Yorktown CSD Board of Education Meeting – April 21, 2025

001Good evening. Welcome to the Yorktown Central School District Board of Education meeting for April 21st, 2025. Can I have a motion to go into executive session to discuss the employment history of predict particular pedagogical and non-pedagical employees and matters made confidential under federal law, the family education and privacy rights and privacy act as well as contractual negotiations, the AIS contract. So move second. All those in favor? I oppose. All right. Can I have a motion to go back into public session? So moved. Second. All those in favor? I oppose. Wait, we got Pete coming in and Mike. Hang on. The men are slow. Okay. Good evening. Welcome to the Yorktown Central School District Board of Education meeting for April 21st, 2025. Will we please stand the pledge of allegiance led by our mohansic students and

002then remain standing for a moment of silence for our armed forces and those in our community who have lost loved ones. You got to face the flag. Here we go. I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. It looks like Moansic has come to visit us. Dr. Hatter. Yes. Yes. I'm sorry that we're just a couple minutes late coming out of our executive session meeting. It's so nice to see everyone on the first day back from recess. Note to self for next year. Uh we'll look at that moving forward. But um I just want to thank you for all being here. We are looking forward to a great presentation. I had the

003opportunity to preview this presentation and I am so excited to welcome some of our third grade students here. So I'm going to introduce principal of Mohansic School, Mrs. Barry. And Mrs. Barry will introduce this evening's presentation. Thank you, Dr. Hatter, and good evening. Good evening to central office administrators, Mrs. Carbone, and members of the board of education. It is my pleasure and honor on behalf of the third grade students, faculty, and staff to welcome you to Mohansik's good news presentation. The students are very excited to present their work, share their learning, and share their very special way of supporting a community organization. Thank you parents and families for being here this evening and for your continued support. Thank you to faculty and staff for your support by being here this evening and being such an

004important part of this wonderful presentation. And of course, a huge thank you to our third grade students. I now invite Mrs. Antella Dable to begin our presentation. Thank you, Mrs. Barry. Good evening, Dr. Hatter, Mrs. Emerling, Mrs. Sanfalippo, Mrs. Carbone, members of the board of education, parents, staff, and students. Don't worry, I'm not here to huff and puff or blow anything down. I'm just your friendly neighborhood wolf here on behalf of some very wise third graders. You see, they have been learning that wolves aren't the villains in fairy tales that make that the fairy tales make them out to be. They're actually smart, social, and super important to our ecosystems. So tonight, I'm here to help shift the narrative from big bad to big misunderstood. We decided to highlight the great work our third graders

005have been doing in our community to protect the wolves, raise awareness, and even shift perceptions. We're excited to showcase their learning and creativity as they share their work that they have done. I also want to just take a quick moment to share that one of our presenters, Sophia Pette, is celebrating her birthday today, too. And now to kick off our presentation, we're going to start with Eastston. Hi, my name is Eastston and I'm in Mrs. Lango and Mrs. Gaggliard's class. What do you think of when you think of a wolf? Have you ever thought about how wolves are portrayed in fiction and some of our childhood favorite stories like the Little Red Riding, the boycne sneaky tricksters. How does this shape your perception of wolves being of wolves? The stories we read can have an

006impact on our thinking. So, how does this shift your perception of wolves being the bad guys? That's true. Hi, my name is Gracine and I am in Miss Lango and Miss Gagliard's class. In third grade, we explore the question, who is the wolf in fiction? through the book, Lon Po, a version of Little Red Riding Hood from China. In this text, the wolf disguises himself as the children's popo or grandmother and tries to get into their house. When the wolf gets into the house, the children quickly realize that this is not actually their grandmother, and they come up with a plan to defeat the wolf. The wolf is once again portrayed as cunning and deceptive. This is just like in our other childhood favorite stories. [Music] Hi, my name is Maline and I'm in Mrs.

007Konis's class. As we read, we analyze the wolf's character traits and motivations. We also consider how the author uses figurative language to build suspense. This book helps us practice key reading skills such as identifying how characters develop a more cultural perspectives shape familiar tales. Our teachers encourage us to influence encourage us to reflect on how stories influence our views, making us wonder, is a villain is a wolf always a villain? How do we develop empathy and a more balanced understanding of this often misunderstood animal? Nice job. Excellent. Hi, my name is Nia and I am in Miss Konos's class. Well, through learning about them in fact, we then read the non-fiction book Face to Face with Wolves where we develop an understanding of wolves in the real world. This is this book follows the author

008Jim Benberg who devotes his life living among and learning about wolves. We analyze author's purpose, main idea, text features, and more. as we read. This allows us to gain valuable information about wolves in the real world. Turns it turns out wolves aren't act are not so bad after all and they are actually very important. Our teachers then ask how do ouritations change. It is interesting how to see how differently we think about wolves after learning the truth about them. Excellent. Hi, my name is Cameron and I am in Mrs. Burman's class. For example, did you know that many wolves are hunted because farmers think that they are killing their livestock? Turns out the livestock is often not surviving due to disease and not and other natural natural causes. This is just one way that wolves

009get a bad rap. We continue to explore facts about wolves and develop our understanding of wolves in the real world through our work in the li throughout our work in the library. We read about wolves in articles and we also read the book What If There Were No Grey Wolves by Suzanne Stade. We synthesize everything we have learned and determine what we feel is the most important information to share with our audience. We then realize it is not only important for us to learn about wolves but also for us to teach others. Hi, my name is Ben and I am in Mrs. Berman's class. So, how do we encourage others to develop empathy for the wolf population? Well, that is our mission. First, we use the our we deliver program at Mohanzik and the skills

010we have learned during our persuasive writing unit as an opportunity to write persuasive letters to our previous teachers. We encourage our teachers to change their perceptions of a wolf by equipping them with facts. We learned that the best way to get convince someone is to give them the facts. Hi, my name is Lucas and I'm in Miss Lampert and Miss Ferrari's class. While sharing the facts is important, we also want to get our me message across in other ways that wolves are worth saving. In our class, every third grader crafts their own unique wolf logo under the guidance of Miss McCloud. This is a logo for the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, New York. We want to join them in their mission to help save wolves. Miss McClo teaches us how to blend creativity

011designs with the distinctive features of wolves, showing us how to incorporate elements like pointy ears, keen eyes, and check textured fur into the letters of the word wolf. Is very nice. Hi, my name is Sophia and I am in Miss Lambert in Miss Ferrari's class. The process of creating this logo design encourage each of us to experiment with shape and line while transforming simple letters into a representation of the majestic animal. Take a look at some of the amazing designs our third graders came up with to help support our the Wolf Conservation Center. This innovative logo design was not only a fun exercise in creativity but also a practical one as it would later be used as a key visual element in two important projects. Excellent. Hi, my name is Jason and I'm in Mrs.

012Ellie's class. In library, all third graders participated in an engaging project where we use chatterpick to create public service announcements. PSAs about why wolves are worth saving. After researching the important role wolves play in the ecosystem, we crafted persuasive messages highlighting how these animals help maintain balance in nature. We then took the illustrated logos we created and used the ChatterPix app to animate them. We were able to add our voices and bring our messages to life. Through this creative project with ChatterPix, we not only practiced research, design, and digital literacy skills, but we also became passionate advocates for wildlife conservation. Take a take a look at this example of a public service announcement made by one of the third graders. One reason is that wolves keep the population wolves are worth saving for many different

013reasons. One reason is that wolves keep the population balanced. Also, people get the wrong idea mostly because of story books. You can help by understanding how wolves try to survive. Maybe read face to face with wool. Here we go. Hi, my name is Natalie and I am in Mrs. Elliot's class. The next exciting project using the wolf logo design is a t-shirt fundraiser that supports the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, New York. In this project, each third grade class participated in a blind vote to choose their favorite logo design, unsuring the unbiased selection process. Following the vote, Miss Canona took the lead in creating a custom t-shirt featuring the winning sign from each class. She created a t-shirt for each sale generated. The proceeds from these t-shirt sales are donated directly to the local

014wolf conservation efforts. This make the project not only a fun exercise in art and decision-m but also a meaningful way to contribute to wildlife preservate in our local community. Here we go. Hi, my name is Cello and I am in Mr. K's class. As you could see, the work we have done in ELA with our teachers are with Mrs. McCllo, library with Mrs. Roer, and East team with Mrs. Yates has allowed each and every one of us to become advocates for the vulnerable wolf population. Learning about wolves in the real world and helping to protect them in our local community has taught us how to stand up for what we believe in by seeing them up close and learning how important they are to nature. We now know why they need our help. We hope

015you see wolves in a new way too and understand that they are not scary but special. Maybe now you will want to help protect them just like we do. The wolves are worth saving and together we can make a difference. Nice job. Thank [Music] you. At this time, we would like to share with you our donation from our 115 third graders and families. A total of $800 we are donating to the Wolf Center. Thank you all. [Music] That's great. That was great. Thank you to all of our friends that presented tonight. None of this great work would have been possible without the support of our board of education, Dr. Hatter, Mrs. family, our PTA, our parents, our staff, and especially our teachers that are here tonight. I'd like to recognize all of the teachers and

016staff on third grade. Please stand up and be recognized. Thank you for everything that you do for our students. [Applause] On behalf of our Mohansik School family, we want to first thank you for giving us this opportunity to share our work with you tonight. And second, we would like to offer the board of education a little gift to remember that Mohansig cares about wolves. Thank you all again. Oh, how cute. Please know that was created on the Glow Forge. So, thank you. Thank you all. Okay, first things first, Sophia. Is it true it's your birthday? Come on up. Come around. All right. So, Sophia's here on her birthday. I think the least we can do, Sophia, we're going to sing happy birthday to you. Okay. All right. Right. Birthday chair. Happy birthday to you. Happy

017birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Sophia. Happy birthday to you. [Applause] Mrs. Barry, your third graders are really special. We are totally impressed with them. And I think all my board members would probably like to say a few words if that's okay. Peter, it continues to amaze me how well such young students can get up here and speak in front of so many people. You should be really, really proud of yourself. How well you did. Each of you read off your sheets, looked at the the crowd. It was really, really impressive. You should be proud. Lisa, I agree with Pete. You guys are amazing the way you stood up there and and gave your lines. It was great. And I love that you explained so much about wolves because I thought they were big bad

018animals and now I know different. So, thank you. Well, first off, thank you for sharing your evening with us. I know it's uh the day after break and um and certainly thank you for coming on your birthday, Sophia. We are honored. Um, I loved how you integrated uh learning about wolves into we deliver into your art class and then ultimately also uh turned it into a fundraising for the Wolf Conservation Center. So, great job and I can't wait to see the amazing things you do um you know next year in Crown Pond. Sure. I think this was amazing. Um what I saw was one literacy lesson that incorporated so many aspects of learning. Uh we went from uh writing to reading to writing persuasive letters to having some conviction about co uh wolves and taking

019a stance on how we should preserve them, save them, and like them. Um you made a plaque for us. Uh you did some artwork on different logos. So I love this lesson because there's just so much that went on to really get your point across and to take a stance on how we should all love wolves. So thank you for coming and great job all around. Mike Yeah, to kind of piggyback what Cheryl said, this is such a great project. Uh what a fun way to incorporate uh esteem into uh an an interesting learning exercise. Um and the fact that you're using uh logic and fact-based reasoning to uh get people to see things in a different light is uh extremely valuable especially in today's world. So, great job uh all around and the fact

020that we uh you guys were able to raise money for a great cause um really touches on a lot of great items and incorporates uh everything that we love to see in in the classroom. So, thank you. Yeah, I agree with everybody said. You know, I drive by the Wolf Conservation Center probably three, four times a week. And now I won't be so afraid when I go past that little alleyway that goes all the way road that goes all the way up there and just a little sign that says Wolf Conservation Center. But I won't be frightened anymore because now I know they're not scared. Thank you. Give them the sign. And and just so and we're going to and your Glow Forge shine. I'm going to ask Dr. Hatter to find a special place

021of honor for it in central office. So if you ever go there to see artwork, you'll be able to see that sign you made as well, too. So, thank you very much. Okay, I'm still very afraid of wolves and great presentation. I don't want to take anything away from the presentation, but I'm still a little afraid of wolves. Uh, I'm just going to summarize my remarks and I'll be brief. I just want to say three separate things. First of all, students, I am so proud of you. You did such a great job. Every time I come into your classrooms or every time I see you in the hallway, you always impress me. Tonight, you you took that to the next level. I'm so proud of you. It's not easy to do what you did. In

022fact, many of the adults in this room would have trouble doing what you did. And to do that at this age is something that's so impressive, and I am so proud of you. Families, the the second thing I want to share is thank you. I don't know if anyone's told you this today, but your children are amazing. They're a pleasure to work with, and the time the short amount of time that we get to spend with them is just a treasure. You're their first teacher, and you're their best teachers, and the time that we have them, we we cherish. We absolutely do. And I know it's not easy to come out. You've got young children. It's the first day back from break. You've started your work week. You have so many other things. You have

023dinners and bedtime routines and bath time and all these other things. But you're here celebrating your children and their learning. And I can't thank you enough for your support and your partnership. And then thirdly, to the faculty at Mohansik. This was incredible. And I I am just always so amazed by what you do. And and for the parents in this room, my children went through Mohansic as well. So, just like you sat here as a parent, I I've sat as a parent as well. My children have had some of the teachers in the audience tonight and they're dynamite. Absolutely dynamite. So, I just want to say thank you to you because this doesn't just happen. These lessons we we add ee and we add so many wonderful opportunities for students and you do such a

024great job of putting it together. Putting it together with a smile on your faces. So many of you are here and and I really appreciate that. Mrs. Barry, your leadership of the school is just second to none. So, I just thank you for everything that you're doing. And when you take great teachers with great children and great families and you put them together, you get something really special. And that's what I think we have in our school district here. So, with that said, I I'm going to ask if we can take a brief fivem minute recess. We'll take a quick fiveminute recess. We have a whole long meeting ahead of us. You're welcome to today. We're actually We have our architects here. We're going to talk about the update on the bond with the additions

025to Mohansik. We we're adopting the budget tonight, I hope, and and then so many other things. But, uh, if you choose to depart, I'm going to ask that you do so through this door. We'd like to resume the meeting in about 5 minutes. So, I would just ask that you exit from this door so that we can resume in five minutes. Thank you so much for coming out tonight and have a great evening. All right. Um, that was wonderful. Thank you. Uh, we're up to the first public comment that nobody signed up. Okay, so we're going to move right into the superintendent's report. Ron. Okay. Um, I I see how the agenda reads, but I just want to We have guests here to present this evening. We have our architects from uh Mamasi to present

026on the bond update. As of course the community recalls, in February of 2024, there was an overwhelming approval of our bond project, both Proposition 1 and Proposition two. And so we thought it appropriate at this point to give the community an update as to where we are in our process. There has been so much work that has transpired over these last 14 months with our facilities project committee, with our architects, our construction manager, various meetings with stakeholder groups to collect as much input and come up with the smartest possible design that we could put forward. So this evening, I'm excited to welcome our architects from Mamasi. You're welcome Daryl and Tina to come to the podium. I don't know if you're both going to present tonight or if Tina, you're going to take the lead

027on the presentation, but I will turn it over to you at the podium to give our community and our board an update on our bond project. [Music] Well, thank you. Uh, yes. Let me just see it. There we go. Yes. Thank you. Um, is this okay? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Um, we're really happy to be here. we realized that we actually haven't been in quite a while. So, this is exciting um because between um February of 2024 and now, there has been um just a huge amount of work that um has happened and it's really great to be able to share it with everybody. So, we are going to review um uh the the bond scope of work that's actually in progress. So that is the Mohansik um at project at Mohanic, the project at

028Brookside, and then the athletic complex um portion of the the overall bond project. Um and then we're going to talk about the process a bit and the overall schedule for these particular projects. Um we'll get into each um each of the buildings and the site um and review the scope of work, review where we are, also look at what the buildings are um beginning to look like, and then we're going to just touch on some of the green uh initiatives that we were able to incorporate into the project. Okay. So, we just wanted to kind of review the scope of work to remind everybody uh what the scope is across the project. At uh at Brookside, we are doing a twoclassroom uh kindergarten edition, a four classroom third grade edition. Um we also have a

029few dedicated special education and small group instructional spaces and uh security upgrades at the main entrance. At Mohansik, there is a two-story six um kindergarten classroom edition. again uh a couple small educational um spaces for uh special ed and group in small group instruction. Um similarly security upgrades at the main entrance and we are also renovating the servery in the kitchen at Mohansick. And then at the athletic complex um we have a new outdoor basketball and pickleball courts for both PE and for recess. There is uh two turf fields, one synthetic turf baseball and multi-purpose field and one uh multi-purpose field um adjacent to that. And uh there's also a concessions building um with restrooms in it. And so we will show all of that work soon. So from the time we um pre-bond we

030did there was quite a bit of work that went into pre-bond just in terms of um you know meeting with with um the building leaders meeting with um the facilities project committee but once the bond passed we had to take a bit of a deeper dive into all the process as a whole. Um so we started off with some initial stakeholder meetings where we met with the building leadership so the principles, assistant principles, vice principles, um some teachers as well. Um we met also with the facilities project committee several times. Um and really to talk about sort of big picture things, what the priorities are um what the educational approach is and how that translates into how the classroom can support that. Um so that leads into what a classroom layout is. Um we talked

031about storage needs which is very important at the kindergarten level. Um technology what that looks like in the classroom and really the general atmosphere and the environment we are trying to create. We then um simultaneously actually were working on sort of due diligence. So all of the disciplines, the architectural team, the mechanical, electrical and plumbing team, structural food service for my hands, looking at um surveying and field conditions and all the documentation that is uh related to that uh that then gets worked into the actual drawings. We had some design strategy meetings where the facilities pro uh projects committee and the design team really talked about um things like building materials. Uh you know what what's appropriate, what's uh will last long, what's easy to maintain, uh security throughout the school. Um we talked a

032little bit about the Mahansik playground. um and some other items like the Brookside parent drop off just amongst some of the um discussions. The we then had several um buildership bu building leadership follow-up meetings. Um, so the principles came in several times along with teachers really to provide feedback um over the course of um gosh 12 months, but every few months they they came back in to kind of uh look to see where we were to provide us feedback so that we could tweak um the design to better improve um the space. We also had their review and approval at one point uh at some point and um and um moved into really documenting the drawings and then submitting them getting them ready for submission to the state. So uh we submitted to SED um

033in February of 2025. Um we received comments in at the very end of March for engineering and we are awaiting technical review and um anticipated approvals. Do you want to Cheryl's gonna go over the So, I'll go over the uh athletic complex for the site. Um, as everyone knows, part of the bond was a uh a new athletic complex. Can everyone hear me? Pull the mic off if you'd like. So, raise it up even more. Okay. Is that better? Yeah. Oh, okay. Um, so as part of the bond that we are constructing a new athletic complex on on this campus, um, two multi-purpose turf fields, basketball, pickle ball, um, a plaza, concessions building, and associated walkways and pathways. So, as part of that initial planning process, again, the first step was initial stakeholder meetings. Uh

034we met with the steering committee which is consists of the of the board and the the district administration also facilities um athletic department leadership and the Huskers. And the purpose of that was really to confirm and refine the scope of work, how the fields are going to be used, how they should be designed, logistics of the site, and and basically the the goals and aspirations of this complex at the end of the day. Um so because of the the nature of the site we had to do a lot of testing and due diligence at the beginning of the project including geotechnical investigations, video inspections, topographic surveys, wetland mapping. There was a lot that went into it um to make sure that we had all of the proper information to be able to submit to the

035applicable regulatory agencies. Um, what we found in part of that actually was there are two 52-in large drainage pipes that go from the pond on this campus out to the uh the western the western property line of the site. Um, they are actually pretty shallow below grade two. So, what we found, we actually did video inspections of the pipes and found that at least 250 ft of them um had been compromised and there were some areas where the cameras couldn't even get through. So, ultimately, as as part of the design of this project, we have to replace about 400 linear feet of these two 56-in pipes to be able to put the new larger multi-purpose field, install it on top of it. So that was um an unknown condition that we found during the the

036initial due diligence and we work we've worked around that and come up with a great design to be able to um construct every everything as desired and intended. Uh we also worked with the town of Yorktown to review and inspect their underground sewer line that crosses through the property. As far as regulatory agencies um we had to submit to the DEEC. the uh they reviewed and approved the project at the end of last year. It was a pretty quick quick review on that part. Um SED, so the New York State Education Department, we actually submitted for the the site permit and the building permit last September and we received the building permit approval from the state um in January of this year. What the phase we're in right now is the New York City Department

037of Environmental Protection because we are in the New York City watershed area in this location. The D is is one of the authority having jurisdictions. Um, so they actually came back out and we did initial borings and soils testing and found that the the groundwater table was higher than it was last year and that was sort of due to the winter the winter thaw and and raising the subsurface water. Um, so that resulted in us having to redesign a little bit of the water retention systems. But so we submitted the final documents to the D at the end of March. um we expect to receive technical review and approval from them within the next couple months and they really have a set time frame for reviewing the documents for completeness and then doing their technical

038review and approval. Um so all the regulatory agencies everything has been submitted and approved except for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. Once that is approved we can move to the next steps which is bid in construction of the project. Oh, sorry. All right. So, regarding schedule, um, and this is the master schedule that was that was developed at the beginning of the project and it was refined over time, um, by the construction manager, Aerys Contracting, and Mamasi and the steering committee. Uh really what we're looking at as a whole for this phase of the project of the overall bond project uh Brookside and Mohansick like Tina mentioned earlier um we're expected to receive full building permit approval within the next couple of months by the summer for sure. Uh we're going to

039we anticipate bidding this project in August of 2025 and construction of Brookside and Mohansk will be between October of 2025 and September of 2026. And that includes both the additions and interior renovations for the athletic fields that I just discussed. Um the way it's going to be sequenced, we intend to bid in July of this year. construction of field one, which I'll get into an overall site plan. So, you know what construction field one and field two are. So, the first field, which is the baseball and field hockey multi-purpose field, will be constructed between September of this year and May of 2026. Field two, which is the larger multi-purpose field stripe for multiple sports, um that'll actually begin construction when field one is complete in May of 2026. and that will go until May of

0402027. Similar to um time frame for the courts and sidewalks. And then also you'll you'll see in the diagrams um there's a new concessions building and a plaza and the construction of that will start in May of next year and go through May of 2027. So because it's a big undertaking, it's a lot of ground disturbance. uh we the construction manager of the district Mamasi we had to phase the project and sequence it so the the district could have access to the play fields during construction. So now the exciting stuff this is the this is the overall diagram of the athletic complex. What you'll see on the lower the southern half is the um it's a new turf baseball field, varsity baseball field and stripe for field hockey in the outfield. Um new facilities like

041dugouts, batting tunnels. There's actually be three sets of bleachers, third base side, first base side, and then in the outfield near the uh the new field hockey play area. Um there there's also some pathways and you'll see a plaza which we'll get to an enlarged version of it. Um pickle ball and it's a court that's that's will be striped for basketball and pickle ball. And then the field to the north is a large multi-purpose field. It's pretty much the size of a football field and it'll be striped for multiple sports including football, field hockey, again, lacrosse, soccer, um, a lot of other sports. So, this is a blow up of the concessions area. Um, so, as you can see, it's a it's a large plaza. Um, it's it's sort of on the west side of

042the multi-purpose field. Um, there are some lawn areas. You'll see fixed fixed sheeting, fixed seating, sorry, and sort of unique shapes throughout. There's a going to be a new concessions building. It's concessions and and restroom facility building. In the center, you'll see a sort of a pathway to the the northeast of the plaza. Um those are the donor pavers that are being relocated to there. And there's also a bypass walkway that sort of follows the existing pathway to get from um the northern end of the site down to Charlie Murphy Field. So that's sort of an overview of what the plaza looks like in general. Looks a little small on this drawing, but it's actually going to be a very large plaza with a goodiz concessions building. Um it's going to be able to accommodate

043a lot of people, um lot of spectators, interaction. Um, it's going to be a it's going to be a great use in space. The concessions building proper, you'll see here in the lower right hand corner, that's the concessions area. Um, the window the window on the south is is the ordering window. And then to the right is the the pickup window. And so that's a large concessions area um with, you know, with equipment, freezers, coolers, um heating ovens and warmers, beverage coolers. There's a little there's a storage room to the north that actually the grill will be stored in as well, and it can be rolled out um for cooking during games. There's two multi-user bathrooms and then two single toilet rooms. And these are a couple renderings of the plaza. This is the southwest

044corner of the concessions building and the plaza. And you'll see to the left um those spectators are are looking towards Charlie Murphy Field. And then this is the northern end um with the big Huskers logo lit. So this is just another view of the uh concessions building and what it'll look look like when it's done. Okay. So now we'll get back into um Brookside and Mohansik um and we'll take a look at the additions. Um so the there's a small site plan on the upper leftand corner. That's what the existing site looks like now. Uh what you'll see is that the kindergarten edition is um on the back of um the back of the school where the kindergarten classrooms are now. And the third grade classroom addition is on the right hand side of the

045school sort of across from the first and the second and third grade the existing second and third grade classrooms. Um sorry. So this is a blowup of um the kindergarten classrooms. Uh there are two that we're building. Um we are extending um a corridor adjacent to the existing classrooms that extends back to the addition and also including a small um parent drop off area. So a new corridor that links the existing building to the old building. Um there are two classrooms. There's a small sort of learning al cove um and a entrance al cove into the classrooms along with two small group instructional spaces that you can see on the plan. Oops. This is a view um at the parent drop off um at the addition. So the the building that's sort of set back

046is the existing building and the canopy and entrance um that comes out is the addition and the classroom to the left of that. So that is the entrance point with a new classroom. Um right to the left. This is looking at the back of the building. So you'll see um the the window systems that are closest to us. Those are the two small group instructional spaces. Um to the left of that is the corridor that brings you back to this area. Um there's a small little al cove sort of set in. Um that's the that is the entrance al cove to the classrooms and to the small group instructional spaces. So the larger space on the background of this is the one of the two kindergarten classrooms. This is a view from the inside as

047you're approaching um walking into the classroom. So there's a small learning al cove that we've incorporated. Um and then once you get through the doors, you have access to the two um classrooms and a view out to the back of the site. This is one view looking from um the entrance or from the um from the cubby area to the back of the classroom. So you can see that there's a instructional wall on the left hand side. Um there is storage along the back wall and along the window wall. Um the furniture is flexible to be able to rearrange to support the day's instruction. Uh there's a group instruction table, a teachers instruction um podium also in the space and um really um plenty of storage throughout. This is a view looking the opposite direction.

048So you'll see there's a the the there's a boy standing in front of the entrance door. So that is the entrance into the classroom. um a small sort of um al cove of uh cubbies and storage. So when students come in, they go in and drop their stuff off in the cubby area and it's sort of kept out of the way. There's a small sink um in the classroom along with a sink that's in the bathroom that is um also within the classroom. So, plenty of daylight, plenty of um um ambient light u from reflective ceilings. You can see um it's sort of a soothing, subtle space um and trying to um control the clutter to some degree. Um and this is the third grade classroom edition at Brookside. So, again, this one sits on

049the right hand side of the building across from the one wing that juts out already. Um, the classroom is the classrooms are somewhere between 780 and 800 square f feet, 810 depending on uh where it sits exactly. There's also two uh multi-user bathrooms in this location and a corridor that's also part of a sensory um program. So, this is a view kind of looking at the corner of the dishon um you can see the seating aloves that are worked into um the glass systems in the corridor. Um so they function both for bringing light into the space but also for seating area for outside um and the sort of the exit or entrance back to the recess area. And then on the interior view this is also taken from the entrance point looking out um

050beyond to beyond the windows to the um to the green area. uh instructional wall on the right, some storage on the left, and again um a layout that really supports um flexibility throughout the [Music] day. And then looking back in the opposite direction, you again you can see there's a a storage unit that behind is uh the cubbies, their storage above. Um there's on the right hand side there's a wall that's also um both uh cabinets, countertop storage. The white um surfaces that you see are actually writable surfaces and you'll see that throughout all the classrooms where there are portions of the um of the walls that are are used both for instruction for play um throughout all the spaces and that is the last one. So on to Mohansik. Um Mohansik has a six

051um six kindergarten classroom edition. There's three on one floor, three on the floor above. Um it is at the very end of the um the long wing. Um and um as you can see, there is some work associated with the site to be able to um to make this work. Um and the playground as well. Again, this is a blowup of uh the typical uh three classrooms. Um they're pretty um they really repeat themselves from the first floor to the second floor. Um the existing corridor gets extended um where then there is a stair an internal stair that gets you between the two floors for um the kindergarten for all six classrooms. Uh the kindergarten classrooms at Mohansic also have bathrooms in them just like um Brookside. They are they also have an area for

052cubbies um an out a sink area that's in the classroom um along with the sink in the bathroom and a large sort of instructional zone again um to be able to support to support um both instruction and play throughout the day. Uh this is a view to the of the back of the building. So one of the big aspects of this pro of this particular um project is we were able to incorporate an outdoor space an outdoor learning area um into uh the overall uh footprint of the building with an extension of the roof. So you can see that uh this is the corner of the of the box uh where the third which sort of fills the four would have been a fourth classroom per se. Um there are a couple steps that go

053from um the area once you leave the the building and step out into here. There's a few steps up that get you to the playground area. Um this space we see as you know not just for play but also for the potential for instructional for outdoor education. And this is a view kind of looking at that window that you were seeing from the outside back into the corridor where you access the classrooms and the stair that goes up to the second floor. So it's sort of this is the extension of the original building. And again, a view from closer to where the entrance of the classroom is looking out beyond the the windows, the instructional wall to the left. um group instruction um in one of the corners, the teachers instruction um at the other

054corner and really a large open space again to support um flexibility. And this is a view taken from um looking from the windows back to the um entrance of the classroom. Again, you can see some of the white writable surfaces that are kind of um dispersed throughout the space. um the small the rug area for um story time and instruction um with all of the instructional desks and um chairs sort of around it surrounding it. Um then we're just going to move on to some of the strategies that we have been able to incorporate into the project. Um the first is um this just something that uh we do that you don't necessarily notice and that is just the use of high performance glazing and wall and roof assemblies for the in um insulation requirements

055um to essentially uh hold heat better um throughout. So it's a high Uvalue glazing system. Um it's incorporated into the ventilated walls assemblies and it really optimizes the wall and the roof. um insulation. Um we have high efficiency LED lighting, automatic lighting, um controls and daylight harvesting. So um the lights will sort of dim and on their own. Um and then lastly, high efficiency HBAC equipment. So um there are uh VRFs, which is variable refrigerant flow. There are electronic heat pumps for efficiencies um for both heating and cooling that do this without any fossil fuel use. Um energy recovery ventilators uh which transfer and reduce the energy needed to heat and cool outside ventilation air. And then lastly, MV 13 high efficiency filters which will be part of all the HBAC equipment um serving any

056teaching space. Yeah, I Tina Daryl, thank you for that presentation, that update. Um, I was wondering how you'd be able to capture the enormous amount of work that has gone into the planning of the project over the last 14 months. And I think you did so really well. And I appreciate you articulating specifically some of the meetings that we had and and the groups with whom we met and the input and the feedback loops that we created. And I I just really appreciate the the time that you took to develop this presentation and give our community some insight as to where where we what we've been up to over these last 14 months. And I I do want to share with the community and and our community has seen this project after project with us

057with regard to attention to detail, whether it was the gymnasium project or some of the other construction projects that we've done, the servery, the cafeterias and health office suites that we've replaced, flooring, caf um so many other spaces that we've done. The attention to detail that goes into the planning of these projects is incredible. So if we take a look and we're not going to go back in the presentation, but when we look at the athletic fields and how we determine the orientation of those fields, we're thinking through the eyes of a student athlete on the on that field, whether you're a goalender in soccer or field hockey or lacrosse or you're uh catching a a kickoff in football, having the field run north south prevents the sunlight glaring into your eyes as a goalender.

058if we were to design the field east west. So that's the level of detail that we look at in this design process from the student standpoint, from the visitor standpoint to our campus, looking at uh pathways and walkways and flow of traffic and just thinking through so many different lenses. So I just want to thank Daryl Teen. I also want to acknowledge Scott Hilgy who's here in the audience as well. Scott is with ARIS, our construction manager, and Scott's role in this process has been so incredibly helpful to us and his expertise is just unmatched. So, at at this point, Jackie, I'll turn it over to the board if there are any questions that you'd like to ask. We have Daryl, we have Tina, we have Scott here, and and Peter is here in the

059audience as well. Peter sits in on our meetings every two weeks. So, I do want to acknowledge Peter. He's incredibly responsive to our help a lot with this presentation and has helped tremendously with the presentation. Um, so I'm going to start with people who haven't been sitting on the committee first. So Pete, do you have questions? No. Um, I mean, very impressive presentation. It and I've seen a lot before, but it when you start to put the scope together and and what what's been going to be done and what's been done, a lot of work behind it. Um, well, maybe I do have one question. So, it looks like construction will start in September of this year, the 25th, right? That'll start. So, pretty much from that point on, it'll be for the next few

060years. Yes. Correct. Um, no, um, I don't have any questions. I just want to get a better idea of of the timing of it. So, Lisa, uh, just to follow up on Pete's question. So, if it's going to start in September, how are we minimizing? First of all, it's amazing. Let me just say that. Thank you to the committee, our architects, everybody. Thank you. It's amazing. But how are we minimizing the impact on the instructional time? Yeah, I think just to clarify, the additions will start before any renovation work in in September. So, that will help mitigate that. and they're because they're off um sorry because they're sort of off at the um ends of of the buildings um you know they're fairly they're pretty isolated. So we spent a lot of time talking about

061how to minimize the impact on students on visitors to our campus that has been so prominent in our discussion. So there's one part of this with regard to the athletic fields. Those projects are pretty isolated. So we'll still have access to the main turf field. We'll still have access obviously to the building fizzed fizzed facilities. One field at a time is the approach we're taking so that we don't take the entire grass portion of the campus offline at at any one time. So the recess fields will still be available. Obviously, we'll have to safeguard that for for students to not access the construction area, but it's something we're certainly mindful of. With regard to the expansions at Mohansik and Brookside, the construction will start. It's in a remote part of the building and then the

062tie-in work happens when schools out of session. So, we we really are cognizant of 18 wheelers of trucks and deliveries and when that comes in, not from just an a safety standpoint, but they're loud. They they disrupt learning, teaching and learning. So, we're certainly mindful of that. Looking at how we schedule deliveries and and accept deliveries is another thing that we've been discussing. It's one of the things we work really closely with our construction managers. ARIS is very good at mitigating the um work as a part as keeping it separate from the students. They've been doing it for a lot of years here and they are very very conscious of it. They know where to put security. They know how to manage timing of stuff. So they're very good about it. So So that's what

063the other thing is one of the reasons that the two fields are being done separately, the two turf rails is the amount of disturbance. You're not allowed to disturb what was it more than 5 acres and that's a much larger than 5 acres. You have to get special dispensation basically to be able to do more and it's not worth it. We've been told that you just won't get it. So you have to do two fields in different years. Um so all of our um athletic teams will be able to play throughout the construction of the fields and the plaza. So there will be some practices that are displaced during the time of construction. So right now the baseball team is not able to play on our home baseball field just given how how saturated the

064field is with water which is a big reason why we're addressing that through this bond. So I want to be careful not all of the teams will be able to play presently not all of the teams are playing on the campus. So we're minimizing disruption but there will be inevitably some disruption. So baseball will continue likely at Granite Nolles for the upcoming at least a portion of the upcoming season. A lot of it depends on how rough next winter is and how rough some of the other field conditions are. If we have a mild winter with not too much precipitation on the ground, there's a possibility that at some point in that spring season, we can turn the field over to the baseball team and have our first home game next spring season. If we

065have a difficult winter with a lot of snow and and the ground doesn't thaw out till late March, then that'll put us a little bit behind. But as of right now, we're on schedule. We're maintaining that tax neutrality on Prop One and uh we're going to minimize displacement, but I I do want to be upfront with the community that there will be some teams that are displaced. There might be practices that are staggered that have to go later during the construction to keep students on our campus. That's short-term. And once we have our three fields online, we were really looking forward to getting all of our students back on this campus for their practices, ending practices at a more reasonable hour than when they currently end. And um hopefully that's just a year or two

066away for us. Right. Thank you. Right. Um I have two questions, but I think Dr. Hatter may have answered one in the last 30 seconds. Um so my first question, I know there's a lot of dates on there, Darl. So are we are we on track or did anything come up from these meetings or the DP or the state or anything that kind of you know needed more time or are we are we on track? Um we did have to adjust the schedule a little bit for the field because of D but we are um on track the building the um Brookside and Moans are on track. Uh we submitted when we were supposed to we've already received comments so all of the the expectations have been met. Um the field project though we did

067have to adjust to some degree um again because of D. Right. Well, the renderings are u beautiful and u the plaza. I can't wait to see it. My um other question was um some of the greener um initiatives that are going in the newer spaces um they will coexist just fine with the older um stuff in the buildings and that should be good. Okay, great. Thank you. Cheryl, um I know you discussed um a little bit of the disruption that we had with the high school field. Do you anticipate any possible challenges that we'll have at any of the other schools or are we part you know sort of past that point where I know that that was a big disruption and you know I think we're past that. We don't anticipate anything um to

068that extent. No, sounds good. All right. Thank you. And Mike, I I don't have any questions. Um, I've kind of been involved in this process uh pretty deeply uh from basically the beginning, but I would like to take the opportunity to um thank um Tina and Daryl and uh Scott and everybody on the the teams at Mamasi and Aris. Um they're downplaying the um the curveballs that we've been thrown especially on the Fields project. um they were significant and uh they all did an excellent job of scrambling and uh coming up with alternatives um getting them through and and approved by the engineers etc. So um thank you for that uh publicly uh because it it really was disruptive um and we've had to come be very creative uh and uh both on the field

069side, the financial side etc. But we have a really good plan now and uh it's moving forward. So I'm very happy about that. So thank you both. Yeah. Thank you very much. And I think Scott and Pete too, everybody's been involved. And one of the things I really appreciate is that anytime anybody on the committee and even the stakeholders came in with um concerns or comments, by the next meeting, you were addressing them. we were always figuring out as a committee how to move forward and and you really listened and that was really really important to us. I really thank you for that. Um we did commission a traffic study at Brookside because of the the way the parking lot works and the way the building's going to does jut out. Can you talk a

070little bit about that traffic study and how we're going to potentially get that into this bond? We'll talk to Lisa about that too. it. So, as part of the uh the planning process for the kindergarten edition at Brookside, um we engaged a a traffic consultant to provide several options that we're we're still currently evaluating for um potentially expanding that entrance lane, um a bus loop and bus parking. and especially to to to separate between bus traffic and bus parking and parent drop off and student pathway. So that is that is part of the site planning on the the kindergarten edition side of Brookside that we're still evaluating that we know is important an important part of constructing this new addition. Um, did you have any other No, but Jackie, I think you touched on a

071great point and I think Mike, you touched on a great point as well with regard to yes, this is an expansion of Brookside. It's an expansion of Mohansick, but there are so many tangential features to the expansion, looking at traffic flow, looking at parking, looking at so many other different uh choke points on the campus or safety considerations when dropping children off to this new wing. So that has all been part of our process as well. And then Rashi to your point with regard to the fields we I believe from the onset we were scheduled spring of 26. I think that was generally we're on target for spring of 26, but depending on some of the factors that are outside of our control. It may be later in the spring of 26 as opposed to

072the beginning of the spring of 26. But we are still hitting our time frames and I'm excited that in spite of all of the different curve balls that have been thrown our way, we're still trending toward being on time. Of course, next winter, if if we have a difficult winter, which I hope not for so many reasons, but if we have a difficult winter, that can adjust the timeline. Again, factors that are outside of our control. But you know what? A great winter can put us right back into that early spring time frame on the flip side of that. But no, I don't have any questions. I mean, we sit in meetings with Daryl, Tina, Peter, and Scott every two weeks. So, we have one tomorrow. So, our community is aware we have another facilities

073project committee meeting tomorrow afternoon. We'll be sitting debriefing and looking at next steps tomorrow. I also want to thank Lisa San Philippo because she she's very detailed oriented. She sits there with the money. She sits here with the timeline. She no, she really keeps us on track. She's very good. So, I really do appreciate you are invaluable. So, thank you so much. Um, anybody else? Nothing. Thank you so much. I appreciate this. It goes up on the website tomorrow. Yes, we'll have this up on the website tomorrow morning. Thank you. Okay. Can I go back into the remainder of the report? Okay. Okay. So, I have a couple of items that I want to share as part of my report. I'm actually going to begin with a point that Rashmi made with regard to some

074of the new green initiatives that we're making and how does that translate into the rest of the building because I think that that's a great point. At a previous meeting, I had shared that we're looking into energy performance contracts. We have spoken to or met with two different firms NG and Eneria which are used by neighboring school districts and we have heard some promising things. We have heard some reasons for pause. So we are looking at whether it's LED lighting controls the feasibility of solar panels on our campus in in any capacity. What I'm going to ask or recommend to the board is that we bring our construction managers in at some point May or June meeting depending on their availability to speak a little bit more about energy performance contracts and some of the

075things that are that are great about them benefits and some of the things we need to be mindful of and are there any other ways of achieving a similar goal outside of some kind of energy performance contract Because the point is a really good one that we're outfitting these new additions with some really good efficiencies and environmentally friendly efficiencies. How how does that look in the rest of the building and and can we take some of those ideas and incorporate that? So, that's been some of the work Lisa and I have been doing by meeting with two different firms or speaking with two different firms. and I'd like to invite Scott or Paul to come into one of our upcoming meetings to present to the board if that's okay with you. Can I ask a

076question? Um, you mentioned LED lights and I know we've replaced some um year a couple years ago, a few years ago, we had talked about doing a full-scale replacement. Is that something that's on the table, off the table? Is it part of an EPC? Is it outside of an EPC? So, the answer to that is either or. We can incorporate that into an energy performance contract. We can do that independent of an energy performance contract. The spaces that have been upgraded, gymnasiums, cafeterias, we've gone with LED lights when we've made upgrades for the places that have not been upgraded for the classrooms and and the facilities that have not been upgraded. This facility is one of those facilities that is part of the bond, but not until four or five four years from now. I

077want to say three or four years maybe. So yes, we can have that as part of an energy performance contract. We can start that work tomorrow if if we so chose to outside of any energy performance contract. But um I would like people who are more knowledgeable on this to come and present to the board to discuss the feasibility pros and cons of uh the approach either through an energy performance contract or independent of that or what are what other options do we have. Thank you. So that that was that piece. I'll begin. I wanted to begin with the state budget. This evening, we're asking our board of education to adopt the budget for the 202526 school year. Unfortunately, the state budget has not been passed at this point. It was due April 1st. It's

078now April 21st. And unless there has been some breaking development while we've been in this meeting, I'm not aware of an approved budget at this point. So we are asking the board to adopt a number of the total amount of the 2526 budget. We're making some assumptions in doing that and we need to make those assumptions because the board does have to adopt a budget so that we can begin to communicate the budget to our taxpayers, to our community, and we can finalize our tax levy increases with with the state. So, some of the assumptions that we're making in the governor's proposed budget, there was a 2.595 million increase in foundation aid. We're assuming that that will come to fruition. We are also operating on the assumption that when we couple the foundation aid increase

079and some of the other projected sources of revenue that we would have a 3.35% budget-to-budget increase which equates to a 1.74 tax levy change. And that tax levy change would equate to in the town of Yorktown an estimated tax rate increase of 1.12%. And that's 96 plus% of our tax base would experience a tax increase of 1.12%. In Newcastle, which makes up just under 2% of our tax base, the tax rate increase is estimated to be 9.46%. And in Courtland, again, just under 2% of our tax base, the estimated increase would be 7.59%. And I just want to remind the community that the district does not set those estimated tax rate changes. Those are done through equalization rates at the state level and within each municipality's assessor's office. Our tax levy change is 1.74%. So

080we do this with some assumptions. Should there be developments from the state with the state budget that influence the foundation aid or whatever the state aid is in either way, we'll certainly report that back to the board. But we ask you to adopt the budget numbers for the 202526 school year based on the best information available to us. And then finally, I just want to share one more piece of information and update from our last meeting. We had a discussion on the exeicio board, student board of education member. So at that meeting the board had asked me to develop a series of questions that we could use to send out to students. There was clarification. We can send this to current 9th, 10th, and 11th grade students. My understanding is that we're going to select

081one student and an alternate to serve as an exeicio student member of the board of education beginning July 1st. I'd like to just share with you briefly the questions that I've developed for inclusion and if there are any suggestions. I've shared this previously but obviously I want to share that again this evening with you. So we have the basic questions first name last name email address current grade and then just two very straightforward questions that are in short answer format that gives a student the opportunity to exercise their creativity and and their voice. The first is why would you like to be an exopicio member of the board of education? And we ask the student to share anything else that they think would be relevant in their application that they want you to know. And

082I often ask my interview questions with potential candidates who'd like to work in our district. Is there anything that we haven't discussed today that you hoped we would have discussed? And so that this is really just the opportunity for a student to share anything else that they feel they want to highlight in in their experience. So, I'm looking forward to working with my superintendent student council to then meet with a group of students who are interested individually obviously and making a recommendation to you by the end of next month is my hope. That's a tall order. Okay. Did anybody have any questions or comments about the survey? Um, are we getting a student from the high school and one from the middle school? So the regulations are written such that the student has to be

083enrolled in the high school for a minimum of one year to be the exeicio student board member. We're welcome to have a middle school member. Maybe for year one we want to maybe start with a high school student and we can assess if we want to add a middle school student moving forward. Year one, we I think what most districts are doing is having just a high school representative on the board. Some are going with one, some are going with two. I have not heard of districts with middle school students, but we can certainly leverage the middle school superintendent student council to add voice and to add to the high school students report. Yeah, I I get it that we're not required to have a middle school, but I I think that the needs of

084the middle school students and the wants of the middle school students might be different. than the high school students. So I I think it's something that we should look into later if there's nothing preventing us from doing it. Nothing preventing us from doing it. Okay. So maybe year one we we go with what we have to do and then great see see how it goes. Terrific. Yeah. Anybody else? Um no no comments. I do want to say I do like that question a lot about why would you like to serve because I think it encompasses a lot of other questions in it. They can talk about their experience. they can talk about their future plans or um really any any other you know anything relevant they want to share. So I do like that question

085a lot. Anybody else? No. So then with that said this will go out to the community tomorrow. The deadline for response will be in two weeks time approximately two weeks time. We'll make that Friday, May 2nd. And then from there, I'll schedule inter we'll review paper review all the applicants and set times to meet with students who advance to the meeting stage and then hopefully have a re not hopefully, we will have a recommendation to you by the end of May. So, is it going to the community or is it going to the students? It's going to go both. We're going to send it. So, having a high school student myself, I will tell you that my own high schooler does not check her email with the regularity that I hoped she would have checked

086her email. So, it will go to students and to families. So, how do you know that mom's not filling in for the student, you know, like mom used to go and pick your roommate for college? So, uh we'll have a meeting with the students who who based on the responses that are provided there there's another round of interviewing that that would be part of the process. So it wouldn't just be based on the paper responses. Okay. Thank you. Can I ask a question about the budget? What happens if our assumptions are wrong? Do we revote? What happens? So So that's a great question. And the question, what happens if our assumptions are wrong? The only wrong assumptions that could happen would be a change in state aid and and the amount of money that comes

087in either higher or lower. Lisa, with regard to process, should that be the case? Are we readopting? So, we um legally we have to have our property tax report card, which has the budget number in it up to the state by Saturday. So, if something changes this week and it the board is so inclined to readopt, we could do that. But after Saturday, it it's submitted to the state and we have no ability to change it after that. Okay. So, did anybody have any questions or concerns with the budget um before we make an adoption? So, we're going with the assumption that the state will eventually get their act together and provide us with a state budget. I think it's very I got to say it's it's very sad that school districts are held to

088a a standard that we have to have our numbers in and confirmed and we have to have a vote by the public. like the only place that has a vote for the public for a budget and the state doesn't have their act together. I just I find that very frustrating every year. Every year. Every year. At least you're right. But it's very frustrating every year. Okay. So, can I move on? Yeah. Okay. So, one last you guys are comfortable with everything in the budget and everything that was taken out. we don't need. You guys are are good with what we have. I believe that we've done the best we can with the information that we have and I I I feel comfortable personally. Yes, I'm confident I'm confident in the budget. Would would I love

089to have a million dollars more to be able to add programming? Of course. I I think any superintendent would tell you that we would love to add more opportunities to our instructional program. I believe this balance this balances what our students need with sensitivity to taxpayers but it also took under consideration a different model. This zerobased modified zerobased budgeting approach is a little different. It's a little new for us and I thought that was very constructive in with regard to looking at programs staffing levels student enrollment and and needs of our program. So I thought that the model was also very helpful to us. But yes, I am confident in this budget. Okay. Then resolve the annual school district budget for the fiscal year 2025 to 2026 in the amount of $123,95,000 and the requisite

090portion thereof be raised by taxation on the taxable property of the district be approved. So move second. All those in favor? I opposed. Thank you for all of this hard work. Hopefully budget season is over. Okay, we're going to move on to committee reports. Audit committee rush me. Uh so the committee has a meeting coming up uh on May 6th and uh the purpose of that meeting is to discuss the drafts of the report from the uh internal auditor and also to kick off the external audit. um uh activities for this school year. So, more to come. Okay. Um next is educational vision. Catalina is not here, but we have not met in a few months, so there's nothing to report. Uh facilities project. Uh you saw it, so I guess there's nothing to report

091there. We can go up to fiscal, Mike. Uh so there's no nothing new on fiscal. Um I reported on our last meeting at the last board meeting um I will say just in relation to the budget and the state uh adoption the process hasn't changed. We've gone through this every year. The uh budget that we approve uh will be contingent upon um the state aid calculations. Uh historically those have been uh at least as good as what we've been provided in estimates. Um oftent times better uh but rarely uh can I recall an instance where it was significantly worse. Uh regardless whatever happens um once we know what the facts are uh we will as we usually do we'll convene um a fiscal advisory committee meeting. We'll go over the details with the administration and

092we will come back to the board with a recommendation on how to handle um the shortage, the excess, whatever it would be. Um and we'll move forward from there. So, just to clarify exactly what that's going to look like. Thank you, Cheryl. Policy. Sure. We last met on April 3rd. Uh on on that date, we reviewed 15 policies. Many of them were shorter policies. Um we're going chronologically from the oldest to the newest. some key highlights. Um, we are waiting on legislation for the policy on students and electronic devices. So, when we hear more about that, we will continue on with that policy. And as Dr. Hatter stated tonight, the ex official student member of the board search will begin as of tomorrow when his letter goes out. Um, recommendations, we have seven first reads

093for tonight and eight reviews. And just a note, the reviews on our policies, our policy, they'll come through and they'll just go through as a review because there's nothing substantial. No substantial changes have been made to the policy. You know, maybe we added a comma or capitalized, you know, a word or something, but it's nothing that changes the meaning of the policy. Follow-up items, we're waiting for the legislation on students and electronic devices, and we'll be meeting again on May 1st. Thank you. Sure. Um so board discussion we discussed exeicio student so we're good. Okay. All right. Our next discussion is the board meeting calendar that we approved last meeting but Rashmi you had concerns about having too many meeting dates in March. So um we were given two more proposals. Does anybody have questions

094comments? What do you want to do? The second proposal looks uh good. But I think it's similar to what we have this year. So the second proposal, you want to add in the February 23rd meeting, which is the Monday after a break, right? It's it's similar to what we did this year. There are two meetings in February and two in March. Okay. So, I'm going to tell you from a standpoint of trying to put an agenda together and trying to get the information going the Monday after a break is is very very difficult. It's extremely difficult for the staff for the central office staff that have to get things together. So much happens in a week's time. So much happens from a a Friday meeting to a Monday meeting where you put a whole week

095in there. They don't necessarily have the time to gather all the information to get it all up there. I I I think like this meeting was very difficult to get together. I think it's really difficult and you put a lot of pressure on staff. That's why they try to avoid going after breaks. Um and that's just a concern. I mean, if you still want to do it, we're the board. We can do it. But I just think that it's hard on staff. I don't know if anybody else has any comments about it. Was the concern just that there's too many meetings in March? Was that the concern? Yeah. and and some of them are like the 16th and the 23rd are consecutive um meetings. So, it's three meetings in March and two of them tend

096to be the 5:00 p.m. starts. So, um it's it's Can I make a suggestion? Those 5:00 PM starts, those are review nights. We could put those into February meetings. Do those have to be those review nights h have to be Yeah. Could you have those in February and then the March meetings start at six as opposed to five? Can we just stagger them so they're not back to back? I don't care when they are, but February is not too early. Rush me brings up a good point. I mean, just try to stagger them. Put, you know, one in between. I again, I don't care when, but yeah. Would that help? Yeah. I just think it's it's I know you know Horvette when she puts these meeting calendars together she thinks about everybody's comment over the

097last few years and she tries to address all of them but it is very very difficult to put together an agenda. Yeah. That far out. Yeah. I think this is the format we used to have for years and years and we tried something different this year uh based on my comments last year. So I I to me I think this like this year worked out a lot better. But if that's not the case then sure we can go back to what we had. Are you okay if we Which is the one we approved? If if we we try to just put Well, we only have one meeting in February. If What if we let Ron try to figure out how to stagger maybe those 5:00 PM starts so they're not back to back? Could Could

098you maybe do something like that? We'll do whatever whatever you ask of us, of course. So, if it's staggering the five:00 starts, staggering the good news presentations, we'll certainly do whatever it is asked of us. We already adopted a calendar, correct? Correct. At the last meeting. So, in terms of tweaking it, um I think you've heard some feedback, uh constructive, you know, feedback. Um see if we can come up with some solutions and um table this for, you know, another discussion. Do we want to I guess our question my question is and and it's a big question for them trying to figure it out. Do we want to put a meeting a Monday after we've been off for a week? I I would prefer not to just because I know not only are they difficult

099to come together. Um they often don't have a lot of new information in them because nothing's happened you know over the the week where nobody was here. So I would try to avoid those um if we can and I certainly agree if we can stagger the the early starts uh for tenure review that that would be very helpful and you can play around with the good news and you know try to keep them a little more concise if we're going to have them back to back to back that would be fine with me. I think we've taken the good news out of most of those presentations to try to shorten it. Rashmi, are you okay with that? Yeah, it's fine. We're going to leave the calendar as it is for right now. Ron is going

100to work on some proposals for when we can shift those dates around and then we'll discuss it again. Right now, at least we have a calendar for next year and we don't really have to worry about it till September. We have the July date. All right. Thank you. All right. So, we're going to move on to approval of minutes. Can I have a motion to approve the April 7th, 2025 meeting minutes? Some second. All those in favor? I oppose. Okay. Um board will conduct a first reading on the following policies. 12:30 public comment at board meetings. 2160 code ethics for officers and employees. 2270 school attorney. 2390 public hearings, 30,000 goals and objectives for the administration, 3240 organization of responsibility, and 4326 programs for English language learners. Anybody have any questions or concerns? No. Um,

101I do I have a couple of questions. Mhm. Um let me just get my So the um public participation in board meetings there was an amendment made um towards the end where we added to the extent the allocated time permits the board president is responsible for recognizing speakers. What exactly does that mean and why did we add it? It's the only thing I wish get on there. I think that if I recall correctly, the discussion was um it allows uh individual time, but it doesn't provide for the cumulative time. And I think we were trying to make this consistent with another policy that that the board president will recognize every speaker to the to the extent we can. So that if we're allowing 30 minutes of time with three minutes per per person and we

102have 20 people, we've now exceeded. So she's only going to recognize people if the al total allocated time permits us to do so unless the board agrees otherwise. And I think we we have done that in the past. We've extended the time. We've never not said to someone, you can't speak. Um, but I think, correct me if I'm wrong, Charl, that's what we were trying to address was making sure that she could address everyone unless the time ran out cumulatively, right? Yeah, that's exactly what we had discussed. Um, and we've had that situation where we've had, you know, a a room full of speakers and, you know, we've always allowed it to go past the allocated time permit, but time permitting, but this gives us that that leeway whether we choose to use it or

103not. Oh, so this is saying that if we choose not to use it, we just allocate the number of speakers divided by the 30 minutes. No, so it's so it's the three minutes with the total time of 30 minutes, right? So, if you take out to the extent the allocated time permits, it just says you're responsible for recognizing all the speakers. We didn't address whether or not we're now past the 30 minutes. So, whether we're going to be here till 2 o'clock in the morning. At some point, you have the you have the right, privilege, whatever to stop it because we've gone past the allocated time, which is the 30 minutes total. So if we get you know and there were some meetings where we had a number of speakers that went beyond three minutes

104per person total minutes 30 minutes we had more than that. So you can you can recognize them or not recognize but in those instances what we've done is ask the board for approval to continue and expand try not to obligate ourselves. What if we're what if it's 1:30 in the morning, right? The way it was before, it's there was no limit based on allocated time. Also, paragraph 1 and paragraph 5 conflict with each other. Paragraph 1 speaks to a 30 minute maximum. Paragraph 5 speaks to everybody who wants to speak can speak. So, something needed to be adjusted to ensure that the policy was in agreement with itself. So we can't set a 30inut time limit but then in the next breath say that we're going to recognize every speaker. We certainly want to recognize

105every speaker but the policy needed to agree with itself and that's where we made the adjustment to stand behind the 30 minutes but certainly this board has never not allowed a community member to speak who has requested to speak uh irrespective of how long that signup list has been. But I but I believe that that's the genesis of that change is that the policy in in the first paragraph was a little bit different than the policy in paragraph 5. So, if I may, um, would it potentially be clearer if we just said the board president is responsible for recognizing speakers during the public comment section because that then is either 30 minutes or if we choose to extend it, it extends it and it's clear that there's a time frame on it from paragraph one.

106The way I read this, I don't know what this allocated time permits means. So maybe we can look at that and see if we can clarify it a little better. Is that too much to ask? I'm not in those meetings, so I know you guys put a lot of time into it. But as as someone who didn't know what was going on as I read it, it it didn't make any sense to me. And I think if we're going to put it in policy, it should be clear what it means. So, can you just repeat what you wanted it to say, Mike? Well, I just made it up, but um so the board president is responsible for recognizing speakers during the public comment section, right? So, that quantifies that there's a time limit to it

107because in paragraph one, it says it's 30 minutes or we can extend it by majority vote of the board. So whatever that comment section period is is when we recognize speakers and outside of that we don't have an obligation to have any speakers. So I think that solves the the problem a little clearer to me. That's just me. We can take it back and discuss it at our next policy meeting. That's fine. Thank you. Yeah. Um my second question is on I guess it's 2160 code of ethics. So there is uh in section one the the way it reads now is a board member, officer or employee is deemed to have an interest in number one a firm partnership or association in which the board member officer or employee is a member or employee. There's

108a lot of repetitiveness there and I'm just again for clarity is is that all necessary or is there a way to make that a little bit more succinct? Really repetitive to me. As I look at this, I'm not sure that this is the complete edited version because there seems to be words put in that shouldn't be there. Right. I don't think that this is the right version. I just look I just want to look at the clean version. I looked at both and yeah it wasn't it didn't come across just read again just reading it it doesn't it it's hard to make sense of it I maybe we can just make sure it's the right version before we because even if you look at the first section the word district is just stuck in there

109and then um under number one it says they like it it's not there's something wrong with this draft for sure right but the clean version captured everything yeah the clean version captured our intent So looking at the clean version, it says a board member, officer, employee is deemed to have an interest in a firm partnership or association in which the board member officer employee is a member or employee. So what what do you suggest, Mike? I I'd have to give it some thought again just I just read these as you know kind of an outside person and try to say do I understand what this means? And I it just seemed really repetitive to me. Okay, because we're repeating in in one. We're repeating exactly what it says above it again. So maybe we just

110take that middle piece out. It's I think that this section comes from a statute. I could be wrong, but that's the other part. I don't know how much of this comes from the attorneys and how much I Yeah, I think that section is is directly from the statute, but we can check it back with just check it. It again, it just kind of it sort of repeats itself a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We'll we'll check on that. Okay. Thanks. Anything else is good. Anybody else have com questions or comments? No. Okay. Then um below policies were reviewed with no changes. So we have 2220 board officers, 2230 appointed board officials, 2250 board committees, 2260 advisory committees to the board, 2410 policy regulation, development, adoption, implementation, and review. 2510 new board member orientation and training. 2521

111schoolboard attendance at conferences, conventions, workshops, meetings, events, and activities. And 3200 administrative organization. Did anybody have any questions on any of these? I have one. Um on 2410, Cheryl? Yeah. Um it talks about the cycle and they say it's a three-year cycle. Is that realistic? I mean, we've been doing this for a lot of years, but if it's not a realistic cycle to cycle through, maybe you guys want to discuss what is realistic or is three years required? I don't think three years is required. I think it's what we try. I think it's our policy, but I'm not sure about that. Yeah. I mean, it's our goal, right? I know, but Right. I know. I It's a goal. That's one thing, but if putting in policy, I don't want to hamstring you to that. Right.

112Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, you know, you're working on 17 now and you're, you know, we're still catching up. Better than 1995 that we were working off of. Absolutely. We're getting there. We're hoping to get to a threeear cycle. Absolutely. But you could you just discuss what makes sense? Sure. Realistically, maybe a vet can help because she knows how long it's taken. Yeah. Look at that data. Yeah. How long typically lasted. Thank you. That does say the the board's goal is to review it, right? It doesn't say it's mandatory. It's just that that's our goal. let her go for a long time. Okay. Personnel. Um, and thank you for the policies. We don't mean to be critical, but it's No, that's what they're there. That's why they're here. All right. Personnel. Um, CTA

113chapter of the Yorktown Congress of Teachers. Be it resolved that the board of education hereby authorizes the superintendent to execute the side letter of agreement between the Yorktown Central School District and the CTA TA chapter of the Yorktown Congress of Teachers providing additional substitute pay for employee number 5332. And be it resolved that the board of education hereby authorizes a superintendent to execute a side letter of agreement between the Yorktown Central School District and the CTA chapter of the Yorktown Congress of teachers providing additional substitute pay for employee number 5483. So move second. All those in favor? I opposed. Personnel upon recommendation of the superintendent a motion that the following be approved. certified personnel. We have uh appointments, other compensation, which is mostly our summer support. Um our middle school summer support, other compensation, we

114have a resignation under classified personnel. We have civil service appointments. In addition to the substitute list and a resignation, some move second. All those in favor? I opposed um business office. Whereas the New York State education law requires the district to prepare, approve, and make publicly available the 2025-26 property tax report card. Therefore, be it resolved the board of education of the Yorktown Central School District approves a 2025-26 property tax report card and authorizes superintendent to publish it in accordance with the law. So move. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. A Yorktown High School overnight trip. A motion to approve the following Yorktown High School overnight trip to Genius Olympiad Science Competition at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York from June 9th to the 13th. Some move. Second. All those in

115favor? I opposed. A motion to approve the attached letter of the approve the attached A motion to approve the attached independent contractor agreement for functional SLP speech and language therapy pending receipt of required insurance documents. All those in favor? I oppose. Curriculum. A motion to approve the following Yorktown Congress of Teachers professional improve improvement proposals for the 2425 school year. Some moved. Second. All those in favor? I oppose. Special education. A motion to arrange the following placements as of April 21st, 20125. [Music] All those in favor? I opposed. Gifts, grants, and donations. A motion to accept with gratitude the following gifts, grants, and donations at Crompton $2,000 for the fourth grade excursion to the museum village from the Krompon PTA. So move. Second. All those in favor? I oppose. board comments. Mike, I'll start with

116you. Um, great. That was a great meeting. Um, it's nice to finally, well, almost finally get the budget process behind us and and uh approved. So, thank everyone for that. Um, the children's presentation on on the Wolf Conservatory was um fantastic. Loved every bit of it. And I wish the gift was some ears cuz I would have liked those. Those are kind of cool. I was hoping I know. Oh, when I when she went for the bag, I was like, "Oh, I hope there's some ears in there for me." That was so good. Um, and uh, thanks again to to the uh, architects and uh, our project and construction managers because uh, that was an excellent presentation. um very well designed and as Ron said they were able to capture uh you know a year's

117plus year and a half probably of work in um a couple of slides and it doesn't really do it justice but I think you get the idea of uh what goes into it and um that we're on track and and things look great. So I'm really excited about the future uh and what those projects are going to look like at completion. So thanks Joe. I thought the uh facilities projects update was fantastic tonight. Um sounds like, you know, we've had some bumps in the road, but we've, you know, smoothed things out and kept things on track. So, that's really nice to hear. And as as we close out the budget process, just thank you to Dr. Hatter, Mr. Ammerling, and Miss San Filippo and our administrative team. I know a lot of hard work goes

118into that. And believe it or not, it starts basically in the fall. So, we close it out now and probably in not too many months, we'll be starting it again for the ne following school year. But thank you for everything. Right. Uh yes, of course. Thank you to our amazing administration, Dr. Hatter, uh Lisa, and Deedra for uh your work on the budget. Um it's never easy. Um I I shared with our PTSA uh last month that we're we're not staying status quo. We're always moving forward and you know, we we try to stretch those dollars as um you know, as as much as we can for our students. Um, and I can't wait to see the Glow Forge work of art hanging up in the administrative uh building. Um, I know it was um

119one of the direct uh efforts from an II grant uh that was submitted and a partnership with the PTA. So, um I can't wait to see it. Lisa, um thank you to our facilities and steering committee um and the administration for the project. I mean, I think tonight it really put it in to reality for us what it is. The last time we saw something like that, it was like, well, if we pass this is what we could do. It really now is reality with actual drawings. So, um, thank you to everyone for that. I really appreciate it. Looking forward to it. Pete, just between the the budget adoption, the bond um, project, and of course the children, it was just a night filled with good news. So very good. Yeah, it was. I appreciate

120what everybody second what everybody said, but I also, you know, all year long we've had these wonderful um good news where the students come up and we always thank the um the buildings, we thank the teachers, but we need to thank central administration, too, because without your guidance, all of this doesn't happen. All of this good learning, all of this good work that's going on. So, I really appreciate everything that you do, Ron, Dedra, and Lisa. So, thank you very much because without you guys, we wouldn't have that. So, thank you. Uh, we are up to our last public comment and Mr. Killian has been waiting so patiently and you know I know you know the rules so I'm not even going to read them to you but you know I'll stop you if you

121break them. Good evening. Larry Larry Killian speaking for Yorktown 100. It's a group of Yorktown residents concerned with reducing our carbon footprint and conveniently for a budget discussion. It also saves money. I was very excited to hear about all of the green energy uh technology being incorporated to in the new additions. That's great. That saves that's going to save a lot of money down the road. I would urge while you're doing that work, whether or not it's with an EPC or whatever we're doing, if we're opening up buildings and doing things to buildings, let's look again to see if there's an opportunity to do anything um that would save money. Um, our message that we presented when the uh, superintendent presented his budget on March 24th was that your roofs, parking lots, and open spaces

122can generate an enormous amount of revenue. And hopefully I'm happy to hear that that's we're going to have a presentation coming up uh about that with alternatives. That's very exciting. I would also remind you about about buses. Um I read that first student has the most electric buses running in the country. Um hopefully we can work out some sort of deal with them that we start replacing our diesel buses next year. Food waste. Tar town has a goal of not sending to the incinerator in peacekill and all of that air comes towards us. It's the least efficient way to deal with waste. It takes super hot heat to burn food. So hopefully from an educational point of view, a sustainability point of view, we are going to look at reducing food waste from our cafeterias.

123Thank you. Thank you very much. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? Some move. Second. All those in favor? I oppose. Thank you all. Thank you, Mr. Killian.