Yorktown CSD Board of Education Meeting – March 3, 2025

001so moved all those in favor I oppose good evening welcome to the Yorktown Central School District Board of Education meeting for March 3rd 2025 we please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a moment of silence for armed forces and those of our community who have lost loved ones especially the father of Lisa Joy Romero and the grandmother of Michelle ganta United States of America to the right thank you um we are up to uh our first public comment anybody that no so we're going to move on to our public hearing so can I have a motion to open the public hearing so Mo second all those in favor I I oppose this public hearing is on um some code of uh conduct changes so um Cheryl do you want to just explain what

002the changes are and why we're having to do this now yes I will um yes um yes this is regarding the code of conduct um we had a few changes in the code of conduct they were Minor Adjustments but some terms um and uh paragraphs needed to be clarified and expanded we had a change on page 23 regarding short-term suspensions uh we changed business days to read as calendar days um we also had another addition to the code of conduct to clarify or to um add that suspensions are not delayed during any of the um tendency of an appeal and we also had a change on page 22 um regarding the in school suspensions and um the appeals process okay does any board board member have any questions or comments is there anybody in the

003public having any questions or comments so can I have a motion to close the public hearing so Mo second all those in favor I I oppose can I have a motion to approve the first reading and adoption for policy 5300 code of conduct so Mo second all those in favor I oppos thank you thank you Cheryl sure thank you um we're going to move on to the superintendence report Run Okay so there are thank you so there are two parts to this evening's superintendent report the first is a budget presentation and then after the budget presentation there just a few updates that I'd like to provide to our school Community but this evening we have a presentation from Miss amling Miss Almeida Miss forsberg on instruction General and special education and Technology this is a

004part of our budget presentation series to this point we have given three presentations on the budget all of which for our community's reference are posted online on our website and are available for your viewing at your convenience the next budget presentation after this evenings will be on March 24th and that's where I will present my final budget to the board for their consideration and again that's March 24th but this evening I'd like to invite Miss amling to the podium to begin the presentation uh followed by and bet you can advance to the next slide so that members of the viewing public can see the order that will follow in this presentation we'll have Miss amling share the curriculum and instruction portion of the presentation Miss ala will share the pupil Personnel Services portion and then

005miss forsberg will close out the presentation with technology and data and then once uh our three administrators have presented we'll have Miss Sam Filippo speak to the budgetary impact of each of those components on the budget so without further Ado I'd like to turn over this evening's budget presentation to miss amling our assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction thank you Dr Hatter and to the board for the time this evening to present the instruction and technology portion of the budget as Dr Hatter mentioned along with Caroline Almeida the director pupil Personnel Services and Miss Jennifer forsberg our director of Technology we will highlight portions for the instructional budget for the 2526 school year I do want to begin by thanking the board for their time this evening as well as their continued support for all

006of our programs without you none of this would be possible and you've just always been so helpful and positive and supportive over all the years our district vision is important to us as it represents a shared Vision that we use to guide our educational goals and practices it provides us a path with clear expectations when planning for our students programs and curriculum our vision leads with empathy as it is essential for creating a supportive and inclusive learning environment for our students it helps our students build stronger relationships with peers understand different perspectives and Foster a positive learning environment we strive to build capacity creativity and critical thinking and to provide opportunities for students to explore varied interests our ultimate goal is to empower students to become agents of change in their communities and the world

007the next slide underscores our dedication to a holistic approach in educating the whole child at the heart of our mission lies a strong academic Foundation which we view as essential for Student Success and lifelong learning yet we recognize that education goes beyond traditional academics it encompasses the fine and Performing Arts fostering creativity and self-expression that enrich the educational experience in addition our co-curricular clubs and community service initiatives play a crucial role in developing well-rounded individual schols these activities cultivate teamwork leadership and a sense of responsibility helping students with their peers and contribute positively to their communities we also prioritize social and emotional development understanding its impact on academic success our program support students in managing their emotions and building resilience ensuring they are equipped to thrive in all aspects of Life furthermore character development is

008integral to our philosophy as we instill values like respect and empathy to prepare students for responsible citizenship lastly our commitment to Athletics highlights the importance of physical health and teamwork teaching discipline and perseverance by focusing on the whole child we Empower our students to become well-rounded individuals ready to make meaningful contributions to their communities and Beyond the following rep presents the organizational chart of the roles that fall under my responsibilities all of which ultimately report to the superintendent this structure encompasses approximately 650 staff members who support all instructional programs including technology and data pupil Personnel Services building administrators curriculum supervisors and clerical staff the next slide includes a more comprehensive listing of the staff involved which includes our building administrators all teachers school counselors clinical staff and support Personnel the list is much more comprehensive

009that you can view as we present our budget it's essential to highlight the comprehensive areas covered under curriculum instruction that contribute to our educational Mission our investment in curriculum design and instructional practices ensures a robust academic Foundation tailored to meet the diverse needs of our student students this includes areas such as special education services and English as a new language support which are vital for creating an inclusive environment where every learner can Thrive additionally we recognize the significance of enrichment opportunities and spe special area instruction allowing students to explore their interest and develop a well-rounded skill set we also prioritize Social Work services and psychological services including guidance and School counseling which play a crucial role in fostering student well-being moreover by incorporating technology data management and Analysis and professional development we enhance our instructional

010strategies and Empower our Educators to deliver high quality programs for our students this holistic approach not only enriches the learning experience but also prepares our students for future success this year we have effective ly utilized a range of valuable Services provided through bosis and the lower Hudson Regional information center or L that are listed on this slide these Services have significantly enhanced our educational offerings allowing us to deliver a more comprehensive learning experience for our students as we look ahead to the next school year we are committed to continuing our investments in these essential resources which have proven instrumental in supporting both student achievement and teacher growth the ongoing collaboration with bosis and L ensures that we remain equipped with the tools and expertise necessary to Foster an engaging an effective learning environment this slide

011represents areas that we spent a great amount of time and resources on this year it certainly does not account for all of the work that comes from the curriculum department but most of what is shown here represents some of the larger multi-year planning and imple impementation of programs or new programs and initiatives to highlight this year we once again dedicated significant time to enhancing our understanding of evidence-based practices that support the science of reading our partnership with living literacy Network allowed us to connect Consultants with expertise across various grade levels in providing professional development for our teachers and reading Specialists we ensured that all classrooms are equipped with the necessary resources and materials to support this important work in the early grades kindergarten to second grade this work focused on foundational skills such as pheic

012awareness letter recognition vocabulary development phonics instruction and fluency in grades 3 through five the emphasis shifts to multiable decoding strategies comprehension development and building backgrounds knowledge to enhance reading skills at the middle and high school the work with the English and reading teachers Focus was on Advanced vocabulary acquisition and working with more complex texts another primary focus throughout the year has been the continued development of our multi-tiered system of supports or mtss aimed at helping all students succeed academically socially and behaviorally the goal is to identify and address student needs early in order to provide tailored support for each individual we strengthened our tier one supports within the regular classroom by providing resources and professional developments for classroom teachers this included the implementation of great leaps which is a program Des designed to improve phonic

013influency iel which is an interactive platform offering personalized practice and skill support in English and math and youly from the University of Florida's literacy Institute to serve as a strong resource for Effective finic instruction ction word workk and spelling we also invested in professional development for tier 2 and three supports utilized by our reading Specialists and AIS teachers two key resources included introduced this year include 95% Group which is a research-based program focusing on explicit instruction across key literacy skills that include fonics Word workk and spelling for struggling readers Bridges math which is a curriculum designed to enhance mathematical understanding providing targeted instruction and assessment for essential K through 5 skills and Concepts to improve our mtss program we streamlined our discussions around student learning and progress we are proud to have implemented a program

014of regular data focused meetings throughout the year with the K5 data teams this year we added the development of a standardized protocol for instructional support teams or IST meetings the standardized approach for all students discussed at an IST ensures that academic social and behavioral progress is fully addressed leading to data driven decisions and targeted student support due to the success of this initiative we are now working with the secondary level teams to implement a similar approach to discussing students we are in the early process but believe it will provide appropriate support to students regarding absenteeism academic social or emotional concerns Central to all of our mtss work is the use of edge climber our data dashboard which allows teachers counselors and administrators to monitor student progress and inform instructional decisions edge of climber is critical

015in enhancing the overall effectiveness of mtss and monitoring the effectiveness of our Support Services we recognize the growing role of artificial intell Ence AI in transforming educational practices and enhancing student learning experiences this year we successfully launched Magic School a web-based platform that supports teachers in various aspects including lesson planning creating educational materials designing assessments and streamlining administrative tasks this platform features a suite of AI tools specifically designed for educators professional development was provided to all District staff during our conference days we were excited to continue our partnership with lric through model schools to focus on exploring unique ways AI can enhance classroom practices this work promotes deep individualized professional learning and creates opportunities for implementing Innovative teaching strategies the Consultants from lyrics are so knowledgeable of so many different AI tools and we're excited

016to continue to partner with them in the future this year we were thrilled to introduce three new exciting courses at the middle school that focus on relevant and emerging topics these included AI this course provided students with an introduction to the fundamentals of AI including its history and development as well as use of key AI tools green architecture where students learn about sustainable design practices and the important role of architecture in Environmental Conservation energy and the environment this is a course that delves into energy production consumption and its impact on our planet fostering a deeper understanding of environmental issues we look forward to continuing these Ser courses and are actively seeking opportunities in the schedule to accommodate even more students in the future additionally we're committed to exploring other courses of interest that will engage

017and Inspire our students this year we also introduced American Sign Lang language ASL to our world language program at both the middle and high school levels this addition represents a significant step towards promoting inclusivity and diversity in language education allowing students to connect with and understand the deaf Community better at the middle school we launched two class sections for seventh grade while at the high school we offered one section the response has been overwhelmingly positive leading to a projected increase for next year where we anticipate needing four sections at the middle school and two sections at the high school we are excited to announce that this year marks the first opportunity for graduates to earn the Seal of Civic Readiness and have this distinguish noted on their transcript and diploma this recognition honors students who

018demonstrate a strong understanding of Civic engagement and responsibility emphasizing the importance of preparing them to be informed and active participants in their communities currently we have approximately 100 senior students working diligently toward earning this seal I'm immensely proud of the administrative team and faculty of both the high school and middle school for their dedication to this initiative as well as the students who are striving for this significant achievement as we move forward the Seal of Civic Readiness will become an essential part of our high school program reinforcing our commitment to developing engaged and responsible citizens we believe that this initiative will not only enhance our educational offerings but also Inspire our students to actively contribute to their communities now and in the future as we strive for continuous improvements and excellence in our programming this

019slide highlights some of our key priorities for the 2526 school year we seek to invest in two literacy coaches to provide ongoing targeted professional development for teachers this approach will allow for regular and frequent Hands-On support as teachers implement the science of reading ultimately enhancing instructional practices and improving student literacy outcomes as mentioned earlier we are looking forward to the expansion of our American sign language program at both the middle and high school levels supporting our teachers is Paramount to positive student outcomes we will continue to provide highlevel professional development across all content areas with the strong emphasis on literacy instruction and the science of reading individualized and differentiated struction to meet the needs of all students as well as how AI can enhance and support all students all aspects of teaching and learning we

020will ensure Excellence through the continuous review of our curriculum maintaining vertical and horizontal alignment across all content areas this work will be in alignment with the state learning standards and implementation timelines we will prioritize I ize the development of a comprehensive mtss plan with a focus on the secondary level to provide appropriate academic social and behavioral supports for our students we remain committed to integrating AI into our secondary education preparing students to understand and utilize AI ethically while enhancing critical thinking skills support for elementary teacher in AI integration will also continue and finally we will continue to promote and encourage the use of innovation grants to enhance curriculum and Foster creativity among Educators these grants have proven impactful as seen initiatives such as Miss Low's Brew Crew which not only benefits the students themselves but

021has been an integral part of the school culture as well we're excited about these priorities and look forward to a productive year ahead again I thank the board for your continuous support of all of our initiatives as we look forward to providing Yorktown students with a highquality education and a wonderful School experience I now invite Miss Caroline alme to present the pupil Personnel Services portion of the budget [Music] presentation Mrs Carbone Mrs Ro trustees Dr Hatter miss amling and miss San philippo thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight on behalf of the pupil Personnel Services Department within our department we have uh two administrators who serve as supervisors one for elementary and one for secondary we have administrative assistants who do a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes to make sure that all

022of the uh very technical and important paperwork that needs to happen for students uh to get their services happens and beyond that we have so many tremendous special education teachers psychologists who also serve as CSC chair people we have social workers behavioral specialists School nurses speech language Pathologists occupational therapists and certified occupational therapy assistants the next chart details how many staff members we have in each of those areas and you can see that um our highest number of employees is within the special education teacher category and so proud to be the head of a department with so many special people who work tirelessly every day to ensure that the needs of each student are met within our programs the next slide we'll talk a little bit about the different numbers that we have and and

023every year I've um been adding the numbers to it so that you can see the growth within the department um I think the biggest change that we started to see in the special education numbers came really around the year 2010 um and and since that that time the numbers have been growing fairly steadily each year um and so you can see a little bit of the number of students who you know in each category we provide services for students who are preschool age and for those who don't know um when students are born if they have disabilities and require service th those services are provided through the county through a program called early intervention and when students turn three they transition into committee on special education services and there they receive Services through the county

024but with the district chairing the meetings and coordinating those services for them and when they are transitioning into kindergarten which is the year that they turn five by December 1st they transition into what we call CSE or school age services and so we have a number of um different students that we provide service for including Section 504 students these are school age students in grades kindergarten through 12 who require accommodations and other services in order to access their education um so you can see our numbers there currently at this time of year and the numbers will continue to grow as we go through the year um the numbers for the previous years are as of June 30th and what you see here so far for this year are the numbers as of February 18th um

025so for this year so far we have 103 preschool special education students 281 students who we serve through Section 504 627 students currently classified in grades kindergarten through 12 with uh with special education needs and we have uh 50 students who are placed out of District not counted in that number who require services and programs that we cannot per you know perform um provide for them within our district so the total number of students that we're providing services for currently is just over 1,000 and then in addition to that we have some pending referrals these are students who have been referred to the various committees but have not yet had their initial meeting to determine eligibility and so the number of classified students will continue to grow as it always does as we as we

026reach the end of the school year at which point in time we will celebrate the accomplishments of those students who are graduating and you'll see the number drop a little bit over the summer and so we'll start a little bit lower in September and then as the year goes on pick up again um what I also included are the number of transfer students these are students who um previously were identified as having special needs in their last school district and moved into our school district at this time last year we had a total of 24 students who had transferred into the district being identified and so far this year we have had 15 students move into the district from another district with a document already in place whether that be an IEP or a 504

027plan and I I think that's probably attributed attributed to the low number of houses that are um on the market within Yorktown the stability of the housing market um and so a slight decrease in the number of transfer students in but overall you see that the trend um continues to grow and um multiple reasons for that um that we can talk a little bit more in detail about if you like um but we we really are uh seeing an increase in the number of students with anxiety disorders and with depression uh at all ages um interestingly enough in the past when I've come to speak with you it's primarily been our secondary level students that have struggled the most with anxiety and depression and what we're seeing now is even at the preschool level there

028are a lot of children who are really struggling emotionally um for those younger students it looks like a lot of disregulation difficulty really managing manag their behaviors and overall we see an increase in the number of students with language impairments and social uh social issues um and other needs as well um we do provide a a full Continuum of services to students to meet their needs um we have some students serviced in the general education setting um through Section 504 we have students who receive related service only and students who receive related service in conjunction with another program related services are things like occupational therapy Physical Therapy speech language therapy and counseling we also have some students who receive Services through teacher the DEA or teacher the visually impaired um we have consultant teacher Services

029which is a special education teacher pushing in uh typically to another General Leed classroom to support the students within that program we have the integrated co- teing service program which is a general education classroom with two Educators a special education teacher and a general education teacher um special class programs of various sizes from the 812 to the 1211 151 um so that that those ratios indicate the number of specialed students within the program we have a resource room program we also have students I mentioned served at a district so we have those students in specialized programs in either other public school districts or at Southern Westchester bosies Rockland Bose's or at putham Northern Westchester Bose's there are some students in approved um private schools New York State approved private private schools that specialize in working

030with students with their impairments we have some students who are in approved residential schools when the need is is there currently two students um and a couple of students who are receiving home or hospital instruction which is the most restrictive um program that we have currently we also provide um students with extended school year Services which is a six- week summer program that's designed to prevent substantial regression and every year in the high school we we have that program should say every year in this District we have that program at our high school where students in grades K through 12 come together and we have uh we have some fun in the summer but we also work very hard to make sure that all the students maintain their Reading Writing social skills and math skills

031in the summer so that they don't lose those skills that they've worked so hard to build throughout the year um so that's the importance of our of our summer program um in terms of our overall numbers of students who are out of District I mentioned that we have 50 students currently at a district and this list just helps to break down where those students are and again we only send students out of District when we don't have a program in the district that can meet their needs and at those times we're very grateful to our partners uh the folks who run the program in these other schools um and there's a process that we go through where the csse meets and and determines that we don't have a program in District and and then we

032search for an appropriate program at a district and you can see that this year we have 16 students at putam Northern Westchester bosis and they have various locations they have their main campus as well as some satellite locations within public buildings um even Southern Westchester Bose's uh six students Rockland Bose currently one uh students at other public school districts eight total right now approved U private day students right now we have 13 um parentally placed private schools four students and approved residential schools uh two students currently who need that level of support and then um another another group of students that we serve are students who we refer to as District of location students and these are students who don't necessarily live in New Yorktown they may live in another school district whether that be

033Hendrick Hudson or Lakeland mayac Somers wherever the case may be they attend school placed by their parent at a school like St Patrick's School which is within our Zone and New York state has a provision called the do provision which says that the District of location the district where that school is located shares the csse meetings creates documents for those students which are called IPS they stands for um individualized Education Service program and while we don't provide core instruction for the students in those parochial or private schools we do provide supplemental instruction so often time things like related Service uh consultant teacher services and resource room so currently we service 22 students who are at District of location um schools and we have two two of those schools within our [Music] Zone and I wanted

034to give you an up update and and also thank you um the flex path program uh you you I I know you're going to recall a year ago I came to this meeting to talk about an Innovative idea that we were working on for a therapeutic alternative program to help support our high school students and with your support and the support of everybody from technology to the business office Dr Hatter and the board of course we created the flex path program and what we talked about and const last year when I was here became a reality in September of this year and it was such an honor and a privilege to see so many people come together to to help this program become a reality and in such a short time period um it was

035really it's I it gives me goosebumps to think about you know the work that went into it and how positive that work was and how the team really came together um to make it happen for the students so the flex path program is here and it's running and it's in our first year we're about halfway through and I I really appreciate this opportunity to give you an update we had 14 seats available in the program and at one point right around Christmas we were at 15 and we went over by one because we had a student who really needed the program and we just we couldn't say no um and and now we're back down to 14 because a student moved and um so we have one assistant principal who's here who works with the

036flex path program and also does some work in our high school we have a wonderful psychologist we have two special education teachers we have um a a piece of a fad teacher uh to provide inperson physical education for our students we have a wonderful certified teaching assistant um and a school counselor who's absolutely amazing and this team works together and that the program is up in the Modular Buildings at the top of the campus they really work together to make sure that the students who are in the program are are getting a a second chance at getting back on track to earn those credits and to to um build their self-esteem and their skills up so that they can be successful and graduate um high school and in some cases maybe before other people would

037have thought they would have so because there's an option for credit recovery within this program so students can make up credits that they've lost they can get ahead a little bit um and get back on track if they've been behind it's the flex in the program really speaks to the ability that the program has to start kids at different points and give them different courses and part of that flexibility comes from a platform that we use called AG genuity which is an online platform um but without the in-person support from the team working together to help the students it wouldn't be successful um the program also uses DBT dialectical behavioral therapy and so all of the students in the program do a group counseling as well as individual counseling and um happy to say that

038the program is going well there are a couple of students in the program who aren't doing as well as we would have hoped um and so we might be looking for something different for them but the majority of the students are doing very well and we expect at least four to graduate this year as we look to next year what we would like to do is increase the number of seats in the flex path program from 14 up to 18 and one of the things that we noticed year was that um there were a few more students than what we had anticipated would need the program and um going up by even just four seats I think would enable us to meet the needs of those additional students and so for that reason we would

039like to expand up to for from 14 to 18 and um in order to do that we would need um another part time person uh it's a0 6 um and the in the calculations however we think that that person would not be a new hire we think that there is enough room within the high school special education schedule that one of the special education teachers at the high school could fill that position without you know increasing the budget so that would be our goal and I put in the um the logo in there because I I wanted everybody to see that our team worked hard over the summer to get the program up and running and they designed that logo and um I wouldn't do it justice maybe maybe they can come to a board

040meeting and talk a little bit about it but but the the everything in that photo stands for something and and the promise of the future of the children that are in the program and um it it's just been it's been honestly um a true a true pleasure and a joy of my career to see this program come come to fruition and so I can't thank you enough for helping to make it a reality and finally as we look to the to the future we have some priorities that we'll be focusing on for next year as I mentioned increasing the number of SE in the flex path program from 14 to 18 is one of the top priorities for next year along with increasing our speech language support um in previous years we had 12 speech

041language Pathologists full-time an additional person would service the students at St Patrick's school and also pick up overflow students that didn't fit in the other therapists um schedules and this year what happened was we had a little bit of a a difficulty with filling a leave placement and a little bit of a difficulty with a contract and Staffing for that and so we ended up utilizing an additional person um through our payroll department next year I think it would make the most sense to continue that especially in light of how difficult it is to get um providers through the contracts that that can do the work that you know that's at our level so next year um it's really just a reallocation of the funds from the from a contracted line into our um salary

042line but increasing up to 13 full speech language Pathologists would be what we need in order to make sure that the speech language student needs of our students can be met and we'll monitor the csse progress um process as we do including the numbers of referrals and what's behind those referrals we always look for patterns there things that we could do better um and working in partnership with the buildings um to try to get services to to students earlier eligibility determination program program implementation and evaluation those are all key um parts of our department that we all work together on multi-year planning as well we are looking forward to um even two years out from now our 812 classes have been growing steadily with approximately seven students entering kindergarten each year needing an 812 program

043and so um our numbers are really high in those classes and so so for next year we are going to be pretty much at capacity and if the number holds for the following year we'll be you know look looking at that closely and planning for how those students move up and and making sure that we can meet their needs and so we'll we'll be watching th those numbers along with all the other numbers carefully um along with continuing to provide uh certification and training in special areas for our staff including nonviolent Crisis Intervention we have a clinical team and a core team in each building that focuses on risk assessments and threat assessments which unfortunately there's been a need for more and more of those so we have a nice protocol in place that we

044follow we do a lot of training around that um and just working closely with the building Administration and Central Administration to really determine the needs the programs the Staffing the space for the programs and continuing to find efficiencies within our department and things that are helpful to parents as well one of the things that we did last year was we began uploading all of the IEP progress reports to the parent portal and we no longer have to mail them out which is a time saving and a cost saving in the mailing but it's also a convenience for parents who can log into the portal and and see their child's progress report with a few clicks and what we've done this year is we've uploaded all 504 plans and IEPs to the portal as well which

045is a secure platform where parents can log in and see their child's document anytime day or night so we'll continue to look for some efficiencies and another big change that we had this year was of course our move to french hill um and that I want to I want to thank everybody for too because that was a big move you know and the space the library at french hill was completely transformed and in about a month's time I never would aside from getting Flex path up and running in a short time transforming that library at french hill into the PPS office it was it was amazing to see how fast it happened and um just what a great job they did with everybody's support from from technology to omm Dennis's team just getting the file

046cabinets which way probably thousands of pounds moved over that alone was a feat and um so we're in our new space and enjoying being there and seeing the little ones who are at upk in the same building so it's been a real pleasure and um and an honor and I want to thank you oh and next will be Miss Jen forsberg who will speak about the technology and data part of the budget hi good evening I first want to thank the Board of Education and my administrative colleagues for the opportunity to speak tonight and your continued support for our department this is an organizational chart of the technology and data Department it represents 11.4 employees on my team including me I'm the director of techn technology and I also serve as the data privacy officer

047for the district we have a technology clerk who works in central office and then these four buckets uh represent different systems that we support we have two data analysts for our data systems and includes our CIO and then to the far right would be our instructional systems and we have two instructional Technology support Specialists who primarily support K5 but they do support the entire district and all of our our teachers k12 and students in the middle we have our Network and hardware systems which is represented by our editech technicians and Engineers we have three level one support technicians who are primarily answering help Des tickets going into classrooms we have a level two or a junior Network specialist who also goes into the classrooms but also has some other responsibilities a network engineer who's responsible

048for the network and then a point for technology services [Music] coordinator within those four different systems the team is responsible for the sis management which would be echool data everything about echool data lives in our with our two data analysts primarily all the accounts from students to staff from onboarding to offboarding making sure new students and new staff members have an account in the right spot all of the New York State reporting supporting me with data privacy any of the non-instructional software all of the Assessments in the building so working with teachers and the administrators and as well as data migration and all of the data backups within our Network systems we're responsible for the any technology that supports physical security including our cameras that would probably be the biggest one the next one would

049be cyber security which I'll speak to in a moment cuz it's one little bullet right there but it's it's much bigger than that um all of the network Hardware our Wi-Fi infrastructure and Cloud management all of the phones the entire phone system the software Integrations is a team effort between data and and our technicians including single signon and MDM stands for our mobile device management um so the policies within there moving over to hardware systems so all of our inventory the team has worked really hard to get our inventory as close to 100% as we can so every single Chromebook every single laptop every single Shar board that you can imagine there's many which you'll see in a moment those are all in an inventory system our Microsoft active directory our Google admin console which

050are two backbones of our virtual environment all of the student staff devices our printers the classroom Technologies our help desk management and then our family and remote support and moving over to our instructional systems our instructional tech support Specialists support the eam classroom integration the New York State computer science and digital fluency standards any professional learning activities around technology integration all of the instructional software support so in the classrooms with teachers and students so that's the end user support and then supporting our students this is a snapshot does not include everything in our environment but really some of the main pieces so we have over 4,100 users who technically can use their devices 24/7 if they choose we are a one:1 Chromebook uh District K to2 in kindergarten through 2 grade the Chromebooks stay in

051the classrooms they're assigned to the room and starting in third grade they're assigned to the student and there's a life cycle of 3 to four years where they get a new Chromebook we've been moving up through the grades to have all touchscreen Chromebooks we're currently k6 next year will be K7 and there is a bring your own device or BYOD option for our secondary students and our faculty and staff they can bring in their own devices computers phones Etc we have around 12200 workstations so our desktops and laptops throughout the district and when our students are using Chromebooks or BYOD but if they need special installed software um we have laptops iPads MacBooks available primarily at the high school and middle school if needed in those classrooms that just stay in the classroom we have

052over 500 Voiceover IP phones well over 400 cameras security cameras over 1,000 Apple iOS devices so this includes iPads it's mostly iPads uh MacBooks and the MacBooks have grown based um next year will be in our fourth year of teacher choice so teachers our new teachers can select if they want a Macbook or a laptop which has been successful it's about 50/50 say every year it remains about 5050 we have over 350 interactive and regular TVs throughout classrooms conference rooms and offices 40 networked Xerox work center the printers and um mfps the multifunction printers 3D printing in all of our schools we continue to have upgraded firewall and our wireless infrastructure video streaming for live sports and other student events and about 75 Vivy casting devices so students and staff can wirelessly cast with any

053device to a [Music] TV so going back to cyber security and data privacy um I think we've all learned in our personal life and professional lives that nothing is 100% when it comes to cyber security so we could have every single tool possible and it with the rise of AI it's a double-edged sword that the attacks are getting more sophisticated but we do what we can in a K12 environment and we've added um we continue to add some updated software to keep our our environment safe what we've seen is is uh of course a bigger or a larger increase in fishing seeking credentials um attaching something like a Google form so it's harder to detect and it slips through and we also see a lot of fake attachments that look in the attacks are are

054very good they're using AI so they're very sophisticated however uh the top three bullets are our newest um areas the ones toward the bottom we've we've had for a few years now but I'm going to start at the top where it says 247 Security operation Center or a sock as it's referred to so this is monitoring our environment for malware and other threats 24/7 which is helpful because we don't have someone here 24 hours a day 7 days a week so it's using Ai and human interaction to detect threats and in the past month we've had 33 Flags most thankfully were false positives but our team then can review um whatever the um the sock operators give us the information so that's been really helpful we also have a new almost fully implemented 247 fishing

055detection software for Gmail so it lives in our environment and it's using AI to learn the behaviors of our environment to let us know what is um an attack and what is not and we've had around 300 in the past 7 days that have been remediated before it even hits the inbox so that's key is what I liked about this software is it remediates it before it comes to the user and the third one is a 247 data risk assessment tool for our Google workspace so I receive alerts if there's any it it's also brand new but if any data is leaving the district that could have financial information or it looks like passwords Etc so and it has AI to detect maybe a social security number or some Financial um or if something was

056shared privately or excuse me publicly that should be private so those are three key areas that are new and the as I mentioned the other items we've had for a few years now so some of the highlights from this year um very proud that our environment has maintained little to no network downtime um it's very important to stay up as as often as we can because we're tied to so many things and every once in a while if an access point goes down or there's some sort of blip we hear about it immediately and our team is on it immediately um to make sure that our teachers and students staff are up and running our we have a help desk where our faculty and staff parents and students can enter tickets and since July 1

057so this school year we've closed over 7,000 tickets in less than 48 hours and a caveat to that is that the system is counting nights and weekends so I don't love that because it should be actually a little faster um but it is around 48 hours and the life cycle of a help Des ticket could be it comes into the system and it could be remediated in 5 minutes remotely while other tickets take a few days or a week if we have to order a part or do some more investigating so that's all of the data all of the technology tickets are in one system another highlight is our data team helped to develop schedules to maximize efficiencies this year um I conducted phase one of a cyber security Gap analysis to ensure our nist

058compliance so next year would be phase two of that and as Miss amling mentioned successful integration of AI into classrooms and even beyond the classroom into some of everyday work of other employees who aren't in classrooms so really the district embracing AI uh throughout the district and another highlight this year we took a harder look into our software so our software has a life cycle as well where it's approved through a vetting process I look at the data privacy agreement have to make sure there's one in place for all software um it's purchased if it's approved and then U our data team will roster it install it if necessary so it really touches everyone in our department but we looked at all of the software using a program called sway 360 to look for redundancies

059and efficiencies this year and priorities for 26 uh one would be to add a full-time tech services coordinator through our contract with editech want to continue to leverage artificial intelligence to enhance our operations so I I don't even know it's going to be out in a few months it's moving so quickly but um we review everything that's out there to enhance our physical security cyber security and our instruction we are going to we need to update our laptops and desktops with Windows 11 by the fall of of 25 we've moved to a lot of our forms from paper to digital form using a platform called droplet so we want to fully Implement that next year um continue our network and infrastructure plan for updates maintenance and upgrades developed a 5-year plan next year would be

060year three and last but not least continue to enhance cyber security through uh participation I'm in a putam Northern Westchester Bose cyber security cohort the LC data priv privacy User Group conducting table exercising exercises fishing Expeditions ongoing training and of course continual monitoring oh thank you again for your continued support and I'll turn it over to miss sanfilipo hello everyone so I would like to speak to you about um the instructional budget summary so what is all of this good stuff going to cost us do you have it or okay thank you okay so as a reminder again these numbers are preliminary and still subject to change the state's budget is due April 1st the final state budget may or may not impact the district's final budget amount um we seem to be in pretty

061good shape this year with projections so um not anticipating a significant impact um and a reminder that the final budget will not be adopted until April 21st so these numbers can change up until then so overall um we're projecting um we proposing a budget of 70 million uh 841000 and change uh for 2526 for all of our instructional codes that's a $1.66 million increase increase from the current year budget which uh totals a 2.4% increase it should also be noted that all Department categories included here includes all salaries equipment contractual Services Bosey services and supplies and materials reminder um benefits are um indicated in another section of the budget so this isn't any um benefits attached to the salaries just the direct salaries so included in the curriculum uh and development is the off is

062the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction and that contains all professional development expenses districtwide the $50,000 or so a reduction in this line is a reduction in contracted professional development use to offset um the addition of two the two new literacy co uh coaches that Miss amlink spoke of earlier the literacy coaches are um shown in the teaching line so we use that $50,000 reduction um to help pay for that the supervision line includes um all the principal's offices and all five buildings it also includes our Security expenses including our SRO and greeters at each building the SRO expense will be increasing by about $186,000 for next year plus an additional $122,000 for increased overtime rates by the town also increasing is the contractual cost of our campus greeters by about $40,000 the general education

063teaching line is basically flat uh the reason for that is that 10 of our teacher retirements of the 10 uh teacher retirements seven were in the general education area and they're either not being replaced or will be replaced with new staff at lower salaries the programs for students with disabilities line includes all of our special education teachers including speech and reading teachers and all of our ctas and Tas that are IEP mandated and all of our outof district tuition costs that uh Miss ala spoke of earlier the occupational education line is the cost of tuition for our high school students who attend the career in technical education programs at putam Northern Westchester bosis and this increase is due to increasing enrollment in these programs the librarian AV line includes the cost of Library automation systems

064and all databases that we purchase districtwide educational television includes the cost of recording Bo Board of Education meetings and District performances the computer assisted instruction codes include all of our software and Hardware purchases technology infrastructure technical support contractors including editech and other Bosey Services the increase in this line includes the cost of increase ing our editech contract by the 1.0 FTE that Miss forsberg just spoke about and mainly um other software purchases and other Tech equipment purchases guidance includes all of our guidance counselors the high school middle school and elementary schools including a student intervention counselor at the high school this increase here is um due mostly to Lane changes and contractual longevity threshold changes so not a lot of Staffing changes just contractual changes code Health Services includes the uh the cost of all

065nurses districtwide and at St Patrick's which we are legally obligated to provide a nurse at St Patrick's and the district physician it also includes the cost of Health and Welfare Services that are charged by other districts for our private school students uh that for private schools that our students attend they go out a district to attend private schools Psychological Services includes psychologist districtwide this increase is mostly due to the reallocation of a 0.5 FTE psychologist to the general fund from the federal grants so the district receives a certain amount of money each year from the federal government um for special education and title um Title One services and um we are budgeting for next year one more5 FTE in the general fund as opposed to allocating a to the grant so that numbers up a

066bit Social Work Services includes all social workers districtwide and again that increase is due to a reallocation of a 045 FTE social worker same thing to the general fund from federal grants the last line people Personnel Services includes the office of the director of PPS including all related clerical staff so that is a summary of all the lines and the changes [Music] the next so the last slide is just a summary of our uh presentation schedule um coming up next on March 24th will be the superintendent's budget presentation April 21st is the budget adoption May 12th is a budget hearing and May 20th is the budget vote that was a long presentation thank you that was tremendous amount of detail thank you very much that that's very helpful um I will start I'll start with

067Lisa and we'll go down and ask questions sure um that was a lot a lot of information um very helpful thank you um Miss amerling can you talk more about the Seal of Civic Readiness sure um this was an initiative we we we starting to talk about it at least two years ago um and I will say that Miss chion at the the assistant principal at the high school um in coordination with Miss Chesser who is here this evening she is our um supervisor of humanities they really started to get the this push going and this growing interest um one of our teachers Miss Walsh over at the high school has been really really integral and very excited to get this going um the seal really does add um a level of distinguishment in the

068area of social studies for our graduating um students the students have to earn points they have to get six points uh that they can actually start accumulating from middle school they can get at least one point from work at the middle school currently our Freshman Class many of those students are coming in with one point um because of the projects and work that they have done um here in the Middle School in the eighth grade class um but through um Mastery on Regents exams through taking advanced cour workor in extracurricular activities in work experience es in writing Reflections um in in a Capstone project um when they're in their senior year students can accumulate these six points um and with that they are reviewed Miss Walsh is going to lead the the committee on review

069to see if students really do then deserve such such an honor um It's a Wonderful way for students as they're applying to colleges and into the workforce um to just show show their dedication to civics and um you know their their community in this way it's wonderful it's wonderful to see it happen it a great idea thank you um I have two questions so I'll ask one now and save one um so jumping to slide 15 um that talked about the uh numbers of our 504 students and um IEP students Etc so it seems like in The Last 5 Years our 504 numbers have somewhat doubled um is that as a result of what we're seeing with the incoming um like the younger grades or is that just G to um thank you thank you

070for the question it is across the grade levels we're seeing an increase in 504 students from kindergarten all the way through High School some of the students who are identified through Section 504 students with allergies things like nut allergies or diabetes and so what we are seeing is an increase around the board in things like I just mentioned that are medical conditions um also increases in things like anxiety disorder ADHD and so 504 encompasses quite a wide range of disabilities and in order to be eligible for a 504 plan you really have to have a a condition that limits a major life function so it has to impact your ability to see to hear to breathe to walk to sleep to eat or to learn so there there really are um quite a few students

071who are impacted by their disabilities and need some services or even just accommodations in order to access general education and so yeah I think I would say around the board kindergarten all the way through 12th grade those numbers have increased thank you here um getting back to the Seal of Civic Readiness are we seeing that other high schools are adding that seal to their diplomas as well yes I think it's probably more and then not for high schools to offer this so it's time for us yeah great and another question um regarding the I grants I know we had received a presentation on this is it two years ago Dr Hatter or three years last year last year yeah this is the second year um and how often are you reviewing them and you know

072assessing the you know need or you know reviewing the applications from the teachers and how many are we getting at a time so the applications last year came in at a rate that we weren't able to process because there were so many that came in it exceeded the budget that we had set for the iants this year they've slowed down so there's less of a formal they're still coming in I actually received one just before walking into this meeting on another I grant request so they're still coming in and we're looking at them more um as they come in as opposed to waiting until the end of the month we just uh funded an I grant to establish a social studies Honor Society in our school district so that's moving forward there's um there are

073a few iants that are that are circling so it certainly has slowed down but even within that we're still trending toward using our budget that we allocated for all the I grants which which is terrific they're becoming a little bit more complex in terms of the need so we just funded as another example flexible seating in our Middle School to the tune of I want to say it's $2,000 or so in one Grand so they're still certainly coming in we're evaluating them actually in a more timely way I would I would argue because as they're coming in we're evaluating and making a decision rather than waiting a month to give a decision letter but I appreciate you asking the question it's been a terrific uh addition to our district it's really allowed teachers to Showcase

074their creativity their ideas and and there are very few programs that the iants have not touched at this point and very few buildings obviously uh they every one of our buildings has been recognized with an i so we'll continue that for next year and hopefully we'll continue with the um with the same demand or or maybe even more demand that's great to hear thank you Catalina I have a comment and a question so thank you for all your hard work I think we've seen so much of what you're doing in your highlights in our board presentations I'm still thinking about and was researching the AI classes that um at our last meeting that the Middle School came in um and uh Miss Sam I was if you could just talk more a little bit more

075about the literacy coaches the two literacy coaches sure um we have invested a lot of time and resources in professional development for all of our teachers we really try to cover all teachers all grade levels um and and with the amount of money that we have sometimes we look at our teachers who are so longing for the best and Innovative approaches research-based approaches they know that science of reading is is is huge and they want to do the best job they can and sometimes what when we look at them we say we can give you about six or seven days of professional development this year and we spread it out over time they have learned so much they have learned all of the detail of very very specialized areas of reading and when they have

076this very wide host of all of this knowledge how do I put it all together how do I bring that all back into my classroom and make it work in in the blocked time what they really are looking for at this point is how do I help me manage all of this and and I will say that it's great thanks to miss cheser because she will pick up the phone and and they're they're they've made the request and she's trying to fit them into her very busy schedule um to give them the in-classroom support that they're looking for a literacy coach would allow the the opportunity to be in the classroom to unpack all of these different parts of the science of reading to make it comprehensive and fluid inside of the classroom um they

077would provide immediate feedback to the teacher they would model lessons right on the spot they could kind of live in the moments of a unit with you they could come in you know daily and frequently to see how that develops to make suggestions over text materials and resources for for students so it really is at the point of teachers have so much and done so much with um science of reading but how do I put it all together and you really need somebody working alongside you for much of that work um the request for two is really just because the volume would be so great we see what they're asking for uh we have upwards of 75 classrooms um just K to five so trying to get into those rooms and give a lot of

078targeted time to each of those teachers um is pretty significant so the literacy coach would not only help the teacher directly it would manage a lot of the professional development it might be less Reliance on living literacy Network the Consultants that we're using right now um and I just think it's it's at a point where that's what our teachers are asking for thank you so you spent a lot of time on science of reading and you know English language arts in the classroom are we is it because we're transferring to a new way of teaching or is it because our students are behind and we're still struggling to because there a a lot of stuff out in the ethos about you know how everybody is still behind what is the what is this whole science

079of reading is it something new we we're trying to train everybody on is it A New Path you how can you explain it as how it works for our students we've we've always had great reading programs um and giving students great foundations so it's not because we haven't been doing that we we certainly have with the attention that has been brought in in media and Nationwide about scores and about um what students need and what teachers need we gave that great um respect and and attention in in all of our work there's so many components to science of reading um and it what its real purpose and design is to look at each individual student so you really get away from these whole class lessons where I'm just giving this to everybody because not everybody

080can access that learning at the same time um we see more and more students who need to see um have explicit instruction over time so that they can really Master a a concept so it it's NE not that we've never been doing incredible work we always always have but with such great attention to the more of the individualized and specialized need of students um we really are we're at a point where teachers have have been learning about each individual component related to to the science of reading um but putting it all together bringing it into our curriculum our scope and sequence work because we're still looking at units of study and have a wonderful program but how do I make this all happen within my classroom um so I don't I'm it's not in reaction

081to students not performing well um it's really just in reaction to giving all students what they need and whether that's your struggling learner a mid or a high it's giving all students what they need and moving all students forward terrific Lisa so just two two comments um Miss almea I don't know if the community could have seen your face um when you were talking about the flex path program because the camera was probably focused on the screen but your face just beamed as you started to talk about that so I just wanted to commend you that was your baby you brought it to life um you know you thanked us really it's us thanking you for doing that because those 14 students children would not have had a place um so thank you for doing

082that I really do wish everyone could have seen your face while you were talking about it because it was really remarkable um and Miss forsberg um the other silent part of it um like Miss alam's face is what you do that nobody knows about right 1,200 workstations no little to no network downtime 300 attacks this week I mean you are just amazing in the way you've kept the district Network running and running seamlessly um so thank you to you as well rman um I have a question um uh on Tech and since we're so reliant on Google um I had read on the on the news seen on the news that um there might be some pending changes coming to the Google licens where like the core Services would still be uh allowed or accessible

083by our students um and I don't know if the Mandate was coming just in New York or was it a Google thing all over I like I don't know the specifics but things like Google Earth and translate YouTube would kind of be a separate licensing not part of the school platform so um I don't know if you have details yet that you're able to share or is that still um in the works sure so as of March 1st so just a couple days ago um because New York and New York State Ed and Google did not come to a data privacy agreement with regards to the additional services that you mentioned so all of the core service are are within the data privacy agreement so all the ones that students and teachers and we all

084use every day so some of those additional services like Google Earth YouTube Google translate we did have have to um discontinue as of February 28th in the evening so we did roll that out uh the New York State Bose bosies across the state have a lot of different resources for teachers on how to still use some of the services or Alternatives with students and today was really the first teaching day and we didn't have any questions that came to me it might have been more at the building level but I didn't hear anything from anyone but we're ready this week to help anyone that runs into any trouble but yeah that did happen recently okay thank you mhm sure I'm good thanks Lena um a a couple of things Caroline how are you going to

085get your extra seats into Flex path is there a [Music] plan there is a plan and and space is always tight but um I don't know Dr hter did you want to speak a little bit to that yeah we're we're looking at at um reconfiguring some of the office space up there so we'll have to do some work with some of the Departments that have their offices in the modular we've already begun those discussions but we're very early but obviously if our students need the space we're going to find the space and that's something that Caroline and I and and the offices involved the the heads of the offices involved will uh figure out together but we'll certainly find the space okay and then um a question for for for Lisa you talked about how

086you had moved some of the Federal grant monies um that were being used for salaries into the salary line are there additional Grant monies out there that if for some reason those federal grants go away that we're going to be have to absorb how will that work so there would not be additional Grant monies out there um we would have to go through What expenses are being charged to the grants right now and being um funded by the grants to determine um which ones we want to continue to fund through the general fund and which um services or supplies or whatever the case may be we would have to do without but there is no other funding stream um that would replace any federal monies that may be cut we would have to determine as

087a district what we're going to continue to fund on our own do we have a dollar amount of what our federal funding is 1.25 million all in is what that adds up to okay all right okay um anybody else one other question you said YouTube was one of the affected ones but that does no effect like our YouTube channel and all that stuff no it's just uh the K12 students so they can still watch videos teachers have different ways to now embed them into their instruction but they can't just go to youtube.com with their Yorktown account so it doesn't mean you know it's like when the cable company shut your show off it it New York City can still come to a an agreement and those Services can be reinstated at some point potentially potentially

088okay all right um anybody else all good thank you so much for all of your time we really appreciate it Ron you said you had more to go I do so and this will be this will be very brief I I did want to take a moment to acknowledge um deerra and Lisa and Caroline and Jen um I'm just fortunate enough to be part of this team and I think we've assembled a really really great team that's Dynamic every Monday morning at 10:00 a.m. I have the privilege of sitting around a table with this team and our athletic director our director of facilities and director of HR who are also I I regard as the best in their respective fields and we get to talk about the business of the district what's on deck for

089the week and and how we're going to work together to address the needs of our students in District so just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge them because they are just out of this world talented I regard them as the best in their respective fields and and I'm honored that they've chosen Yorktown to uh continue their careers so I wanted to just share with the community a a quick update on how my budget presid presentation on March 24th will come to look so at this point our community and certainly our board have watched and and attentively followed different presentations with different requests prior to that going back to December January even at some points in November there is there are a series of meetings that are held and those meetings are designed to for

090us to hear from the principles from each of the department heads from the various enti of our district exactly what their requests are for the upcoming school year and we take all of those requests under consideration and then we come back for a second meeting and obviously the universe of requests is then diminished a little bit because we couldn't possibly fund everything that is being asked of us in a tax cap environment and we're looking to strike that balance of getting our departments and our buildings what they need to move our student achievement forward and move The Learning Experience forward while being sensitive to taxpayers so there's another round of meetings and that list of requests are even even further filtered and then ultimately the board and the community has presented a presentation like this

091where there are Myriad requests that are made whether it's staffing programmatic needs and then there are the less glamorous things that are in the Budget Transportation increase to the tune of $700,000 retirement pension uh increases health insurance increases and all the other things that come with moving on into another school year so what makes it into the presentations won't necessarily make it into the March 24th budget presentation we certainly try to do our very best because we've we've already reduced some of the requests through our scrutinization of the budget process but on March 24th you'll you'll see me put together all of the different requests that the community has seen throughout this budget season into one budget that I believe balances respect for our taxpayers with what our students our buildings our district needs to

092move forward take that next level of growth and that next step and I look forward to doing that the requests all make sense everything that I heard tonight makes perfect sense and I'd love to provide everything that was asked for but we're going to go through another of of rigorous scrutinization of every request that's come our way in preparation for March 24th a filter a funnel I'm sorry is often used as the analogy that's not the correct analogy in this case uh I often hear well it goes through a funnel no at the end of the day everything makes it through a funnel just slower that's not necessarily the reality of this it's more like a filter whether it's an air filter or a water filter not everything will make it through so there is

093a very very rigorous process that we have here in Yorktown and what I would assure the community and certainly the board has come to know this over the last 8 years is what I present to the board is is what my administrative team really believes what we can do for the upcoming school year within the parameters of a tax cap and then for our community to know the board will then scrutinize the budget that I present to them and they'll make recommendations determinations they may adopt it as it is H there's a meeting between when I present the board to when the board is anticipated adopting the budget and so that's where those discussions will happen so it is a very very thorough process that we undergo to make sure that taxpayer monies are are

094accounted for and are well spent in support of our students so that that's the update that I wanted to provide on the budget and I appreciate the opportunity to share that just a couple of other updates that I wanted to share with members of our community beginning tomorrow we have a um a playoff game a basketball playoff game for the second year in a row our High School boys basketball team has qualified to the County Center which is the final four essentially of their respective league so we wish them well tomorrow I'm looking forward to attending uh I see officer Mundy in the back officer Mundy has become affectionately known as the voice of the Huskers and so not only is Officer Mundy and SRO in our building he's also an announcer for athletic games

095which is just a tremendous integration of our school resource officer police into our school community so good luck to our Yorktown Varsity Boys Basketball team tomorrow they take on RI at 4:45 p.m. arrive early tickets are still available and uh we look forward to seeing our our students compete we have a few other events I would just encourage you to check out the Yorktown minute this week there's so many things happening we have a great spring musical in store for our community Friday and Saturday night at the high school level Foot Loose is a show that that they're putting on Friday night 7 PM Saturday there's a 2 pm and a 7 PM performance tickets are still available to all three shows so I would encourage you to act quickly before tickets are sold out

096certainly the evening presentations tend to go quickly and finally prek and kindergarten registration are open there's a yellow Banner at the top of our web page that provides you with all of the instructions that you'll need to register your child for either prek or kindergarten if you have a child is turning four by December 1st of 2025 and you reside within the Yorktown Central School District catchment area I would just encourage you to register it appears as though the funding will be renewed for the upcoming school year at the same rate that it was renewed for this school year so it looks like we'll have 188 seats available for our prek program and as of right now we actually have I want to say 130 students or so registered at this point and and that

097was actually as of February 28th we had about3 30 students registered so if you have a child turning four by December 1st please do not delay register now and same thing with kindergarten if your child's turning five by December 1st please enroll that is an important part of our budget budgeting that's one of the unknowns that is difficult to quantify until we have our registration so I would encourage you to just come out register your child for kindergarten and uh we look forward to welcoming them to our school district and welcoming you to our school district if it's your first child enrolling in the Yorktown schools U finally Daylight Savings Time Daylight Saving Time begin Sunday March 9th we encourage you to just be mindful of that we spring the clocks forward so uh I

098understand that that may impact first period Monday morning at the at the high school in terms of getting us off to a little slower of a start but we look forward to that nonetheless in the extra daylight and that concludes my report thank you thank you everybody good all right um we're going to go on to policy can I have a motion to approve the second reading and Adoption of the following policies uh 1120 School District records 2111 School visits by board members 2150 filling School filling board vacancies 2120 point2 voting procedures and 8113 extreme heat condition days so moved second all those in favor I opposed um can have a motion to approve the minutes of the February 10th and the February 24th meetings moved second all those in favor I oppose a motion

099to approve the treasures report for January 2025 second all those in favor I oppose a motion to approve the claims audit report for January 2025 so moved second all those in favor I opposed a motion to approve the extra class report as of January 2025 so second all those in favor I I oppose annual budget and vote B anual budget vote and election legal notice a motion to approve the legal notice for the annual meeting annual School district election and budget vote for May 20th 2025 as stated below so moves all those in favor I oppose um [Music] be can I have a motion to um accept resolutions a through C below move second all those in favor I I opposed Personnel upon recommendation of the superintendent a motion recommendation of the super motion of

100the following be approved certified Personnel tenure appointment part-time appointments other compensation extra Duty um stiens resignation under classified Personnel we have civil service appointment stiens in addition to the substitute list mov all those in favor I I oppose in the business office be it resolved that the Yorktown Board of Education approves the agreement between the school district and the county of Westchester for the use of electronic voting machines including the other equipment and services for the May 20th 202 annual meeting and if necessary the budget revote to be held on June 17 2025 be it further resolved that the board president is authorized to execute such agreement a copy of which is incorporated by within within reference by the minutes of this meeting so second all those in favor I I opposed a motion the

101following to approve the following resolution be it resolved by order of the Supreme Court of the state of New York held in and for the county of Westchester on the 7th Day of Fe 2025 the Board of Education approves a school tax refund in the amount of $56,950 cents to rjw Group LLC for the tax years of 2021 through 2024 be it further resolved that the board hereby appropriates and makes transfers from the tax ciary re Reserve fund to the general fund in the amount of $ 56,600 2021 through 2024 so second all those in favor I I opposed um a motion to approve the attached resolution to participate with other school districts of the Southern Westchester Board of Educational Services Westchester County New York adopting this joint bidding are the Commodities materials and Equipment

102set forth in the attached resolution for the 2526 school year second all those in favor faor I I opposed a motion to approve the attached resolution to authorize r i1 RC to negotiate data privacy agreements on the district's behalf for the 2425 school year no move to Second all those in favor I I oppose a motion to approve the following Yorktown high school overnight trip for the Science Olympiad State composition in Syracuse on March 21st through March 22nd of 25 so moved second all those in favor I I opposed special ad a motion to arrange the placements as of June May as of March 3rd 2025 so move second all those in favor I I oppose gifts grants and donations a motion to accept with gratitude the following gifts grants and donations at mohansic $1,000

103for the first grade Excursion to the Norwalk Aquarium from the Myans PTA $1,065 for the third grade Excursion to the West County Nicks game from the mohansic PTA $50 from the mohansic excursions from the mohansic PTA a Brookside ,000 $1,166 for the third grade Excursion to the sharp reservation from the Brookside PTA crom Pond $2,000 for the fifth grade Circle Line Excursion to New York City from the crom pond PTA so second all those in favor I I opposed up to board comments Catalina no I just want to thank everybody again for um their presentations and um just congratulate the High School varsity girls cheerleading they're heading to States uh this Saturday sure yes I mean I'll um I'll re reiterate Catalina's comments thank you so much for such a great presentation tonight as I

104look at some of the highlights of of the past year I can't imagine we can make our curriculum or any of our programming any richer yet then I look at the priorities for the next year and I realize that we did we've done it again this year and we see that every year consistently on every budget presentation where we're going next year and we just continue to soar so I thank you to this team um for allowing us to do that where um great evening uh I just wanted to uh share a couple of things from um a town hall that uh Senator harkham had for board members um and superintendent we certainly thank him uh for his time to heer us um the two things I think that came up a lot are things

105that we've discussed so one was the cell phone policy uh most districts um that were on the call felt that their um teachers and staff were doing a great job in managing phones in the classroom so we're kind of waiting to hear what comes from the governor um and then the other topic was electric school buses so districts like us that contract their transportation um were concerned about how uh that mandate would um affect their transportation cost um so to that the senator uh said that he was waiting for more information on the timeline of that mandate um so more to come so I just wanted to share that with everyone thank you Lisa um just thank you for all the hard work that went into the budget I look forward to the final presentation

106on the 24th but really um what a great team I reiterate what everybody said we also want to mention when we do gifts grants and donations so often it's our PTA donating the money to our schools and I just want to thank them for their generosity because Time After Time week after week they are donating money on behalf of our students to help our students so I just I just want to thank them and acknowledge them again so thank you and again thank you for all of your hard work Caroline thank you for staying thank you for everything again same thing we really appreciate everything so uh up to public comment can I have a motion to adjourn so move second all those in favor I oppose good night everyone good night night [Music]