to multiple escos for pricing and for uh their information. But they the escos will help produce the um uh most of the energy in the building. But yes, no matter which way you go, you have to identify where you're going to be saving um what what methods are going to save. Thank you, Paul. I'm going to open it up to ask see if Pete has any questions. So, um I don't forget how I want to frame this because we've done it with our company
085where we've had a company come in and um basically replace all the lighting, right? and for um for a portion of our our utility savings. Sure. And so far it's actually worked out, but we have guaranteed contracts that say they're going to X, Y, and Z. It's and didn't cost us anything out of pocket in order to do so. They replaced all the lighting. They they throughout our whole facility. So with these contracts, can we get guarantees on uh savings that would translate into no money out of pocket and a cost savings over it seems like a 15-year payback is uh actually ours is over 10. So um 15 years seems like a really long time. Well, the 15 years is based on state ed. That's what they'll fun project for. grade A is based
086on 15 years, but our um when you say that there's no out of pocket cost, you're correct. What happens is they're replacing the lighting and you're getting paying the for that service through the energy savings. That's what pays for that. Now, remember that you're paying them also a 25 to 30% markup on top of everything. So you can do that on your own and not pay that 30% or you can move forward with the uh an esco you know not an esco an EPC is a good way to go for simplicity and generally if a district has uh no other option on which way to go and they don't want to go out for another proposition you'll find that most districts just put it out and they don't go after the 10% and that was
087also discussed in the facilities I mean, and um you know, Lisa did bring up that um you know, it wouldn't be wise to give up the additional aid, but but there's also the outlay of money also to if you're going to do it on your own. Sure. You know, and that's why I started out with you. You have to pick the lowhanging fruit, which is the lighting. The lighting gives you the biggest payback. So you would pick lighting and you would basically um through the calculations of how much the savings would be you could start basically planning your system year by year on how much you're going to do to basically make it self-sustaining. Okay. Thank you Lisa. Okay. You said it was um short. Um you made it seem like it was simple. It's
088a lot. Um, but do any of our neighboring districts have any of these kinds of contracts? Sure. Almost all of them. Um, so we're behind eight walls. Really? Well, not behind the eightball. It's it's, you know, some of the things a lot of districts are putting somewhere. We've worked on a lot of that are putting roof panels on because that's the best way to approach it. But they're also uh just replacing their roofs. So when you're putting roof models on top of a brand new roof, um you you get the advantage of again timing the two systems so that they age out about the same time. We're doing that in uh Tartown right now. and the ESCO that's working on that. We were able to negotiate a um one part of the building a roof
089replacement um built into the project to put the P. So the panels have a a roof new roof to go on top of but then what happens is what you're doing is you're not generating the same savings because you got to pay for the roof now. So what happens is it's a way to get that work done. The uh savings from the energy uh the energy you will save or generate from the panels will help pay for those panels and the roof over a 15 year life expect you know 15 year time period. What happens to the panels at the end of the life expect? You take them off and you replace them. But where do they go? They're I don't know. Yeah. I I plastic, right? They go to a landfill. I I really
090don't know. I don't know. Is that energy sufficient? Thank you. Where's me? Uh so I know you mentioned uh your work in Terry Town. Are there other uh districts nearby or municipalities where you worked with uh you know some more uh you know bigger initiatives uh maybe a you know round canopy or something else? Um Austinine put in a a canopy at Brookside School. Um we're we um as construction managers what we generally do is oversee what they're doing to make sure that there's no overlap with the projects that we're working on because we got to balance that at the same time. But um you know what I'll do is work with the districts on um helping them plan for the canopies and those type of items. But uh yes, Dave, I don't stay with
091the EPC through the whole thing generally. Generally after it gets started, we'll back out of that because that wouldn't be part of our uh service uh that we do. But yes, um OE has done a canopy. Uh there are two canopies proposed in Terry Town right now. Um most of the other districts that we've worked in uh have put roof panels on. So the roof systems are the most the most popular. Hudson, which we worked in a few years ago, did a almost a solar farm on a but they have quite a bit of land on the rear of the school that they use for solar farm. So we've been involved in other systems that are there. So there are some hosting is one of the ones that I would lead you to that has
092uh they do energy performance contracts on a regular basis. Sure. Um yeah, I have a question about um our utility companies. Years ago, um I performed some of these energy audits for a local utility company. Um it was complimentary for our commercial client base. I was just wondering, have we contacted our utilities and do they provide any level of support that would possibly be, you know, complimentary for us and help us out in that way? I haven't at this time, but I can. Yes. I don't I don't know if they are providing any support. Usually I go to nice nice serum to see what the state is offering for that. Again under the that's why I went to the green uh the clean green program because they have a program on their track one program.
093It'll pay for the uh audits and all the engineering upfront course. Thank you Mike. I don't really have any questions chat involved in this discussion ongoing as part of the facilities committee. Um I think when we get to the next steps I'm happy to answer more but I don't questions. All right. Um so I I I do have a few because you know I always do. um in solar in the area in the districts that you've helped install solar. Has there ever been a cost savings to the district having the solar panels in place? I mean, people keep telling us that, you know, you're going to be rolling back the meters. Is that a reality? Um what you're actually doing with the solar panels for the first 15 years is the um savings that you're
094generating is going to pay for the panels. So the the u savings you get remember that with an EPC is not um you're taking out a loan. You're you're basically financing the full balance of that and paying for it through the energy savings. That's how it it that that process works. So to pay off that loan, your energy savings is paying that loan. So in effect it'll take you about 15 um 15 years a little more if it's a a canopy system to pay that panel system and at the same time then that canopy system you said is is 15 year lifespan. So now you got to start all over again. Well the panel is not the canopy. So if you do you know the canopy is a um it it looks like a steel
095structure. It it is a steel structure. So that that would you know you get a 60-year uh canopy structure of which you put panels on on top and the panels are every 15 years generally they're about 20 years is what is expected. The technology for panels is getting better every year and with better technology they'll increase the life expectancy of the panels. Okay. And then we've done under your guidance, we've done a tremendous amount of work in this district, including, you know, installing a lot of LEDs in different areas and stuff like that. So, if someone comes in looking to do an EPC, they're only looking at a district, I would assume, where they can actually make money because it's for them to make money. So, how much does the amount of work we've already
096done in our district help or hurt us? Well, I it it actually helps you a lot because every lamp that you change to LED saves you money. So, but it it it u does it hurt you for getting uh escos to be interested. Um it's hard to say because it really depends on ex you know without going through again the 15 and 20 year old lighting that's in this district uh is a u method that they would look at. Again, lighting is the lowhanging fruit, let's say. That's where you get your best savings and your quickest payback. Lighting paybacks generally occur in about five years. So, that's where you're, you know, that that's where I say that if you're going to do it outside of a ESCO, you would build it around lighting and start
097changing lighting and lighting controls, right? Because you'd be paying an ESCO for 15 years, but you would have gotten all your savings in the first five. Yeah. the the idea behind uh the ESCOS and the and the programs that's up that are developed are not necessarily uh looking at lighting exclusively. You you might want lighting but you need to replace a number of unit ventilators. So in replacing the unit ventilators you can sort of build that into the project even though a new unit ventilator is not going to save you any any uh energy. There's no savings associated with that. Uh same thing with the roofing. The savings is minimal. If you try to uh uh complete a roof with the savings, it would take you somewhere around 30 years, probably 30 to 40 years
098uh on that. So what you do is you a lot of districts pull together other items that they need to replace and try to build it into the savings and when you spread it over a 15-year period, yes, it becomes uh you know affordable. So, one last question and then we'll go to next steps. So, if our roofs are between 10 and 15 years old and they have a 20-y year life expectancy and we decide we're going to replace them so that we can put solar on, how does SED look at that for um aidability? Um they will aid anything over, you know, uh over 15 years. anything under 15 years, uh, you'll have a penalty for it. So, any product over, you know, so if it's only a 10-year roof, uh, they will, um,
099delete, you know, they will, um, only aid it for twothirds of the the value. So, that's that's a consideration as well, then. It is. That's correct. Okay. All right. I I think you know what one of the important parts is is that you know we're we're a lot of discussions are going around which way you should go and no matter which way we go you still need an energy audit to start the process. So understanding where your energy savings is going to be in your district goes a long way to help you decide which program you want to work with. So that is really the next step that I believe that would be the best next step. Of course. Um so um so walk me through how are we going to align the uh the
100offset in the lifespans between the roof and the solar panels on it? How how like how are we going to catch up? Well the example I use is French Hill. French Hill needs a roof right now. So, uh, when you put French Hill on, then I would look at, if you're interested in roof mounted solar systems, I would look at putting a solar system on French Hill at that time. That would be the best. Then you have a 25-y year roof uh, and a system that's going to go 20 years and hopefully the, you know, the panel uh, technology will help increase that. I got it. So, so I think what you're saying is wait, wait for the next roof that needs replacement and then No, I'm not a proponent of anything. I'm informational. So,
101so I won't tell you anything. A lot of the companies and and we, you know, and one of the projects we're working on, which happens to be ter and we were working on that one, and the uh ESCO that's doing that one uh basically came back and said, "Look, no problem. We'll take the panels off the roof and put them back on when you redo the roof." Right. And I said, "No, no, no. Once the panels go on the roof, they're staying there for the life of the panel. Um, yeah, they might do that. They're not doing that for free. They're going to build that into the cost of the panel. So, you'll receive less. So, you know, it it's really you start analyzing each building individually in each area to see what is in
102your what's the advantage for um to put panels on. Can I ask one last question? I want to go to the next step cuz I in all of the districts that you've worked in that have done these energy performance contracts or escos, has anybody ever received the savings that they said they were going to receive? I I can't actually answer that because uh it would take the escos are required to give you a maintenance and verification report every year. So they're basically indicating whether or not all the systems that they install are generating the savings that are um that they have predicted. Um but unless you have an internal energy management person to uh verify that their maintenance verification report is actually correct, how do you know if they actually did that? Okay, let's go
103on to next steps then. So you're you're saying our next step should be to have an energy audit performed. Yes, I think I think the next steps would be an energy audit. You go, you know, again, go through all the buildings to make sure uh you understand the life of um the systems. And uh you know Dennis is going to be a a real valuable asset because he's been here a long time and understands where the systems are and what is necessary. So you do a full energy audit of the building. Um and then you develop that list and then you sit down and say okay where are the savings? Because once you generate these savings if I take a and I'll give you an example. If I take a 15 year old light fixture,
104I understand what the energy usage of that light fixture is going to be on kilowatt hours. So then I understand the same thing uh for an LED fixture. So then it's just an equation to get to what is the savings turn that into dollars and you know then you start looking at it and saying okay this is going to generate x number of dollars uh and start planning the dollar system around that. But you're saying it's deeper than that because we're looking at univventilators and everything. Well, unventilators are not something that you're going to again uh like a unit ventilator. You're doing that so you you can either lighten up your maintenance budget or get a lot of work done that is going to be difficult to pay for any other way. But again, you're
105buying a unit ventilator or installing that at a $15 to $20,000 cost. That cost is directly uh onto the cost of the project without a savings associated with it. Got so if you're true energy savings, you go just for the items that are energy s that are going to save energy. A lot of districts and most districts uh combine both. Mike, I'm going to go back down to you for next steps. Well, I I mean certainly the key next step is an energy audit. Um that'll give us the overview of the projects that we should be considering and then we can figure out how we want to approach funding them whether it's through a performance contract or with a you know some sort of in-house uh setup. On top of that though, I I would
106ask uh Paul if if we know that we have to replace the roof at French Hill already, irrespective of an energy audit, c should we not investigate solar as a means of funding the the roof replacement at French Hill? And can we, you know, do those two things simultaneously and not wait for the energy audit to be done? We already know that needs that work needs to be done. So is that is that a possibility? Something we can look at? It is. Um and we could look at that. Um on on French Hill, the only downside of French Hill, even though that one I was mentioning because of the life expectancy of the roof, is that your aid is based on uh really your occupant mode of children using it as a school. So they're
107not going to provide you aid for a building that you're not using as a school. Well, that's not going to change anytime soon. So, right. But, but so without that, we have a pre-k program in there. That helps. That would help. Yes. But yes, we it would be something that would be advisable to look into and see before that roof is replaced. Yes. What uh what would it cost to put panels on there and will the panels on there help u subsidize the cost of their roof? All right. Thank you. Anybody else? So, I guess it's steering tomorrow. will talk about how to engage an energy energy auditor. Yes. And and I guess can you also give us information about how we would go about looking about a solar company that would help us replace
108the roof at French Hill? Um the um yeah, there are two different companies that do that work. Obviously, one of them will do the roofing, the other one does the solar. And all the same solar companies that are out there providing panels um in the commercial market are the same ones that are working for school districts. The the companies and the same thing with the uh roofing um the companies that put together these programs for you do exactly what I'm talking about is they go out and bid that this work out to a number of subcontractors and then they build the job. So the the escos really aren't performing any work. They're really just managing the work. So but then if they're managing the work, then you don't manage the work. I don't need to
109manage work. No, you don't. You know, basically that's your choice. I'm not I usually on um escos and going into energy performance contracts. Yeah, I help set it up, but that's it. I I and I do that as uh just because I work for the districts. But but then that means the district loses some of the controls that we've built in all of these years with having a specific construction management because now you have one you don't necessarily choose. Um that would be correct. Okay. Anybody else? Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Save your phone. Thanks. Can I ask you is that from the Google slides please? Okay. So our next and final presentation of the evening is a 2024-25 year in review presentation. It really just is a recap and a summary of some of
110the things that took place, how we made progress on our goals, our area of focus and and just some updates that I thought it important for the board and for the community to be aware of. I always begin with our district's vision statement and and we continue to keep an eye forward with with these four bullets. Certainly, I won't read them to you. You've seen them over and over again, but that certainly leads a way for us. With regard to enrollment, we're at 3,455 students as a bed stay this school year, which is in October of of 2024. So October of each school year has the bed state enrollment data. These are the enrollments in our schools. Slightly up from what we forecast for this school year, up by almost 30 students from what we
111forecast. On the next slide, we have the enrollment by grade level. We have 120 students enrolled in our preK program and that is not included in the previous slide. In the previous slide, that's our K12 enrollment, not our preK12 enrollment. So, preK12 enrollment is highlighted here. Next year, our prek enrollment looks to be closer to 150, 160 and and growing each day. Here's a look at the 202425 board areas of focus. And what I did was I want I looked back at last year's presentation. In July, we made a presentation on the areas of focus. And I looked back at some of the things that we discussed at that meeting. So this slide on the screen for obviously our board members of our community to see spells out seven different areas we were going to
112specifically address in pursuit of those areas of focus. I wanted to give you an update now almost one calendar year later on on some promises that we made 10 months ago. Where are we? How did we do with regard to our goal? So for the first bullet to assess if courses are aligned to student interests, there was so much work that was done. There were surveys that were conducted not just of students but of staff as well to determine internal capacity, surveys of students certainly at the middle school level. Um I believe there are surveys at the high school upcoming and from this our middle school students and through the superintendent student council have identified two courses that interest them with with regard to electives personal finance and sports analytics which are two really exciting
113concepts for our middle school students. So, we're looking to not begin those on the 2526 school year, but rather use that as a planning year and implement in the following. The superintendent student council was such an overwhelming success. That was a vision that we had 10 months ago. It's come to fruition and it has been so incredibly successful. Our middle school students worked on two big projects this year, bouncing temperatures across classrooms and adding elective courses, while our high schoolers worked on limiting the number of tests that they can have on any one given day during certain points of the year and paving the commuter lot, which has been something that I've worked on for many years, but it took the work of the high school superintendent student council to actually achieve that. a repository
114of lessons for E steam that has been successful thanks to Mr. Miller for compiling working with the teachers and um working with Burns to compile a repository. I included the sample kindergarten repository which board can certainly click on will um have that for each elementary grade and that's exciting to be able to offer. I won't open that repository now just in the interest of time but it it is available for your review. That work has happened. That work continues. It's a living breathing repository. We worked with ask to bring more community wellness presentations. We had five presentations. There are four bullets but that last bullet the gentleman in the last bullet presented twice virtually. So lots of community engagement, lots of great work happening. The third bullet Dr. Dr. Nicholas Remarco was through a collaboration
115with the PPS department and they did such a wonderful job in bringing Dr. Remarco in and ask did a great job with bringing Dr. Dwey in. So so many contributors to this program. The last three are there for uh because they're they're obvious with in many ways the York 10 minute you just need to tune into our social media channels to see the posting. The biggest criticism that I get of the Yorktown Minute is it's generally not a minute. generally two or three or well not four minutes but generally it's longer than a minute but I do want to share and I'll come back to this um the Yorktown Minute is now a nationally recognized program and we were just honored and my thanks to Brian for all of his work. Brian comes in every
116Monday morning with a tripod and his iPhone and he films me in front of my desk. There's not a big production team. It's just Ryan with a camera and a tripod that we use and it's now a nationally recognized um program which we'll talk more about the modified zerobased budget. I didn't include a separate slide. We had presentation after presentation that reflected the modified zerobased budgeting approach which is why I think we were so successful in putting forth a budget that was so fiscally sound and gets us everything that we need. My thanks to Lisa and her team for doing that. so seamlessly. It was a lot of work, but it was done. They made it look easy. And certainly building our work with cultural awareness and equity and things that we've done in terms
117of blackout dates on calendars, looking at our calendars and trying to be strategic so that families don't have to make those hard choices about observing religious holidays and services or attending various school events. So that's just one very demonstrable and tangible outside of some of the trainings that our um administrators received with the American Jewish Committee and and and the like. So it has been just a great year in so many regards and it it's rewarding to see the seven areas that we laid out we actually made some meaningful progress in. I don't enjoy presenting test scores but and the reason I don't enjoy doing that is we focus so much on the whole child and the whole child is so much more than reducing to a number and looking at just one simple quantitative
118metric to determine success. I determine success by so many different pieces. There's always that slide in our budget presentations that talks about the whole child looking at not just the academics but the social emotional work, athletics, the arts and so many other areas that we support. But if we want to do look at the academics, if we want to actually dig into the numbers, the numbers look really good. I included 5 years worth of data. These are percentile ranks. I didn't want to look at pass rates because there are different pass rates that are set different years. Some tests are better than others in any given year. There are rubrics that are changed. There are some optouts that we're contending with. But I looked at a percentile rate that compares us to other school districts
119in the state because all of the other school districts in the state are also dealing with a poorly designed test, a rubric that is difficult to interpret, cut scores that are set at an arbitrary level, opt outs. So in comparison to districts across our state, I'll give you an example. In ELA, prior to CO 2019, we outperformed with regard to proficiency 89.1% of districts in the state. In 2024, we outperformed 95.6% of districts. So I I purposefully included precoid level data so that we can draw comparisons over recent years. And if we there was no data for 2020 because the assessments were suspended that year just as a point of clarification. But if we look at the assessments, if we really drill down to the assessment prior to CO, the assessment immediately following CO and
120the most recent assessment, we'll see that things are trending in the right direction for our school district. So much has been made about the learning gaps and the learning loss that has occurred. I just wanted to share with our community just this one metric with regard to how our school district compares to districts across the state and I think it's a favorable comparison and certainly favorable for oursel. We've increased our percentile rank over year over the years. The same story plays out in mathematics. These are the five most recent assessment data points that we have. We don't have obviously the data points from the 2025 assessments and again trending in the right direction. If we drill down to the precoid immediately following COVID and then most recent assessment results, things are trending in the right
121direction. Again, as we look at regent exam proficiency data, again, a percentile rank. This is probably the most challenging calculation to come up with because the region's exams have undergone changes over the last five years. Different exams have undergone changes, but we've all faced changes as a state. So, it's not unique to Yorktown. So, we use a percentile ranks and again favorable by and large favorable. As I look at AP exam data again the precoid numbers you'll see exams over 600 exams were administered postcoid it's more about 450 most recently 471 exams were administered but when we look at the far right column the percentage of exam scores at a threeear greater we'll see that in 2024 we hit 89% which is higher than any of the years prior on this chart. So again, things
122are trending in the right direction. I don't have a explanation for you as to why the number of exams have gone down in a postcoid environment than pre-COVID. I looked into it, but I I just don't have a explanation that I can stand behind tonight. So I continue to look into that reason. Just three data points that I wish to share with you in AB statistics. the percentage of students scoring a five, which is the highest score that you can get on an AP exam. We were ranked first in New York State on that data point. AP calculus AB again first in Westchester County. BC calculus students scoring a five or better, first in the state on that. Additional recognitions, and I'm not going to read the slide with you. These are just recent recognitions.
123This is not going back to September. uh we'd be here until Tuesday morning talking about recognitions throughout the course of the year. I won't read them, but just some wonderful wonderful things are happening. Many firsts in our district. We had a student who arguably won the best science research prize in the world. Best science at ISA at the International Science and Engineering Fair. We can't remember that ever happening in our school district. Our aeronautics team is going back to defend their national championship. That's exciting. Great things are happening. Two National Merit Scholarship winners. In spring, for the first time in our district's history, we were named the best community for music education. That is so exciting for our school district. We have received recognitions in every genre. National Blue Ribbon, best M high schools, America's
124best high schools, best districts to work. This is so special because it recognizes all of the great work happening in our music education classrooms across the district. In athletics, again, great things are happening. I won't go through all of the records and all of the accolades, but they're listed here, as are the spring athlete uh recognitions and signings. In the fall, we have division one and division two national signing day. But again, I told you these are recent recognitions. So, this is a division three commitment day in the spring. These are the commitments that we have uh at the division three and there's one, I believe, division two commitment here too. So, lots of great things happening. And what I want to acknowledge also uh and finally this is the last slide that I'll share
125are two national honors that we received for school communications and we brought Brian on a couple years back few years back and Brian has done such an extraordinary job in the publication and digital media excellence category. Our Yorktown Minute won a merit award and the newsletter which Brian single-handedly created won an honorable mention award. And that is just a terrific journey for us because we've come a long way in our communications, our presence on social media, our marketing of our school district, and the great things that are happening here. And I I have a tremendous amount of respect and and gratitude for what Brian has done in terms of sharing the good work that's happening. This has been happening all along, but we have not done historically a great job of publicizing it to the
126community and Brian has really taken that work to the next level. So my thanks to Brian. He's I I would thank the team, but Brian is the team. Brian's a oneperson operation. So my thanks to Brian for everything that he's doing in that regard. Uh again, it was just a quick update. I wanted to give you some information. great things happening, but we can always get better and we want to continue to improve there. There's always more work for us to do. And that's a beauty of our field is that as well as our students have performed as as well as our district has performed, there's always so much work ahead of us. And we need to aspire to aim higher and go farther and do more. And we'll continue to do that. And I
127also think it's a good springboard for what areas of focus do we want to look at for the upcoming school year, which I know the board is going to engage in discussions on that. Before we do that, I have some updates, but if there are any questions that uh the board has, I'm happy to take them at this time and then I can give the updates. Okay. Well, thank you. Um Mike, did you have any questions, comments? No questions. I mean, tremendous amount of work being done in so many different areas, which is exactly what uh this board has been focused on for so many years and um you and your team are doing great results. So, thank you, Carol. I just want to say congratulations on the honors that we received for our communication
128efforts. Um this was something that we had brought up years ago. um as far as something we really wanted to work on and become more, you know, public in our um information and and all of our successes and you made it happen and Brian, you really made it happen and very quickly. So, thank you so much and to be recognized for it is even greater. So, thank you so much for following through all. Um, yeah, what a great year and um, thank you Brian and team team Brian please. Thank you for putting all that data together. Um, I love data and the way you put it together. Um, it really helps understand where we've been and where we're going. There's been so much talk over the past several years about, you know, the harm that
129shutting down the schools cause and I agree that's it. And it looks like, you know, with your guidance, we're coming out of it. So, thank you. And then thank you to Brian for telling the community all about us and everything that's been going on here. I mean, we really do have such a great team with our administration and our staff and our community partners. And and Brian, thanks to you. Um, you know, like Cheryl said, we've been talking about that for a long time, our lack of communication, and you really spearheaded that and took it way beyond what we could ever imagine. So, thank you, Pet. No, just thank for sharing. Thank you for sharing. The data is um data driven, too. So, it's really really great to see and it it's so wonderful to
130see the great things that have gone on this year. So, it's testament to you and your team. So, I I appreciate updating us on the areas of focus because, you know, we give them to you and it's nice to know although we do know all all through the year, it's nice to have it all compiled in one place. And I tell Brian all the time, I thank him all the time because from someone who's been here for so long, I know what we started with. Remember Pete? PR and and you don't even have to ask Brian. He is so creative and he's always thinking and forward thinking and trying to come up with different ways to expose our district to and all the wonderful things that are going on. So, thank you. Great news. I'm
131glad we were recognized for your hard work. Great. We're ready. So, just a few updates which is the final bullet point of the superintendent report. And again, I'll be brief on these. So, first of all, thank you to our community. This is our first budget meeting after the budget vote. And so I just want to say thank you for the overwhelming support about a 75% approval rate and we we take your confidence so seriously and your trust so seriously and we work every day to make sure that we continue to make our district better. So thank you to our community for that vote of confidence and for overwhelmingly supporting the school budget. Also with regard to the cell phone ban, which is another topic of conversation that has come up. I've been discussing this with
132members of the community with the superintendent student council. The high school students have really taken an interest in this and I was interested in hearing their perspectives. They had some valuable insights that I found really important that I'll share with our policy committee as we begin to frame policy language around this law. 259 members of our community have responded to our survey thus far. Interestingly, our community is is quite split with regard to their feelings on the ban with about 53% or so at this point in support of the ban, either strongly supporting or somewhat supporting with about 47% or so uh opposing. So, it's quite split down the middle and uh more to come on that from a policy standpoint, but we'll certainly take this data once the survey closes on the 4th and
133share that back with the policy committee so that they can take the data under consideration as we craft language. Also, the exeicio board member will report back at the June 16th board of education meeting. But I wanted you to to know that we followed the process that we discussed. We engaged our superintendent student council. They were so impressive in the interviews. they came to a a great choice and and we'll be sharing that with the policy committee again as we look at language around the exitio board member and we hope to have a final recommendation to the full board at the June 16th meeting in advance of when the mandate is to take effect on July 1st. And one followup item with regard to bus stop cameras, you'll notice on the agenda there is an
134agreement to opt into the county program. We've reached an agreement with the bus company. We've reached an agreement with the county where we will be able to opt in to the bus stop alarm cameras. It's in the interest of safety for our students and for everyone in our community, frankly. But we also um we'll we'll start small. We'll try out on a few buses first because we'll have two separate systems operating. And that's important for our community to understand that because we're opting into the county program, it does not discount the cameras that are on the inside of the bus that the district has sole and full control over. What we're opting into or what I'm asking for the board to opt into this evening is for the stop arms only. And that's a county
135program. It will be enforced by the Westchester County Police Department. And that again is for the external cameras which are on the bus stop arms. And so I'm excited to report that we came to an agreement there and we'll be moving forward hopefully with your approval. That is everything that I wanted to share with you. If there are any questions on anything that I did share, I'm happy to take those. Otherwise, that concludes the report that I wanted to share. Any questions? I have a question. I just I understand that we're surveying regarding the cell phone ban, but correct me if I'm wrong. We don't have a choice in implementing this. Correct. You're absolutely right. We have to implement the cell phone ban. So irrespective of one's feelings and position on this. We have to
136implement where we have some discretion over our how we store the storage solutions. But no, your your bigger point is well taken and 100% correct. We don't have say over the law itself, which is a law and it prohibits beltto bell use. But there are certain circumstances under which a child can access their cell phone. But for us, it will be specifically at the high school level. And that's where the policy language will come in and certainly the policy committee this week. Thank you. A quick question about stop alarm cameras. So it's a county run program. So if somebody gets a ticket, we we we have nothing to do with ticketing people. We have nothing to do with collecting on tickets. We don't get the money for it. Is that correct? Is that a correct
137thing? We're not a ticketing agency. So, we don't issue the tickets. We don't uh we're not part of the court system. We don't collect revenue from this. We're doing this purely from a safety standpoint for our students. There is no monetary gain to be had for our school district. Okay. I just want to so somebody gets a ticket, they don't call you. No. All right. Thank you very much. Um we're going to go up to board discussion items. So, we're going to move right into the areas of focus. And the reason I asked to put this on the agenda was we have to start the discussion and last year when we started it um we did two things. One, we decided we were going to roll over the same areas of focus and then just
138put in some sub areas and and concerns or questions to move forward. I don't know whether we want to roll over the same areas of focus. I figured I'd give everybody a heads up to think about it so that maybe we can discuss it at the next meeting. I don't know if anybody has any thoughts or concerns or questions about the areas of focus and what what we want to do to move forward. Go ahead. No, no. Do you want to talk about it now or at the next meeting? We we can talk about it now. We can start the discussion now and we can follow through. I I thought it was going to take more than one meeting to get through this. Sure. So, um I think a lot of what we had uh
139last year still applies. Um I don't know if there's a way to combine maybe two of them. And I would like to see sustainability on here. Um and it doesn't have to be in the form of, you know, like instruction, right? There's a lot we can do with, you know, reducing food waste and other things that don't require uh huge amounts of capital, but I think I would like to see sustainability in here um for next year. That's my thoughts. Would you would you think about combining student connectedness and student wellness because they kind of go together, don't they? Sure. And then we can because I don't know if we want to add a seventh category, but maybe combining two combining two and six. What do you guys think about anybody have any thoughts? Well,
140I I I know what we were looking at, you know, with student connectedness last year, um, east team 3.0, you know, all those things, but I I don't know what it means for next year, right? So for student connectedness, we we've got our our board member, which I feel like we talked about that long before it became a requirement and they just caught up to us. So what's Yes, I am in favor of student connectedness. What's the next step in that? And I think rather than just throwing topics on a paper that sound good, what do we what are we putting behind it? Like what where do you see steam going next year, Ron? I mean, that's that's really what this is about. um the fiscal responsibility. Yes, that's that's our obligation. What does that
141mean? So, I'd like to see some substance behind it. I think that's just work by us that we need to do. Well, do you want to is is some of it Do you want to see where Ron sees it going and then we can add to it? For sure. Yeah. So, we're going to throw it back in you, Pete. That's the director I think too. I appreciate that. Thank you. We're all good with that, Cheryl? Yeah. I think we need to put maybe some targets down and flesh out some of these um these topics. Um and you know I think that's the way we really make some growth or show growth or make some movement as long as we have some goals some sub goals or targets to work toward. I think that's how we
142we move quicker that way. So I think that's great start us off and then we can fill in the gaps if there are any. Okay. I think the goal would be to have the areas of focus set by like the July 1st meeting so that he has the summer to plan it if we think we'd get through in the next two meetings. Okay. Something to certainly. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Board action items. All right. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the May 12th and the May 20th meeting? Second. All those in favor? Opposed? A motion to approve the treasures report for April 2025. All those in favor? I oppose. A motion to approve the claims order report for April 2025. Discussion. Lisa. Amazing work. No exceptions. The first time. All those
143in favor? Opposed. Um a motion to approve the extra classroom report for April 2025. So move. All those in favor? I oppose. Policy adoption. A motion to approve the second reading and adoption of the following policies. 2245 Exeicio student board member. Uh 2410 policy and regulation development adoption and implementation review. 2710 communications among individual board members. 4321.1 provisions of special education services in the least restrictive environment. 4321.10 10 programs and services parentally for parentally placed non-public school students with disabilities and 4452 individual health tutoring. Second. All those in favor? Quick discussion on that. Absolutely. Jackie, I know I think at the last meeting when we did a first read on 4321.10, 10. You had a comment or a question about, you know, it looks very similar mathematically to 4321.1. So, we decided we're going to
144approve the policy tonight. We will discuss the numbering at our next policy meeting. Um, it is part of a sequence 1 through 10. I don't know. 1 through 14. So, um, but we'll bring it to the policy committee and see what we want to do. But I just wanted to give you a heads up. I didn't want you to think your comment was ignored. Well, but one through 10 could be 01 and then one zero. I think that's the answer is make it 01 02 and then we get to 10 then you can understand. Yeah. So we we can you know I don't want to say fix it but we'll have the discussion and then and then I can just see an Excel sheet cutting it off. All right. Thank Thank you. I appreciate that.
145All right. personnel. Be it resolved that employee number 6162 be placed on paid administrative leave effective May 16, 2021, employee 6162 as certified teaching assistant tenure area in the district. So second all those in favor. Upon recommendation of the superintendent, a motion that the following be approved. We have certified personnel appointments, other compensation, education, extended school year, um, additions to substitute list, corrections, resignations. Under classified personnel, we have extended school year, additions to the substitute list, removal of the substitute list, and resignations. So, move discussion. Go ahead. I'm just going to recuse myself because my daughter's up and then you have to say her name because she wants your name. Juliana Raw. Okay. All those in favor? Opposed. There. You got it in. Thank you. Um, under business, a motion to approve the proposal from
146Aerys Contracting for the construction management services for the rooftop HVAC equipment replacement project in the amount of $28,000. So, move. All those in favor? Opposed. A motion to approve the attached resolution to authorize the Rick one ROC risk operations center to negotiate data privacy agreements on behalf of the district for the 2526 school year. So move. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion to approve the following vendor agreements for the 2526 school year. They are listed below. So move. All those in favor? Opposed. Um, a motion to approve the attached PPS independent contracts for the 2526 school year pending receipt of the required insurance documents. They are all listed below. Second. All those in favor? Opposed. Your motion to approve the music and arts agreements for the 2526 insurance repairs pending receipt of insurance documents. Second.
147All those in favor? I opposed. Motion to extend the contract with Ryel for athletic equipment, supplies, apparel, and or reconditioning services effective July 1st, 2025 to June 30th, 2026. Second. All those in favor? I oppose. The motion approve amendment 25- 26 in the vendor agreement as per the May 19, 2023 RFP with Manpower Group, Inc. for campus greeter and monitor services. All those in favor? opposed. Resolved in recommendation of the superintendent, the board of education approves the agreement with Edgitech LTD to provide on-site information IT services um with pricing through tips contract number 230504 for the period of July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026 pending proof of required insurance documents. A copy of this contract shall be incorporated with by reference within the minutes of this meeting. So move All those in favor? Opposed?
148Result upon recommendation of the superintendent that the board of education authorizes the board president to renew the contract with granite tech solutions to provide de disaster recovery services for Envision for the period of July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026 at a cost of $20,58 annually pending receipt of insurance documents. Second. All those in favor? A motion to approve the following contracts with comm source pending receipt of required insurance documents. They're listed below. So move second. All those in favor? I oppose. A motion to approve the 2526 agreements for the videography services as follow. They are listed below. So move. All those in favor? I oppose. Result recommendation of the superintendent of schools. The board of education authorizes the execution of the 2526 initial contract for Putnham Northern Westchester Bose services. Second. All those in
149favor? Opposed? Resolves upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools. The board of education authorizes the assistant superintendent for business to execute the 2526 initial contract for the lower Rick OC services through Dr. Sign. Second. All those in favor? Opposed. A motion to approve the budget transfer listed below. Salute. All those in favor? I opposed. A resolution authorizing agreement to participate in the Westchester County school bus armstart safety program. It is listed below. So move. All those in favor? Opposed. Um a motion to accept the audit report made by the internal auditors in the district's corrective action plan for the intensive review of human resources for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025. discussion. This was a really clean audit. Rashley, it looks like our HR is doing their job. Absolutely. And um I do, you
150know, want to thank um Dr. McInness and also uh Lisa Zilico who uh work very closely on the on not just on the report but drafting the um action plan. So it was a greedier on the on its side. We miss you. It's great though. We appreciate that. Thanks to the HR department for their hard work. Thank you. All those in favor. Special ed. A motion to arrange the following placements as of June 2nd, 2025. Second. All those in favor? I oppose. Grants and donations. A motion accept with gratitude the following gift grants and donations. Moans. $500 for the second grade Bare Mountain excursion from the Mohansa PTA at Brookside. $19 for the third grade wolf conservation excursion from Brookside PTA. $751.93 for the first grade excursion to Stepping Stones from the Brookside PTA. $2,931
151for the third grade excursion to the Bronx Zoo from the Brookside PTA. At the middle school, $86 for the eighth grade excursion to extreme extreme play from the middle school PTA. At the high school, $440 from Project Lead the Way miniigrant from the Rochester Institute of Technology. $1,000 for the high school mini grant from the Chestnut Petroleum pump for a cause. $500 from the Westchester office at the New York Community Trust for the David Rubenville Memorial Fund. $500 from the Joseph Duranco for the Joseph Scolio Memorial Scholarship Fund and $1,000 from an anonymous donor for the Jason Foley memorial scholarship. So move. All those in favor? I oppose. Again, Lisa, our PTAs are amazing. Yes. All right, we are up. Oops. Public comment number two. Nobody. it. We went in the wrong direction. And board
152comments. Peter, start with me first. I'm going to start with you first. No, just another great evening. I It's It's so wonderful to see all the volunteers. Um I sometimes, you know, you look at the community at large and and a lot of a lot of people give a lot of their time to make this district phenomenal. So, thank thank them for for doing everything they need to do. And and Ron, um thank you for the presentation. It was it was excellent. Lisa. Yeah, it was a great evening. I love um seeing all our community partners and I I really do appreciate um Dr. Hatter that you give us the opportunity to honor them each year because it really is important. Um and thank you to you and your team. You know, you you spend
153the evening thanking us. Um but we couldn't be the board we are without your leadership and your team's leadership. So So thank you for making it so easy. a wonderful evening. I do want to say I love the uh year in review every June. Um I know we get incremental updates daily, week to monthly, whatever. So you know to us it seems like um you know not not that much happens you know week to week but seeing it all together like that I you know put everything in um you know together for us. So thank you for putting that together. Sure. I just want to say thank you to Dr. Patter for the appreciation and words of thanks to us tonight. Um like Lisa said, you know, we do what we do because we it's
154a pleasure because we work with such a strong administrative staff, a strong staff, a wonderful community, and such wonderful community partners who showed up tonight and we appreciate them so much. So, thank you for the recognition tonight. Right. I I'll echo everyone's sentiments about what a great evening it was. And um I'd also like to thank the community for supporting uh the budget and uh a lot went into it as it always does. This year was challenging and uh our community support was overwhelming. So thank you for that. I echo what everybody said and I also want to thank you Dr. Hatter for um having this energy performance sustainability um presentation. We've been promising the community um following people who come out um activists for months that we've been doing it and I appreciate that
155you followed through and that you gave a comprehensive presentation that we have action plans to follow through on. So, thank you very much and our community partners are amazing. Our school partners, our community partners, this is a great town. It's a great school district. So, thank you for everything. Anybody else? All right. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? So all those in favor tonight guys are troopers out