001can I have a motion to go back into public session all those in favor I opposed good evening welcome to the Yorktown Central School District Board of Education meeting for March 24th 2025 can we please stand for the pledge of allegience led by two of our crom pond students and then remain standing for a moment of silence for our armed forces and those in our community that have lost loved ones especially the Mother-in-law of Nancy white the Mother-in-law of Steve VII the grandmother of Kim atus and the grand the grandfather of Amanda spinardi and the brother-in-law of Mary broer I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible for liberty and justice for all well Dr how we have
002a very full house tonight yes it's so wonderful to see so many crom Pon students here with us so many cmon faculty and staff and parents and community members it's so wonderful to see you here as well joining us tonight so I know it's already it's Monday and it's been a long week for many of us I appreciate you m making the time to be here it's so great to have you as part of this evening to celebrate your children and the learning that they're doing for our board what you're going to see is a project that that um I think you'll really enjoy that has paid incredible dividends almost immediately to our students at crompond so without further Ado I'm going to turn the presentation over to cmon school principal Miss Jennifer Jacobs thank
003you so good evening members of the board central office administrators community members just want to say again a big thank you to the staff who came to support and also for staff who work so hard to pull this off um I'm honored to be here tonight to introduce an exciting new initiative that has the power to shape not only how our students learn but also how they connect with one another and that's our new outdoor class room our vision for this new Outdoor Classroom is to provide a space where every student feels valued heard and inspired where they not only grow academically but also learn the lifelong skills of understanding and respecting one another this initiative aligns with our commitment to fostering a supportive and inclusive learning environment while enhancing students social and emotional well-being
004and I think throughout the presentation you'll see how it kind of permites into many areas of our curriculum in our school day you'll also note that there are some things in front of you um don't play just yet but we do have an assignment for you and so now without further Ado I'd like to begin to call our students up to walk you through this process where oh good evening my name is Arjun and I am a fifth grade student in M Reed's class this is my classmate Angelina and we are excited to tell you about our new Outdoor Classroom which we have officially named the nature Nook to choose the name our class brainstormed different ideas that would represent a peaceful and inspiring place for learning Outdoors after listing many creative names we held
005a vote and the nature Nook was the winner after choosing the name we worked with our East team specialist Mrs Burns to design the sign first we handrew our ideas making sure they reflected the beauty of nature then we used a special tool called the glow Forge a laser cutting machine to bring our design to life we even took a field trip to the library to see the glow Forge in action watching as it carefully cut and engraved our sign now the nature Nook has a beautiful student created sign and we are so proud of our work this project helped us learn about teamer creativity and using technology to make something meaningful in our [Applause] school hi my hi my my name is Ava and I am in Mrs Burns fourth grade class in the
006fall after the construction of the Nature's Nook Mrs Burns and Mrs Burns had a class use our new Outdoor Classroom it was the perfect place for us to work when using our class drones we use this space to discuss plan and set up our drones for flight when we work when we met with our drone Partners we worked together to go through flight school and explored the sky and worked on a drone scavenger hunt by taking pictures of the crom pond campus it is so much fun to be outside flying drones rather than inside sitting in your seat good evening my name is Giana did you know that there are many benefits to learning Outdoors it's so nice to be outside with the Sun hitting your face exposure to sunlight through Outdoor Learning can help
007increase vitamin D levels which are important for overall health another benefit for learning Outdoors is that it can SP spark creativity and Imagination it helps us think outside the box which is what our class needs when we are using drones to solve real world problems [Applause] hi I'm Clark using drones in the outdoor classroom also allowed for us to work on our social skills and help our drone Partners learning Outdoors is good for diverse Learners meaning we all learn in different ways and some of us learn best when outside our class used The Outdoor Classroom for drones but now everyone will be able to use it for learning we can't wait until the Nature's Nick is officially open for crom Pon to enjoy good evening everyone my name is Don [Music] Goon good evening everyone
008my name is Don Goon and I am miss hman and miss mean's fifth grade class I am excited to share how we have used Nature's Nook in our classroom we most recently went outside to get inspiration from nature to help us write our narratives we brought out notebooks and made notes edits and new parts to our drafts and added figurative language and vived imagery a Sim I added to my writing during this time was everyone was as slow as snails my classmate Finn is going to share how we used the Outdoor Classroom [Music] science in science we have been working on Earth's systems ecosystems and the cycle of matter a few weeks ago we did an activity where we had to observe our surroundings and sort the things we found and saw into the different
009spheres of the earth these spheres include the H hydrosphere biosphere geosphere and atmosphere then we broke down the biosphere into smaller parts we looked around the area to to sort producers consumers and decomposers some of us were even able to try and make a cycle of matter for the area surrounding Nature's Nook my cycle of matter started with the sun which gives its energy to the grass the grass is eaten by the deer the deer then creates waste matter which gets broken down by decomposers and gives nutrients back to the soil for the grass we have so many great learning opportunities to look forward to the Nature's Nook thank you hello my name is Camille M PE class recently we did a yoga unit we learned that yoga originated in India over 5,000 years ago
010a long time ago yoga is good for the mind and body it helps you focus better increases strength flexibility and balance the greeting and closing words that mean showing heart like we do at cmod is Namaste so Namaste everyone hello my name is Maddie there are many poses in yoga that are based on animals and nature like the tree pose Mountain pose dolphin Swan cat Cow up dog and down dog to name a few the sun salutation is 12 length poses that are used as a warmup to start the day or to practice more difficult poses it should be repeated to increase your focus and and mindfulness [Music] hello my name is Abram being in the outdoor classrooms doing yoga will continue to help us to be more focused and connect to nature which is
011a healthy and fun choice for sure so who would like to join us in the sun salutation go for [Music] us forward [Music] slow exale [Music] hello everyone my name is Adriana and I'm in fourth grade in our school library we recently read The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig a book that teaches us about kindness inclusivity and celebrating diversity after reading we had a class discussion about how small acts of kindness can make a big difference hi my name is Amelia to bring this idea to life we created kindness rocks first we brainstormed words and pictures that represent kindness then in art class we painted these designs onto real rocks these rocks will decorate our Outdoor Classroom as a reminder to always be kind and include others this project shows showed us that even a
012small action like a kind word or a friendly smile can help others feel seen and valued we hope our kindness rocks Inspire everyone to spread kindness every day I think I broke it thank you hi my name is RZA during our class we talked about what elements of art are used to create simple visual messages because art is not just about creating something beautiful but also about telling a story or sending a message hello my name is Leo we learned about how certain colors are are Universal for communicating feelings like bright warm colors for positivity or bold deep colors for bravery we mix our colors to create a background that would best express our thoughts hi I am asme after our background colors DED we thought about an image or picture that would ensure that
013our image was understood and Illustrated our message with paint pens lastly we wrote Our text so that all could read it now it's your turn to create a rock for our Nature's Nook please think of an inspirational message of kindness to paint on your [Music] rock hi everyone I'm Kristen Sami the assistant principal at crom Pond I want to thank our students for doing such a wonderful job thank you to the board for inviting us here tonight while you decorate your kindness rocks we're going to invite miss celestri high seas to perform a song for you called it's all right thank you so much my good [Music] say it's all right say it's all right it's all right have a good [Music] know up in [Music] it's [Music] all all have a good time it's
014all right W it's all right [Music] it's [Music] clap your hands [Music] you you got I want to say a big thank you again to our students and give them a round of applause for participating great job we also do want to mention to the board when you're finished with your rocks we would love to add them to our Rock Garden at crom Pond and we will have an official unveiling Ceremony this spring and we're looking forward to seeing you there thank you Miss Jacob samit thank you very much this was this is phenomenal thank you so much the my understanding is who built this so this is this project was the definition and Evette can you go back to a picture of the Outdoor Classroom this this project is the definition of teamwork so
015this was made possible through grant funding through the PTA so through parents you all made this possible through a generous donation a few years back and our in-house facilities Department constructed this Outdoor Classroom so it's just a tremendous job uh certainly Mr verbo and and Dan sat rally had a huge hand in constructing this facility for our students so we're so proud of it well how wonderful you guys have this you're you're so lucky and you guys are amazing I know we have board members who want to say a lot more than I do so I'm going to pass it along going to start with Mike I don't know what to say I mean it was like a amazing variety show and uh the students were great we had yoga we had singing We had
016classroom activities um really does encompass the whole child so thank you very much for coming out it was really fun chy I agree with Mike there were so many cross curriculum references here we touched on PE we touched on Art we touched on music um I love it I'm a big supporter of the Arts I'm a big supporter of Athletics and I think all these programs really bring learning together and give um our students Outlets other than academics I think it's nice that um we do educate the whole child and I have to thank you you gave me my own mind moment and I think as adults we don't always think that that's as important as it really is and as you sang and I decorated my own rock and I reflected on what was
017so important to me I'm going to share what I wrote on my rock um my artwork could use a little help but I did write kindness starts with me and you and I appreciate you giving me those minutes just to reflect on what's so important in this world so thank you wonderful job tonight rush me students you did a great job um I loved uh hearing uh each one of you uh I really like the idea of the uh Rock Garden um I wish I also spent more time Outdoors um and I think you gave me something to think about um and I can't wait to see the unveiling of the raw garden and I think to Dr um Hatter I remember when we talked about the uh glow Forge uh maybe a year ago
018uh that was also a partnership because we talked about how you know how expensive it was compared to like a 3D printer at that time but I loved seeing that board with their work so thank you to for you yeah Lisa that was my favorite song I just want to tell you like when I'm alone in the car and I sing really loud that's the song I'm singing so thank you for bringing that I really appreciate it um to those of you who did the yoga in the front way to go I would never have done that and you are so brave for doing it so thank you for doing it in front of us and for everyone who spoke you did an amazing job it's hard to speak in front of all these people
019with that camera there and us sitting up here what a great job so proud of you and let's not forget they got to use drones how cool was that was that really exciting to use the drones I'm glad we can provide that to you Dr Hatter do you want to take it you know I I don't even know where to start but what I will say I'm giving a buz budget presentation in a little while this is why we do what we do that captures everything that I want to present to you tonight and I really thank you because it was so interdisciplinary in nature there was so many cross-curricular connections that were made I wrote on my rock the Yorktown difference and you may have heard heard that term at various points throughout the
020course of the school year because I truly believe that yorktown's a different district for whatever it is I I just hear it so often especially from people who have experiences in other school districts whether you work somewhere else in a school district or whether you were living in a community prior to this and and you moved here yorktown's just different there there's a difference here and I think you saw that with your students I see that by how many faculty and staff are here tonight giving up your time it's early in the week and I appreciate appreciate you being here um my children go to school here and I'm honored to say that my two children go to school in this school district and they went through crom Pond and had a great experience there
021and now they're in high school and middle school so I say that to you not just as a superintendent of the school district but as a proud parent of two children who go to school here as well just like many of you um students I was so impressed by what you did you stood up at the microphone and you were so confident you were so com there are many adults in this room who would not be able to do that and the fact that you have this skill at your age is absolutely amazing and that's just one of the things we'll talk about the content and what you said but you you sang in front of a room full of people you did yoga in front of a room full of people and you spoke
022confidently in front of a room full of people and I'm proud of you for that um parents thank you for sharing your children with us if if nobody's told you that this week your children are amazing and it's a blessing and a joy to spend part of their day part of our day with them and part of their day with us you're their first teachers you are their best teachers and we're just honored to have the time that we have with them throughout the course of the school day so thank you for everything that you do to bring your children in ready to learn each day uh I just I can't thank you enough I think it's a great partnership a great relationship that we have as a school district and as a community and
023you're busy you have a lot going on many of you have other children at home you have bedtime routines you have lunches to make tomorrow you have so many things things that are pulling on your time and you're here supporting your children and and to the board of education to my colleagues here and my colleagues in the audience this is why we do what we do and and students you made us so proud tonight so uh Mrs uh Jacobs Miss Amit thank you to the entire staff at cmon thank you most importantly students thank you you were just so so impressive I'm always so proud of you so with that I think we'll take just a brief five minute recess that'll give you the opportunity to get get on with your evening if you choose
024to do so if you want to stick around for the budget presentation you're you're welcome to do so but it will be posted to our website tomorrow morning so you're welcome obviously to watch the presentation at that point if you choose so we'll take a brief recess we ask that you exit through these doors we're going to resume in about five minutes we're going to close those doors so that we can move on with the remainder of the meeting thank you so much have a good night you know Dr Hada the when the schools come to visit that's the best part of the night that's you know we we can end the meeting that when we' be fine right but we're going to go on to public comment so we have uh people signed up
025for first public comment um I'm going to read my little thing and I know you guys have all heard it before but I'm still going to read it so our policy 12:30 public participation at board me no wait I start again although law does not require us to hold a public comment period we have CH chosen to do so because we believe it is crucial for us to hear from our community members about their concerns and issues please note that the board is here to listen the public comment period is not designed to be a discussion accordingly please do not expect the board to respond to your concerns and questions tonight um our policy 12:30 public participation at board meetings clearly states we do not allow discussion involving or using the name or situation of
026individual District Personnel or student students anyone who speaks in violation of her policy will immediately give up their right to continue to speak speakers are expected to conduct themselves into civil manner anyone using abusive or inflammatory language using offensive language or in any way causing A disruption will give up their right to speak members of the audience are expected to maintain Civility and respect for the views of others we do not allow calling out clapping or the disruption from the audience we will be tracking each speaker's time and towards the end of your 3 minutes we will warn you to conclude if you fail to abide by the 3 minute speaking time we will turn off the microphone all right so Larry Killian and please oh that's not directed at anybody in the audience we
027know [Music] you uh good evening first of all congratulations to the wonderful students at cron Pond the staff and the parents Larry could you move the microphone up so I am uh representing tonight Yorktown 100 a local all volunteer group seeking to reduce our green gas greenhouse gas emissions to Net Zero School roofs parking lots and open spaces can be covered with solar panels and generate cash akin to having a goose that lays golden eggs and an energy service company will at no cost to the taxpayer install solar panels and use the the money they make selling electricity to fund your transition to clean energy this is done through something called an energy performance contract epcs that have both guaranteed revenue and savings sers put Valley oening croin and the ter towns all have epcs
028our state Ed department has has approved 729 in the last five years we need to catch up we have provided you with details of epcs from nearby districts and the process to get a good EPC hire a company to craft an RFP to your specifications who will publish the RFP to energy companies and EV evaluate the various proposals received instead of laying out money for example for LED lights the Energy company will buy and install not just lights but heat pumps and other Technologies to save money at no cost to the taxpayer for the fourth year we urge you to make a long range plan to eliminate your use of fossil fuel when this plan is realize there will be solar panels on your roofs parking lots and some Open Spaces electricity made onsite will
029heat and cool your classrooms power your lights computers and vehicles you'll sell electricity to the bus company to power your school buses saving a ton of money hopefully the new additions to our schools will have solar panels and heat pumps and we will be able to replace our five diesel school buses with electric buses next year as we transition to an all electric Fleet for the health of our students and staff our budget should reflect our vision and core beliefs if we are cultivating empathy and providing students with the knowledge skills values and attitudes that they need to be competent and Larry thank you Sor students we should do this Paul SCH hello I was really pleased to uh come here tonight and see the show put on by the kids it's really worth the
030trip in any case I want to talk about solar derived energy I'm a member of the town of York Town climate smart Community task force I should get award for remembering the name in any case we are working on getting electric vehicles for Town departments and um in and bids on solar energy for our town owned buildings I suggest that this board has within it power the ability to ask your facilities people to get bids or to look at the cost of installing solar energy instead of using fossil fuels thank you thank you Susan Buck thank you all for allowing us to talk this is a very wonderful opportunity so I'm a longtime Yorktown resident a mother of a Yorktown graduate and a retired Elementary School teacher so nothing made me happier than to come
031here and see these kids incredible and also the wonderful Nature Center that you're opening I care deeply about our school district and this mission that you've all stated to develop the whole child so for the past several years years I've been working on a policy team of the climate and resilience education task force and last year we began collaborating with State Ed to uh about the importance of climate education so perhaps you're aware that n's Blue Ribbon commission has developed a new portrait of a graduate which includes a requirement for instruction in climate change education effective 2627 I'm sure you know and last here the regions approve that so this is happening definitely and Yorktown I really hope will be on the front line so our children will be prepared for newly developing green jobs
032but more importantly so our children will have the tools to tackle both intellectually and emotionally the difficult problems arising due to climate change although not as financially beneficial as moving away from fossil fuels and toward utilizing solar power there are additional opportunities for our students and for all of us to understand and practice living more sustainably one is food waste when we waste food we also waste all the energy and water it takes to grow Harvest transport and package it and if food goes to the landfill and rots it produces methane a greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide according to the World Wildlife Fund about 10% of all human caused green gas gas emissions could be reduced if we sto wasting food so we know what happens in the school cafeterias right
033I was there for 30 plus years so other school districts around here are are moving ahead Katona Lewisburg and ter town are teaching and showing students how to reduce food waste and the value of composting they have bins for compost and bins for plastic cans and liquor Liquors liquids and uh and of course they're they're explaining why this is important to do right so I believe we can do this in Yorktown right according to recycled track systems the United States discards nearly 120 billion pounds of food I'm sorry I'll send it to you thank you thank you please do very much Mary Jan Killian good evening my name is Mary Jane Killian and thank you for giving me the opportunity to share My Views about an important and exciting opportunity for the yoran schools and
034I also quickly want to say I didn't know this was happening earlier tonight it was fabulous I was I'm a retired teacher as well and it almost makes me want to jump back into the classroom um you've heard lots of information tonight about how much installing solar panels would save the district money this is a budget meeting after all uh it's important it's true but did you also know that many of the companies that provide the infrastructure for installing solar panels also provide curriculum materials or grants for curriculum development for the students to accompany these installations how wonderful it would be that while solar was being installed the students could be learning all about renewable energy the energy of which will no doubt power their future and if the partner that you chose excuse me
035offered money for curriculum development your own teachers could develop one most closely aligned with your already existing stem courses or if the company you chose offer curriculum materials they could be adapted to fit as well I've researched some of what's being offered and it's amazing I think the Hands-On Focus um of a lot of the topics are the best part it would be so motivating for students to feel that they were involved in learning about something that was happening right in their day-to-day lives as a retired teacher I've been very impressed by what I've read many of our neighboring towns have taken advantage of these opportunities ausing has $100,000 to develop curriculum to incorporate classroom lessons abundant real life on-site examples across the subject areas stemming from their project puton and Valley is a great
036resource they have a long history of using energy performance contracts to reduce their use of fossil fuel save money and along with this partner the children's environmental literacy program having as their goal sustainable puton Valley there are numerous other examples as Susan said croon ter town but I'll leave you with this thought I know that our school district is excellent and as excellent as it is it's capable of creating an incredible curriculum to accompany transition to clean energy of course to save money which should always be a goal but also to have the goal of being an environmental and civic-minded school Community with a deep connection to stewardship and understanding of the natural world I believe our bu budget priorities should reflect our stated Mission as a school district to develop students students who consider
037themselves to be contributing and compassionate World citizens who have the opportunity to influence positive change in the world end quote thank you very much thank you go ahead you want you or you just want to just all right yep all right so I think some of the questions will be or comments will be answered during the budget [Music] presentation so this evening marks the culmination of a very long process in budget development this is my eighth year here and 15th year in a central office actually more than that central office administrative role this was one of the more challenging budgets that I had to put together because there was just such an incredible balance that we had to strike this year there were things that were working in our favor and then obviously there are
038things working against Us in the budget development process so members of our community certainly are board heard presentations from each of our departments you heard from many of our school from our schools our programs about the needs that they have within their respective areas of supervision and we Face another backdrop which is the economic reality in our world so I'll begin with this this question how is a budget built now for members of our board you obviously know the answer to that question because you're intimately involved in the budget development process for members of our leadership team you're certainly aware of that for members of our community when I will tell uh and I'm sure me many members of our community are aware of this it starts with children everything that we do starts with
039children and and that's why I believe that the good news presentation this evening perfectly captures all that we're looking to present we saw physical education art music science Environmental Studies and so many other things come to light in that presentation this evening but there's a there's another balance to that and it's the economic realities of the community we recognize some of the headlines we we've seen these headlines many of these are local headlines whether it was a tax rate increase in the town whether it's water rates whether it's utility bills or grocery costs those are all ities that members of our community face and so as a school district where we are is trying to balance student needs with the economic reality of our community and that fulcrum where we get that perfect balance is
040what our tax levy is we want to make sure that we get students what they need to be successful in the classroom to be competitive in such a competitive world where more students than ever are applying to colleges and postsecondary education and the field is very competitive but there's also an economic reality that we have to recognize so our approach this year was a little bit different than it's been in previous years we took a modified zerob based budgeting approach now I say modified because in a true zerob based budgeting environment you're looking at every paperclip every pen every Post-It note and we didn't go to that extent we went on a per pupil allocation when it comes to consumable supplies but we certainly looked at that when it came to Staffing and in our
041budget certainly we're a people oriented business the vast majority of the budget is made up of Staffing so we looked at our needs from a zerob based budgeting approach from a staffing lens it's different than the conventional rollover budgeting approach where you have what you spent the previous year you roll that over and see what the additional needs are what what the changes are our Focus for this zerob B modified zerob based budgeting approach was looking at Staffing levels and right sizing using strategic scheduling and right sizing to ensure number one our students have what they need to be successful the programmatic opportunities that they have that they should be afforded but balancing that with sensitivity to taxpayers there are 10 teacher retirements to date the school year for the upcoming year three teacher resignations
042and we anticipate replacing six possibly seven but likely six positions of the 13 and that's through looking at strategic scheduling looking at right sizing and coming at the budget preparation process from a modified zerob based approach we had some goals as we do every year every year we set out goals we certainly want to make sure our staffing levels are commensurate with enrollment we want to keep class sizes within the Board of Education guidelines certainly we also want to reduce our dependence on fund balance and that's really going to support us just long term we looked at liter support but specifically at the early grades that's where the foundations of literacy are really laid and and and the roots are planted so we wanted to focus on bolstering our academic Support Services specifically in literacy
043specifically K8 we offered American sign language for the first time this past year in our middle school and high school and that was an incredible success for our school district the response from students has been extraordinary we want to continue building the program so one of our goals to invest in that regard our district has become and and we're not unique in this but our district and so many school districts have become so heavily dependent on technology whether it's wireless access to computers whether it's internet access multimedia glow forges or or so many other aspects of technology and it's not limited to just what's in the classroom the digital sign the cable channel there are so many other elements of Technology we continue to grow we don't subtract from technology we we continue to add
044resources and opportunities for students and as such we wanted to bolster the department and provide some additional support we also wanted to work with our transportation provider to manage increases I'll speak more about that in a moment two years ago we started a prek program was the first prek program in the history of our school district and we were very proud to be able to offer a full day full-time prek program for every single student in New Yorktown Central School District catchman area at no cost to families and that was through a direct partnership with the YMCA and they've been wonderful Partners in year one we had 120 students year two currently we have 120 students next year we are already at 136 students and the numbers are still settling but we're pleased to be
045able to offer a true Universal prek to every ible child in our school district's catchman area at no cost to families and that's just leveraging the state allocation and turning that right around to the uh provider the YMCA without supplementing the cost using District funds and we also obviously the last bullet there could have been the first bullet in this presentation we wanted to be mindful of the increase in the tax levy that that's always a a constant goal and I'll speak more to that in in a few slides from now some of the budget driv many of these items we don't have control over there's a transportation contract if we did nothing that's set to increase by $700,000 if we did nothing obviously we're looking at Transportation finding efficiencies we commissioned a study to
046look at not just routing but other ways that we can save money in in transportation so we'll certainly hope to scale that back there are contractual salary increases for 650 employees in our school district there's a net decrease in pension contributions but there's a $600,000 increase in health insurance that's contractual and then the bottom two programmatic increases those are adding new opportunities to our school district new curricula new programming new athletic opportunities and then there are other contractual increases and that comes from a few different areas it comes from our tech support it comes from our contract with our school resource officers and some of the other contractual increases uh contractual obligations that we have and on the bottom of that slide I just want to call attention to in order for us to be
047in compliance with the tax cap we allocate this for this school year anyway we allocated $2.2 million of fund balance to keep us under the tax cap and that is a a huge burden and pressure on our business office to ensure that we're able to allocate that amount of money for the subsequent year so what we're looking at is a favorable state aid increase $25 million there and and a tax levy cap that we're not going to we're not going to the max of our cap I don't believe that we need to go to the max of our cap to provide students with the programming that they need to be successful moving forward and to achieve the goals that I mentioned in this previous slide so to get to these goals what I'm proposing are
048these items for 2025 26 first of all we believe that we can keep all of our existing programs intact we believe that we can maintain class sizes at or below the board guidelines for for another year you recall the flex path program we began with 14 seats Miss Almeida and her leadership and her department has has done just an extraordinary job in bringing this program to life we have 14 seats this year we'd like to expand that to 18 seats that will require some more investments in instructors and so we we'd like to make that investment two literacy coaches K8 but the primary focus will certainly be more elementary school but they'll run the gamut of grade levels we're going to look at how we're delivering academic intervention services in our Middle School we'll hire
049an Ela teacher which will replace two part-time positions offering additional ASL more tech support and more support in our facilities Department the one thing that I will share with you is our voters overwhelmingly a year ago approved a two propositions that totaled about 5455 million in facility work it's the expansion to Brookside I'm sorry to Brookside to mohansic to crompond the athletic complex renovation of the Middle School space and Renovations at the high school so every building is being touched there are a lot of Demands that come with fulfilling and executing such a large Bond and those demands fall directly on obviously our our facilities planning committee of the board but certainly our facilities office so to recognize some of the increased demands I do believe we need additional clerical support in that department so
050we'll continue to meet those deadlines we also have an energy performance contract meeting coming up April 2nd we're meeting with a um an organization who does a lot of this a lot of this work and they've asked for over a year of utility bills over a year of this bill and that bill so the additional clerical support to be able to meet those demands are really important and and that's where that position comes in so the net effect of these items are outlined here the budget to- budget change is 3.34% the tax levy change these are numbers that we set as a school district this is a number that we believe will strike that balance you you saw that balance scale that I presented to you earlier in this presentation our maximum tax levy would
051have been is 2.69% that is the maximum Levy that that we can hit without exceeding the tax cap we believe that we can deliver a great program to our students balance the responsibility and sensitivity to taxpayers at 1.74% and the tax levy impact or I'm sorry the estimated tax rate change for each of the three municipalities it's in a small font here I'll go to the next slide where it's a little larger just a little larger and a little more spaced out uh 90 six plus% of our tax base comes from the town of Yorktown proper and we estimate that there'll be a tax rate impact of 1.12% the tax rate change in Newcastle which is just under 2% of our tax base would be at 99.46% and the tax rate change in courland again
052less than 2% of our tax base is 7.59% I just want to emphasize to our community as they view this presentation these rates are not determined by the district these are a function of Equalization rates within the Assessor's Office of each individual town so our school district determined that the levy of 1.74% would be the appropriate Levy for our district and then the town Assessor's offices provide their feedback and and use their metrics to give us an estimated tax rate change so for the vast majority of our school district's catchment area it would be a 1.12% estimated tax rate impact for the 25 26 school year I do want to highlight and I alluded to this earlier just a history of fiscal responsibility as we look at our school district our increases have been very
053modest very fair consistent we can look at pre-co increases and then we look at postco increases and and we certainly recognize that the cost of doing business has increased in a postco environment but in context I wanted to provide our board and our community with some context as to what these numbers actually mean so I know this is small tomorrow if you're viewing this on YouTube you can pause you can enlarge the screen and you'll be able to take a look at how our school district Compares historically to other school districts Westchester putam County I just highlighted the top by I think 26 or 27 school districts just because the slide couldn't fit any more data on it without uh and still being legible so you'll see where Yorktown ranks that's a yellow highlighted line
054of the average tax levy increase actually it goes back to 20 20178 my first year in the school district and as we compute the arithmetic mean of those tax levy increases you'll see that uh we've been pretty consistent and we've been very very sensitive to our taxpayers and respectful of our taxpayers yet we've expanded our educational programming in that time we've started engineering programs we've started so many wonderful opportunities for students we've introduced robotics we've introduced different elements of coding and and just so much we've introduced this concept of Este steam that has been our calling card over these last eight years and we've done so responsibly so I wanted to share that in context because I quite often share this slide and and it's helpful to see what our history of fiscal responsibility is
055but I think it's also important to see it in context and what that actually looks like comparatively I just want to highlight the star rebate program that continues for the 2526 year it's not a school it's not a Yorktown Central School District program it's a state program and generally a direct credit or rebate check is how th those funds are are directed back to homeowners and just finally our budget vote and trustee election is scheduled for May 20th 2025 it's always a third Tuesday in May we're going to be at french hill once again 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and uh we hope that people come out and exercise their right to vote uh at this point that concludes the presentation that I prepared for the board but if there are any questions I'd be
056happy to answer those um thank you uh before I pass it over I just want to thank you and Lisa and didra and your entire administrative staff because budget season seems like it's almost the entire school year and we know how hard you've worked we know how much detail and going back to this modified zero base was not an easy task so we appreciate all of the time and effort you put into it so uh Mike do you want to start no I don't I don't have any questions Sher yes I had a question regarding the uh Flex path enrollment increase um we know this is a highly successful program uh we're in we hope to increase the amount of students who would be able to come into the program is that because of the
057success of the program or expanding needs or both or what is I think it's all the above um we have Caroline here and and I see her nodding along when I say it's all of the above the program has been incredibly successful but we are recognizing that there are increased needs of our students and and we can we believe we can service them with 18 seats that that's really I think the max of what the facility can support and present construction but I think you're right on on both points I I think it's yes to both items great thank you Rish um so I had a question I just wanted to um clarify um you know when we talk about our goals for the upcoming year um and we say that obviously we would like
058to keep our current programs intact I think there is a more subtle component to it with the incoming students into the district so I I think just based on Trends we're seeing over the last few years um I think some of the needs might be on that upward curve so it seems like the programs are remaining intact but I think there are more students who might be available availing of those programs is I think you're you're absolutely right I think that's a spoton assessment there are needs uh for us there are so many programs general education and special education that we offer and the goal is to assess obviously the programs assess the student needs and try to align those two as best we can put your spot on in terms of the needs of
059students and seeing that more students might be accessing the services and the programs that we offer I think you spot on Thank you Lisa just a a followup on on rashmi's comment um there's very large buildings being built uh in the middle of town and I don't know how that will impact Us in terms of student enrollment but do you anticipate that the budget that you have put together which thank you for doing all that will include what that could possibly bring us so it's hard to predict what any new development any new construction will yield with regard to student enrollment what I will tell you is what we have been told and and I don't know if I agree with this but what we have been told is that it's a it's a model
060based out of ruter University from the 1980s and it says that for every 10 units built school districts will see one child enrolled so I I posit that it would be more than one student for every 10 homes that are built or 10 units that are built I will tell you that the most recent example that I can point to any scale is cmon crossing which is across the way from BJs where 27 students resulted I'm sorry 27 units resulted in 43 students so that that's a little bit of a contrast from one student for every 10 units that are constructed but to get to your question I believe that there are some conting there is minimal contingency built in but this is a very tight budget this is absolutely a tight budget we wanted
061to again try to balance what our students need trying to anticipate what some of the enrollment Trends might be anticipate what some of the needs might be with students moving in I think we saw and Caroline can correct me I think we had 13 children this year move into our school district with an IEP in hand and that number might be higher than that but I think it was 13 is the number of children who moved in IEP in hand and trying to prepare for what the students need and because it's obviously incumbent on us to deliver to students the services and the program that they need academically so I do believe that there's some flexibility that is incorporated and anticipated in our school budget I would anticipate also that not all the children would
062be in the same grade so much of the development in town is on the Brookside side of town not on the mohansic side of town we do have a construction project that is underway in the works not underway but in the works it won't be ready for this school year or next but we certainly have an eye toward future enrollment and the potential impact that development we'll have on our on our enrollment so there is some contingency there but this is a very tight budget as well yeah the the one and 10 that's probably a community where people don't move in because of the school right I mean just like everybody else we moved here because of the school and I would imagine the people moving into those new structures are moving because of the
063school so I think you're 43 is probably more likely um Ron I know you mentioned that you're going to have um someone come in to to talk about epcs going to have a meeting with that is there any other sustainable sustainability or sustainable items within the budget that you can discuss So within the operating budget there's not a large scale investment so that we're not putting a $500,000 allocation aside for um reductions in one area or another we do have a meeting April 2nd 11:00 a.m. with uh we're meeting with a company called NG John Kane who has done some work for us in terms of Assessments is the gentleman who we're meeting with we have a relationship with John so John's meeting with us on April 2nd to discuss how an energy performance contract
064might look in our school district I also know that as part of our uh Bond project we're looking at areas to make those buildings as efficient as we possibly can within the scope of the budget and and the scope of the design that that was created so we are looking at some of the more obvious ele ments we're looking at LED lighting we're looking at timers for and motion sensors and looking at more efficient Heating and Cooling mechanisms but it's not to the scale of geothermal or something along those lines we have reduced our bus company has reduced the number of diesel buses in the fleet we have a 69 bus bus fleet we're down to 10 diesel buses and the remainder are gasoline buses so we've certainly inched our way down with regard to
065diesel fuel we don't have an electric bus in our Fleet but we are pushing for that uh so more to come on that we certainly have have pushed in that direction to have at least one or two uh on our route the the concern that we run into is the capacity of the grid to be able to charge on mass so we have commissioned a study to determine the feasibility of the electric infrastructure in our town specifically near the Front Street location to be able to charge that number of buses on mass uh but no there there isn't an allocation of a we just did honestly in this budget we really didn't have that kind of maneuverability it was it was tight with some of the contractual increases that we have whether it's salary contractual
066increases for 650 employees 700,000 on Transportation $600,000 on health insurance and and some of the other programmatic increases that we had um it was a very tight budget to be able to do that and and just as far as the electric buses go we don't only the buses so we have a little bit less control over whether they will put a bus in our Fleet or not how does that work yes and no so yes we're not directly buying the buses so that part of it is outside of our control but the transportation PR provider has to meet the mandates and state law so as electric buses are legislated into existence for bus fleets are contractors required to be in compliance with state law correct but we can't just require him to put two on
067right now we've been ask requ them I can't require them to do that okay I just wanted to be clear I know they have to F get to the Mandate when the Mandate happens but getting there you're correct you're correct we have asked we certainly have asked okay Mike Cheryl almost said thanks fres me Lisa I have a couple more go ahead um uh Dr Hatter I think you mentioned the state aid at 2.5 million I think was the number that you said and I know that we're always waiting um for that to be confirmed by the state I don't know if you or Miss San filipo can let us know what the status of that being confirmed by the state is and the chances of it not being what we anticipate so I'll start
068and if I leave anything out Lisa will fill in fill in the blanks but we anticipate state aid in the projected Governor's budget we anticipated it actually being close to 2.6 million in the way of an increase it's 2.5 in change this the governor's budget is due theoretically April 1st so we should know more at that point if the budget's on time so I don't anticipate it being decreased from there generally the governor's run is I don't want to say a worst case scenario but it often only improves from the Outlook only improves from that initial run of state aid so we don't know for certain you raise a great Point there's an element of uncertainty in what I'm presenting to you this evening which is why I think it's great that you're not adopting
069tonight obviously I'm presenting to you what I'm recommending you'll have some time by the time you do adopt I'm hopeful that the state budget numbers will be finalized and we'll understand what exactly are the parameters we're working from from within but you're right there is an element of the unknown at this point and and that that's the biggest element of the unknown obviously we don't know what interest income is going to be we anticipate that's going to be flat we don't know what sales tax revenue necessarily will be definitively at this point we anticipate that that'll be relatively flat but state aid is a big one for us least anything to add okay okay and just one more Point um that slide 14 where you showed the historical tax levy data um that was that
070was very interesting to see and I see that you know on average our percentage increase is low in comparison to to other districts especially our neighboring districts and we're always talking about what are our neighboring districts doing what's lakland doing what's sers doing what may doing all the the neighboring districts and I see that we are um so much lower than them which is you know kudos to you Dr Hatter and you miss San Filippo and your team and in getting us there um what my question is um in terms of the programming and the offerings of our district versus th those districts how do we compare I I'll tell you that we were one of the first to sort of sequence in engineering we brought so many new opportunities and that's the most impressive
071it it's it's somewhat impressive to look at the the numbers just as they are numbers but when you look at what we've added we've added more AP courses we've added programming to our Middle School we've Incorporated new uh World languages into with specifically with ASL we've Incorporated so many new opportunities we've added athletic teams we've added so many after school clubs and it goes on and on and on and we've been able to do so in that footprint so I think the numbers on their own independent of any context are impressive but when we think about what we've added as a program and and to get to the root of the question I do believe that the education here in Yorktown I'll say it with one sentence I I choose to have my children go
072here and there is no other school district that I would want my children to attend I believe in what we're doing here I believe in the opportunities that we're affording to children and I do believe that the budget appropriately captures that and I think the programming appropriately captures that we offer 130 different sports or co-curricular clubs there is literally something for everyone in our school district and so I think we've been able to get creative on how things look and I think that's part of a function of why the numbers are look favorably to us but we have really offered so many new opportunities that uh some of our neighbors have some of our neighbors don't have and we'll continue to just look at what is the next level of our work and I think
073that's the other important piece for us is we never stop looking at what that next level of our work is and we know we can always get to that next level so um I do believe that our program here in our offerings here are comparable to any District on that list thank you um it's kind of like an elephant in the room but Federal funding do we get a lot of money for federal funding and is there any concern about that level of federal funding so annually we get about $1.25 million in Federal feral funding and that's for our federal 611 619 grants our Title One 611 and 619 for members of our community who may not be aware those are generally for special education purposes our Title One funding uh will support literacy it'll
074support um students who are in need of additional support and services so we get about 1.25 million or so and Lisa can correct me if I misspoke on that but it's it's approximately 1.25 million in federal funding annually and um we certainly if we lost Federal funding it would be there would be an impact because every dollar that we spend of federal funds are programs for children or there supports for children so we would work to uh again get creative in our budgeting and try to absorb any any reductions into our operating budget we're constantly assessing programs so reassessing programs to determine their efficacy I don't think that that's going to be the first step because we've already done that first that the fact that it's in the budget for next year or in our
075grant funding requests for next year means that it's a program worthy of keeping so we would just have to look at how to package programs differently to be able to continue the delivery of services okay thank you anybody else I think we're good thank you so much okay oh do you have anything else for your update no you're good you sure okay so we're going to go to committee report so I'm going to start with audit rman um sure so the audit committee received uh the first draft of the report from the uh internal auditor uh so we have to um look review what's in it and um set up a time to meet um which will probably be at the end of April uh between budget season and tax season um at the auditor's
076end it's it's a busy time but we do we are working on weights through the first draft okay um educational Vision Catalina is not here she didn't send me notes did she send you notes Cheryl by any chance no I didn't no okay um we didn't there wasn't anything new to report was there there not since the last board meeting but we did talk about cell phones I'm not sure if that was discussed in the last update I don't recall off the top of my head but we we did not hold the last meeting okay um facilities projects committees we continue to meet every other week we are still working on these same projects the um mohansic and Brookside editions the fieldwork and the concession stand the pickle ball courts that are going along with
077the um the fields um and we are up at SED for the fields we are going to S hopefully withans and Brookside soon we're just waiting for for some pieces to come by we're waiting for final numbers from our um construction managers and you know the fields have been a little sticky because there's a lot of water when you work in wetlands and um so they're reworking some drainage they're reworking some Retention Ponds to make it all kind of still work isn't that something that they would have anticipated they did anticipate it and then um the state wanted some no the dec wanted borings and the borings and they wanted like a test of water and it was much higher the water level was much higher than anticipated which means it just has to be
078we we work there's only so much you can anticipate because there's only so much work you can do when you're not being paid to do it right you so uh we're getting there it's just we will be on hopefully on time but we will get there um fiscal Mike should say it's fluid Jackie the drainage is a fluid situation right now it's it's rough yeah um I have to chuckle because that's been the focus of almost every meeting we've had is drainage yes yeah yeah and uh it bled into the budget so um fiscal advisory met uh March 14th um you saw the full amount of what we did basically was uh worked on the presentation that we all just saw um looking at the tax levy increase uh fund balance uh impact of Federal
079grant reductions uh possibility uh the budget increases that we saw plus the money that was requisitioned from fund balance last year um what we had proposed was using uh $1.2 million of fund balance this year to reduce the tax levy down to the 1.74% that uh Dr Hatter presented tonight uh there's also a contingent well I shouldn't say contingent another piece of that um looking at how we can potentially uh fund some of the drainage projects that need to get done U because they'll likely Fall outside of the scope of some of the uh Bond money that we have so that's been uh a big focus of a couple of committees at this point uh next meeting would be um most likely late April early May when we have the final um budget numbers from
080the state and then we'll review everything once again just to go back one minute show just to go back what's outside of the scope of the field project is the fact that we found the pipes leading from the uh Pond that go out into the wetlands have completely collapsed un under the field and they have to be replaced and that's not something we had any idea of so we're trying to find a alternative funding because the bond for the field is x amount of dollars we can't go over it so that's where we are so Cheryl policy sure uh we met twice since my last update we met on February 6 and March 6 for a total of 14 policies reviewed in those two meetings some of the highlights we reviewed some Nisa installments including
081sexual harassment we looked at school district records and student member of the board um some recommendations we have for tonight we have four Fe first reads on the agenda and one deletion some follow-up items we're still talking about how to choose the student member of the board that's something that has to be decided uh by this summer and our next meeting date will be on April third thank you um board action items can I have a motion to approve the march3 meeting minutes so move second all those in favor I I oppos a motion to approve the treasures report for February 2025 second all those in favor I oppose a motion to approve the claims AIT report for February 2025 so move second all those in favor I opposed policies uh the board will conduct
082the first reading of the following policies 0111 sexual harassment harassment grievances under Title 9 0115 sexual harassment and bull bullying prevention and intervention 5152 admission of non-resident students 8240 Park traffic and parking on school property did anybody have any questions or concerns about these policies nope okay and then be it resolved that the following policies shall be deleted from the the policy manual because it is not required and that is 9255 employment references all those in favor I I opposed Personnel resolve that the Board of Education of New Yorktown Central School District hereby ratifies and approves the stipulation of agreement between the district and employee number 2803 date of March 20th 2025 and hereby authorizes the superintendent of schools to exe execute all documents pertaining to the same and to take all actions consistent within
083the terms thereof some move second all those in favor I opposed Personnel agenda on recommendation of the superintendent a motion at the following be approved we have certified Personnel we have appointments parttime appointments coaches volunteers additions of substitute list unpaid leave of absences removal from The Substitute list a resignation for the purpose of retirement another resignation under classified Personnel we have Civil Service appointments removal from The Substitute list and some resignations second all those in favor I opposed business office a motion to approve the attached resolution to cooperatively bid in the general Commodities and services bids issued by putam Northern Westchester bosis for the 2526 school year some second all those in favor I I opposed a motion to approve the attached affiliation agreement with marish University dated February 21st 2025 to June 30th 20
084and 25 some move all those in favor I oppose um a first light Services a resol that the Board of Education approved the following service orders for with first light pending legal review of the terms and conditions the renewal of the service order with first light to provide Broadband access connection the renewal of the service order with first light to provide 10 GB of fiber circuits between the main campus Brookside and moans and crom pond and the renewal of the service order with first light to provide a 2 gbyte lit fiber circuit between the french hill building and our main campus Some Mo second all those in favor I oppose a motion to approve the following Yorktown High School athletics trip the virtually cheerleaders to the state championship in bingamon second discussion yes I'm Dr
085Hatter why are we um approving a trip that already happened yep so in accordance with board policy this trip it was a uh qualification for the state tournament that qual our last board meeting was three weeks ago March 3rd so the students qualified for the bid after we were able to uh get it on the board agenda so we weren't able to approve the trip in time so when trips arise after the last board meeting I have the authority granted to me by the board through policy to authorize the trip and then ask for your approval certainly with notification to the board but then ask for your formal approval at the next meeting and so that's why it it happens quite often with Athletics when they get to their Championship levels yes all those in
086favor I opposed a motion to approve okay why didn't it switch okay a motion to approve the budget transfer as listed below so move second all those in favor I oppose under curriculum a motion to approve the following Yorktown Congress of teachers certified teachers and certified teaching assistance professional Improvement proposal for the 2425 school year as stated below so move second all those in favor I I oppose special ed a motion to arrange the placements as of March 24th 2025 second all those in favor I oppose a motion to approve the instructional Services agreement between the Yorktown Central School District as descending school district and the mayac Central School District as the receiving school district for students from New Yorktown Central School District to attend special education programs in the receiving districts for the 23
08724 and the 2425 school year so move second discussion Lisa why are we doing this in the aers is this on our end or on mayap pac's end my understanding is that mayap Pac um it was on mayap pac's and they didn't get the contracts to us in all right all those in favor I opposed and then gifts grants and donations a motion to accept with gratitude the following gifts grants and donations at Brookside $3,500 for the second grade Excursion to The Maritime Aquarium from the Brookside PTA $2,226 for the third grade Excursion to the Bronx Zoo from the Brookside PTA $763 for the third grade Excursion to the Wolf Conservation Center from the Brookside PTA $1,499 for the first and second grade Excursion to the Hudson River Museum from the Brookside PTA in the
088middle mid school $51 for the 7th grade Excursion to the museum of natural history from the Middle School PTA and $32 for the sixth grade Excursion to the sharp reservation from the Middle School PTA so move second discussion go ahead way to go I know the PTA is just killing it like thank you to the community I mean that really that's that's everybody right that's not just one person making the donations that's the whole Community coming together for those for the Outdoor Classroom so I mean just every meeting it's something else from this PTI thank you yeah they're amazing all those in favor I opposed board comments Mike you good I keep starting with you I know yeah really give me like five minutes to gather my thoughts no nothing going here tonight not here
089I'm good thanks um great meeting obviously we spoke about how wonderful our students were and uh their presentation and approach was was excellent um I'd like to as I do almost every year just give a great shout out to our um business office uh this in particular this has been a very challenging budget season um they did a wonderful job playing everything together uh couple that with all of the work that we're doing on the bond projects and uh it's an enormous task uh and Lisa and her team have really uh executed it at a high level so thank you for that um it's much appreciate and it shows up in the work uh you can see how well thought out everything is and how well um designed uh our programs are so thank you
090for that Jo I agree um it's been you know such a tight uh budget season but you know we continue to expand our facilities are getting better we're expanding and adding programs we constantly are adding Athletics programs um and people are still trying to get into our school district and moving in here so with all of those variables we're still able to keep it um keep it keep to a very tight budget so thank you thank you for all the time and you know energy and mindfulness of this of these tight times fresh me yeah I Echo what charl and Mike said so thank you Dr Hader Lisa and um Dedra if you know you do a phenomenal job every year um and I think we feel it just you know we feel the squeeze
091just a little bit more each year but this year was certainly tough so thank you Lisa yeah I Echo those same sentiments and I also um want to make a motion to have a craft at every board meeting going forward well then you got to do yoga too you're in front maybe we should pick which one we want um yeah I I Echo what everybody says I also want you know you sit in in meetings with Lisa all the time and is almost never a time you ask a question that she can't answer that she doesn't have the detail in for the no you you really are you're very very prepared and it shows and it shows in everything we we do here it shows in our facilities meetings so I do thank you for
092all of that Ron D thank you for everything we're up to our second public comment Mr Killian I am going to assume I don't have to read my thing [Laughter] again I can't curse nope you know the rules I know you got to go home with your wife I don't think you're going to do that it's good to hear you're considering epcs um and clearly understand what they do so you have in the past pointed to Pride with money you have invested to replace your lights with LED lights understand that other neighboring districts have done that without a cost to the uh taxpayer because of that goose that's laying um golden eggs um please push the bus company as with the last company they didn't have to provide an El electric Bus Let's replace some
093of the diesel buses and the fact of 10 years from now that um maybe that Front Street would not be able to charge all the buses it it's an incremental process we need to have a committee or a workg group or a task force and we have to think out of the box so we have through roofs parking lots and Open Spaces we can generate enough electricity possibly to sell uh electricity to the bus company and curriculum if you were to talk to Mary Fox alter in oening what she would tell you is the best thing about their giant I forget how many it's in the details we how many millions of their EPC are the curriculum benefits not just a $100,000 curriculum Grant 100,000 curriculum grants it's there are just so many opportunities in
094everything and perhaps even in art in drawing how beautiful the um the canopy is over the uh their parking lot so please um consider to work on those epcs thank you we're good thank you very much can I have a motion to adjourn so second all those in favor I oppose good night good night I need more