001good evening welcome to the yorktown central school district board of education meeting for february 7 2022. i have a motion to go into executive session to discuss why ct contractual contractual negotiations under the taylor law so much second all those in favor opposed thank you motion to go back into public session second all those in favor all right opposed good evening welcome to the yorktown central school district oh wait before i read that i'm going to say this new york state mask mandate is still in place for schools and the mandate requires that any person over the age of two including all students personnel teachers administrators contractors and visitors are to wear a mask while in public school buildings the mess must completely cover your nose and your mouth and if you do not wear
002a mask you will be asked to leave our our meeting and our school building please wear your mask properly at all times so can we please welcome the yorktown central school district board of education meeting for february 7 2022 can we please stand for the pledge of allegiance which will be followed by a moment of silence for our armed forces and those in our community who have lost loved ones especially remember the father-in-law of daniela salmon and retired cta linda allegiance to nicolosi flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Music] so [Music] [Applause] we're going to start with our first public comment before i invite the speaker up i just want to read something our first
003public comment session is 15 minutes in length each person has the opportunity to speak to up to three minutes about topics that are on tonight's agenda we will not be extending our public comment period for the first period [Applause] so although the state law does not require us to hold a public comment period we have 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 the speakers were asked to sign up in the appropriate sign up sheet with their name address and email your name is not legible
004enough that we can read it you will not be called please address all comments directly to the board not to the audience our policy 20 12 30 public participation of board meetings clearly states that we do not allow discussion involving or using the name or situation of an individual district personnel or students anyone who speaks in violation of our policy will immediately give up the right to continue to speak all speakers are expected to conduct themselves in a 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 maintain civility and respect for the views of others we do not allow calling out clapping or other disruptions from the audience we will be
005tracking each speaker's time and towards the end of your three minutes we will warn you to conclude if you fail to abide by the three-minute speaking time we will turn the microphone off thank you our public comment on agenda related items i'm going to call lawrence killian good evening my name is lawrence killian and with my wife and kids we moved to the yorktown district in 1990. we're also members of yorktown 100 which is a group of volunteers who are trying to reduce carbon emissions by five percent a year so i'd like to talk about uh transportation and what kind of buses we use the transportation budget has a hundred and sixty five thousand dollars for fifty seven thousand gallons of diesel fuel instead imagine using electricity that came from solar panels on the roofs
006of our building that we would get at very little cost because we were generating our own electricity and also think of the of our environment and our kids on the buses with the use of all that these diesel fuel recent articles in the yorktown news and westchester examiner about the efforts of other school districts the terrytowns croton white plains for example to set up pilot electric bus programs prompts us to ask what yorktown is doing in this area as we know electric buses are more energy efficient their batteries recharge when they break and slow down electric motors are three times more efficient than combustion engines they are much less expensive to maintain and they last longer there's an organization in croton like our yorktown 100 that's called cure and has developed a user-friendly tool called
007best bus electrification for school transportation which allows districts to determine total cost of a bus and even goes into generating estimates of tax levy per household so there's federal infrastructure money there's state grants and proposed legislation 10 seconds so this would be a time to uh look into it thank you there were no other public comments or agenda related items we're going to move on to the superintendent's report okay good evening everyone welcome it's great to see you all here this evening so my updates will consist of a few items this evening we'll also be giving the second installment in our series of budget presentations on debt service and transportation will outline some of the items that certainly go into the cost all of the presentations in our budget series are posted to our website
008so they're accessible to members of our community with regard to the updates that i'm going to provide to you tonight i'll start with today's weather there was some snow i received some inquiries why didn't we have a snow day dr hatter i really wanted a snow day i saw the flakes coming down it doesn't work that way if we can safely get the buses around town and we believe that we could safely get the buses around town we open schools and that's what we did this morning there were no incidents that were reported to us with regard to the buses and one thing you'll learn tonight if you hadn't already been aware of this our buses are on the road for about six hours a day we have a four-tier transportation system so we start
009with the high school our first buses are out of the yard just before 6 a.m each day for the first pick up at about 6 20 a.m so our decision comes at 5 00 a.m and i would love to know at nine o'clock what i know at uh later in the day but unfortunately that's not the way things work when it comes to a snow call we have used four snow days to date we have one more snow day that is built in so the next closure i hope there isn't another closure but the next closure will be our fifth and final snow day and then from there we would pivot to remote learning because the alternative would be to go into one of the school recess periods and we respect that families have made
010plans and their arrangements that are in place so we would pivot to remote learning in those instances so we've used four we have one more snow day remaining and i'm hopeful that we don't have to use it but i'm a realist it's february in the northeast and so the possibility always exists but please know that any decision that we make and i speak to mr cole at 4am every morning even tomorrow morning i'll be out in my car at 4 30 to assess the icy patches just to make sure that the campuses are safe for our children so 4 30 if you happen to be in the neighborhood you can stop by and say hello i'll be here with regard to the decision please know that i'm not looking at how many snow days are
011available when i make a decision on a snow day it's in that day is it safe that day for our children and staff and that's a determination and there are a lot of factors we have our high school drivers are out on the road the sun's not quite up at that point that i'm mindful of and then children waiting at bus stops so those are all of and obviously the roads and the campus conditions with regard to just next steps reopening opening up back up there's been a lot of conversation about masks i'll address that this evening as well um this weekend saturday night we had 500 people in this auditorium watching a dance performance at our high school how wonderful for our students to have that opportunity in front of a packed auditorium so
012we continue to move forward you're going to be hearing some announcements in the coming weeks with regard to more of that happening and we're excited to continue to be able to provide those opportunities for our students and their families certainly with regard to masks i just want to share there there was a lot that transpired from our last meeting to now there were court proceedings that happened right now masks are required in new york state it is anticipated that the mask requirement that statewide i just want to share this is not a school district determination the school district is in fact once the masked mandate is lifted this board and i will be no longer requiring mass they'll be optional once the mask mandate new york state has gone away so that's our position i
013have been speaking with the state department of health we wrote a letter jointly has a group of superintendents to advocate for clear metrics a clear date at what point can we remove the mask some would say that we're at that point we're past that point i don't disagree with you so what i'm looking for a very clear very clear guidelines last spring we had the opportunity to remove the mask we were given that by the governor at the time and it was a school district's decision you know the decision that we made we removed the masks and we had a great summer it was optional some students wore it some staff wore it some did not that was okay and that's terrific so i anticipate a decision coming soon from the state in fact the
014governor i think today announced at a press conference at a update on masks would be coming on wednesday from from the governor's office so that's my understanding i'll be watching that very closely and once the mandate's no longer required it will no longer be required in yorktown either so i just wanted to clarify that piece as well and the one thing i would ask of our community for anyone who in the audience and anyone viewing this whatever decision a family makes i would just ask that you'd be respectful of that decision so the decision will be based on one's personal comfort family circumstances just i would just ask that we all be respectful of the decision that one makes moving forward and i will be sending out a letter to summarize what i just shared
015here tonight and i will be asking that everyone just be respectful of whatever decision a family decides to make with regard there are just because the masks may become optional we're moving toward that the numbers have vastly improved in yorktown and that's terrific there are other mitigation measures so i know some may hear the idea of a mask being optional and that can either be welcome news or it can be concerning news based on your specific circumstances i understand that there are other mitigation measures that are in place we have great ventilation systems in our schools we have great daily disinfection so those are some really strong mitigation measures that are in place with regard to just continuing to move forward just some great news for some of our students our mildred east ring middle
016school first lego league team finished in first place at their qualifying event so the robot design the presentation that they created i had the opportunity and and the honor to practice with them and to be one of their practice judges and i'm just so pr proud of what our middle school students see me sms visionaries is what they are called what their team name is and they finished first so they'll be moving on and we are delighted for them our dance company congratulations to members of our high school dance company just a brilliant brilliant performance three performances and it's challenging when you're prepared to present and dance on friday and then the superintendent calls and says school's closed and the performance is cancelled that's a difficult setback to overcome and they did so so well
017and i was so proud of them two brilliant performances on saturday a brilliant performance on sunday and i was just so proud for them for their families and for everyone who was able to participate in a great three shows also our wrestling team has been doing phenomenally well i just wanted to quickly acknowledge our wrestling team i'm not going to name them by name but i'm just so proud of the work that they're doing we have a first-year coach here in the district who did wrestle here when he was a student in yorktown just doing a phenomenal job really bringing a lot of prominence to the program so we're pleased with our wrestling program and so many other great things are happening as i visit class to class i'm seeing so many wonderful things in
018our schools and our students are really engaged and they're happy and they're learning and it's everything that you want for your own children and you see that in the schools and and i'm just so pleased that the experience has been um great many regards with um finally i'll close by sharing that you may have read actually there are two items i want to share you may have read about developments that are happening in town there's a lot of construction that's being considered and that's being proposed as a school district the position will always be as students come to our our schools we will educate them so i understand that there's one property and will do so happily i understand that one of the properties in town is proposed for 148 units and then there are
019some other developments that are being considered as well in various stages of development and the town has been terrific in their communication with us we have such a great partnership with the town with the highway department the police department everyone works so well together so we've been provided some really important information information that is publicly available at the town meetings we're looking at enrollment and capacity because some of the questions that we have is with 400 units being developed how many students will result from from the development so that's something that we have to have an eye toward the future on because depending on what the next steps are and we don't have those clearly defined at this point although we are working with a demographer we're working with specialists in this area to assist
020us in the planning how many students will will result from 408 units being developed 400 units being developed one number that i've heard at a recent town meeting is in the 40s so my estimate would be a little higher than 40 students with 400 units however we're deferring to people who know a lot more about about enrollment projections and and being able to forecast future enrollments as a result of housing developments finally what i'll share is there have been some library books that have been challenged and are under review and i just want to share some information about that there was a newspaper article recently written i believe it was published on friday of this past week and it spoke to seven books that have been challenged in our high school there is one book
021being challenged currently in the middle school i just want to clarify because there seems to be some confusion that resulted from the article maybe the article wasn't fully clear in terms of uh where we are in our process right now the books are under review board policy 1420 and the regulation 1420r speak very clearly to the process that follows when a formal complaint is initiated so there are informal complaints we're generally a conversation and context resolved and then once we get to a formal complaint there's a process that's prescribed by policy and we're going through that policy so the idea that books have been pulled from the library that's not accurate what has happened is generally there are very few of each title generally there's one of each title in the library step one of
022the process calls for the committee to read and review the book so our committee has taken the book out of the library so that they can review it and the book just can't be in two places at one time so the book is with the committee it is not available in the library right now but i have had some concerns well how can you pull it and there are supreme court cases that prevent the pulling of a book unilaterally and i understand that and i'm well versed in the pico v island trees 1982 ruling we're going through a process we have a really great group of faculty and administrators who are reviewing the books the determination hasn't been made yet and once a determination is made it'll be presented to me and i will make
023a decision on that and i will present the decision to the individual who initiated the complaint in the first place and share that with the board we'll share that publicly with you but i just wanted to share with you where we are in the process because i think there have been some conclusions that have been formed and the committee hasn't even finished their process at this point i respect the process and we're going to follow the process so i just wanted to clarify that for members of our community are there any questions on anything that i shared this evening that maybe i should clarify i think okay very good uh so if it's okay with you i'm going to transition to the budget presentation for this evening perfect okay so mr cole will deliver the
024budget presentation that we have prepared for the board and for the community this evening debt service and transportation so mr cole i'll turn it over to you at this time thank you so much dr hacker and good evening everyone tonight is our third presentation in a seven part series in the following slides we will discuss the status of the district's outstanding debt and transportation services we will begin with the debt service section of our budget in 2021 the district's credit rating was affirmed at a a plus by standard poor's the credit rating one of the highest in new york state among s p rated school districts allows us to borrow money at very low interest rates this chart represents annual total debt service payments including related interest costs on our outstanding obligations at this point
025the bonds issued in support of the 2006 voter authorization represent the entirety of our capital indebtedness as the chart indicates our debt service costs will remain fairly constant for the next two years at a level of approximately 3.6 million dollars annually beginning in the 24-25 school year the outstanding debt begins to mature in six annual phases phasing out completely after the 28-29 school year our capital reserve fund established by voters in may 2017 will again be the financial vehicle we use to fund capital projects for the 2022-23 school year as a reminder the voters approved a capital reserve not to exceed 12 million dollars in total funding for a period not to exceed 10 years the reserves have two significant benefits to taxpayers it provides a source of funding for building a facility improvements without
026the need to further raise taxes and eliminates the interest expense on money that would otherwise have been borrowed to date we have fully funded the reserve to the maximum level of 12 million dollars and of that 12 million dollars approximately 11 million dollars will have been spent by the end of the summer of 22. the next group of projects are scheduled to begin in the summer of 2022 and include lighting and air conditioning and other renovations in the cafeteria of the high school and air conditioning to large area spaces in the middle school brookside mohansec and crompon schools here is the line by line cost estimate for debt service in our budget as the bonds issued in support of the 2006 authorization continue to be paid down we can expect costs to remain constant for
027the next two years and then again dramatically decline over the next six years next we'll move on to discuss transportation the yorktown central school district employs a four-tier bus system that is to say we have four distinct cycles to our daily runs in the mornings the high school students are transported first then the middle school students krompon school and last the two k-3 schools brookside and mohancek in the afternoons for dismissal the cycle take the same cycle takes place the four-tier cycle takes just over three hours to complete we will utilize 71 vehicles of varying sizes to provide this service in 2022-2023 the district provides home to school transportation to private schools for yorktown central school district residents within the distance requirements established by the state education department we also provide transportation services to students
028attending special education programs outside of the school district boundaries our buses travel more than half a million miles each year consuming more than 50 000 gallons of fuel we expect total transportation costs to increase by just over 456 thousand dollars our rate of contractual increase for 2022-23 is based on either the rate of inflation or four percent whichever is lower we are therefore estimating a four percent increase to cpi as the escalation factor for 22 23 the cost of diesel fuel will increase based on the significant rise in gas prices in general in total we expect transportation costs to increase by approximately 6.45 percent our next presentation will be the 28th of february when we discuss the tax cap calculation state aid and district cash reserves i thank you for your attention and will be
029more than happy to answer any of your questions you tom i'm gonna move to questions first of all appreciate all all the work that you've done uh we'll move on to questions uh cheryl did you have a question i do um i have a question tom regarding the outstanding debt have we refinanced all of the eligible outstanding debt that we currently have yes we we have uh within the last three years we refinanced the last two pieces of eligible debt which saved taxpayers approximately 456 000 over the next several years [Music] freshmen um yeah um i know that this summer as well as you know the last uh every summer right we have a lot of projects uh that are slated especially some of the bigger items that can be done over break or on
030a weekend um i think it'll be helpful tom if you could walk us through not us and also the community to the process of what it takes to get those uh slated for a given year because it's one of the things that has the biggest lead time in terms of our budget correct so if i heard you correctly because i can it's difficult through the mask you want to know what the process is to get those projects scheduled is that what you said yeah i think it'll be helpful for our community to to know what goes in to get a project slated for the summer of this year i'll gladly do it in both the superintendent and and board president can weigh in on this they're both members of the same committee that we've been
031working on some of us now for about 22 years which is the steering committee which steers the capital projects through the district's maze of bureaucracy if you will at the state level so projects that are identified the school district has two sets of professionals for construction the architectural team for us that's ksq architects and our construction management team because we are not allowed to let out a contract for a general contractor school districts require the dissemination of contracts without a single general contractor that would typically subcontract or work so we have to hire a construction manager we happen to have the best in my opinion which is irish contracting once a project is identified like the work that was done in the gymnasium uh the team that is comprised of board members and administrators for
032the most part here in the district goes through the the proposed specifications with the architect it gets priced out by the construction manager it gets sent up to sed for approval which can take up to a year in some cases and then the project comes back approved and then we let it out to bid and hopefully the bids come in with the projected costs that we had from 12 months previous it's a very long process and it's a process that requires strategic thinking and looking ahead and so when we get to these projects that we're about to do this coming summer they were considered and drawn up last year correct uh years and two years ago two years ago but we couldn't get them all into last summer so half of those projects moved into
033this summer do you want to add anything to that process um i would just say that the steering committee meets um at least twice a month when the projects are actually in going on which is usually from june through august it's once a week um sometimes it's even now we're going once a week because we're still working on colors and designs and things um it takes a lot of effort it takes an entire team in this district and our director of facilities sits on the committee um when we need to we bring in the principles we bring in other stakeholders um it's a whole team effort in this district um ron is there anything you want no and ultimately it comes down to giving our students the facilities that that they deserve to learn in
034so i'll share the gymnasium which we just finished this year which we're so proud of section one has selected yorktown as the venue for the basketball section championships and for anyone who follows high school basketball i think you recognize what a big deal that is where the county center has always been synonymous with being the home of that really prestigious event and now it's coming to yorktown this year so it's a result of the beautiful facility that the steering committee spent hundreds or maybe thousands of hours in design phase and and we have to think tommy he doesn't usually toot his own horn but it's because of his financial expertise and helping us guide us through this that we are able to manage the funds appropriately so that we can get the very best product
035for our students i do appreciate that and and i'm sure the community knows by now after watching these meetings that this is quite a collaborative effort between the board and the administration the admin the board allowed us several years ago to put up this capital reserve we're pleased with its results which has saved taxpayers almost two million dollars in interest expense uh not having to borrow the money so um we're pleased uh and it's worked i i would say we'd all agree that it's outperformed our expectations and uh hopefully it'll be used again in the future as a tool that can help to do really necessary work and do it in a way where it saves taxpayers a lot of money thank you thank you lisa yeah thanks for the presentation tom as usual excellent
036um i have a question about our buses um i think we're all acutely aware of the rising fuel costs so how do we calculate that into our assessment and how are i think we're also all aware of the labor shortage and how is that playing into our transportation needs okay so i want to take the second one first because that will be the shorter of the two we have not had the same level of bus driver shortages as other school districts have had across the region you can hear horror stories across the region about the shortage of drivers we did have a brief interruption with regard to covet illnesses and things of that nature but total transportation has really been wonderful at being able to staff the the drivers for all of our buses and
037we have not had that interruption thank goodness the with regard to the diesel fuel it's an interesting process we have our director or coordinator of transportation patty sauber is an expert at scheduling the buses and developing routes uses a software that plans out all the routes based on where students are located and at what grade levels based on those routes we know what how many miles we are going to travel and then each type of bus has a state determined miles per gallon usage of fuel so we're only paying for the fuel that our buses are actually driving the routes that have been planned by ms sauber and that's how we get to the level that we have in the budget all of the other miles that are in excess of that fall as a
038cost to the transportation provider so for us it's a it's a very effective scenario we we will know up front with 100 certainty what our mileage is going to be the only the only variable that's not controllable is if we have to add a bus mid-year and that will have a minor variation to the to the base projection but for the most part it's a pretty solid projection thanks tom you and your team are excellent thanks pete tom with regard to the fuel um there there is a six percent increase in with regards to fuel is there a way to um hedge our fuel this is a it's a great question one that comes up a lot as part of our lobbying efforts and the answer is no we can't buy futures uh future contracts
039to be able to do it we do purchase off of the state contract so we do get very effective pricing compared to the market rates but we do not have the ability to to go out and hedge against that inflation we would love to be able to do that there are a lot of things that we believe should be done in order to give school districts more financial dexterity we like to be nimble here but we can only be nimble within a certain box that we're put in so um i'm taking on to the the buses for a minute um we don't own our buses we we is about to um contract out to total transport transportation so we are not on a schedule where we can require them to purchase buses other than diesel
040fuel buses is that correct that is correct we're operating on a base contract that stems back to the early 2000s it's been extended over the years at rates of inflation which has saved us a great deal of money by exploring going out into the marketplace for additional uh proposals we that we believe that we would expose ourselves to 20 increases in pricing but the downside of that is some of the language of the contract does not represent contemporary times uh and that would be one of them so this is i believe we have next year and two more years on this contract and that will be a consideration for you all at that point what to do and and how to go about it but currently no we do not have that ability to require
041the replacement of buses with different types of buses have we had a conversation with total about their viewpoint in 21st century buses uh not not in a broad sense no i don't believe they would have any problem with it as long as the infrastructure exists to support it but that's an entirely different conversation and that's a whole infrastructure issue it is and it's not without its um it's not without its considerations on the cost side either electricity costs are exploding at this point they have been fairly consistent but we're seeing a trend at massive increases in electricity prices um and so we're bracing for that right now okay thank you cheryl do you have more questions i do have another question um i see a line in one of the slides that talks about replacement
042cameras for buses how are we going about evaluating um when we're replacing them or if technology is changing or are we you know upgrading what exactly is that um referring to there we're at at this point the cameras are unusually reliable as far as i'm concerned dr hatter i'm and i've had this conversation previously we we do want several cameras in inventory but we we do not we do not have an issue where they're breaking down at a rapid rate or anything of that nature so we're waiting for them to start to degrade and we will have the ability to replace several of them um as that happens but at this point there is no sign that any of the cameras that we have are in in any way shape or form uh not performing
043up to standard so that's just an inventory yeah and not every bus at this point is outfitted because there are some buses that are one thing that total has done is they're not discussing alternate fuel buses with us at this point but they are replenishing the fleet with newer buses so as they sub out an older bus they'll bring in a newer bus if they have an older bus that they've inherited they may make the determination that we're not going to invest the labor costs and outfitting the bus with four cameras we're going to replace it in six months time we'll wait the six months get the new bus and then outfit that bus with the cameras so not that that's necessarily for the cost but that can also be um for some of the
044other costs that go into the installation thank you brush me um i have a question on the uh interest payments so uh they seem to go down every year except in the last year it seems to just go up just a bit it seems to be the same as the 27 28. uh can you give us some insight into that sure the the um each one of these uh the chart of indebtedness that shows that significant decline over six year period represents an aggregate of all of the debt uh each piece of debt and there can be up to oh i'm going to estimate five or six individual pieces of debt that we've refinanced over a period of time have different variables on the amortization schedule for the debt so some of them have higher
045back end costs with variable interest rates towards the end of it and that's why you see a blip up a little bit in my estimation i don't know that it's going to be material at all it's a fixed cost it's not as if we're going to be subjected to the exposure of higher interest rates six years from now that's not the case so these costs are fixed and some of them are just more back ended thank you lisa no i'm good thank you i'm good um tom can you just explain you talked about a double a rating plus rating what does it take to achieve that in new york state so this is something that i'm gladly going to talk about because i believe it's a it's a real indication of the collaborative effort that
046i discussed before because nobody does this in a vacuum we have an outstanding financial team here i just happen to be the lucky uh person out front who gets to talk about this stuff and uh the collaboration we have at the board is part of this is as well school districts have to be able to demonstrate significant reserves that they've been able to establish cash reserves for particular reasons not just to have cash on hand for the sake of having it on hand but for specific potential exposures so for instance we have cash reserves that uh protect us against tax tertiary judgments when people when businesses challenge their tax exposure in the community and they they win in the courts we have to pay out immediately it could be six years worth of judgments they're
047looking at but we have to pay within 30 days the total value of all six years worth of exposure and that's one reserve we talked about the capital reserve which reading agencies will look at and realize the benefit of because we as i said before we have estimated that we've saved 1.8 million dollars of taxpayer money by not going into the market to borrow money and have to pay interest on debt for 15 years we also have reserves that protect us against spikes in pension cost systems depending on the rate of contribution that's required by new york state and then we have other reserves that are used to reduce the tax rate so that we can moderate the tax rate so that you don't see tremendous spikes all of those things were cited by standard
048and poor's standard and poor's put us in the top 10 school districts in new york state that they rate with regard to our financial condition and it that's a the culmination of a 20-year effort so it's it's it's noteworthy and i think it has tremendous value that's fantastic can you also while you're on that talk about the fiscal stress score that the state controller also does for school districts the the controller does an annual stress test on school districts based on certain criteria and it's published so that the entirety of the citizenry of new york can see the results we have absolutely zero zero points on the stress test in other words we're about as healthy as you can get and for that we owe you a debt of gratitude for the 20 plus years
049you've worked in this district because you have had significant efforts to do this for us and help us get here so we truly appreciate all the expertise you've given us over those years on behalf of the of my team and everybody else up here dr hatter and lisa included i thank you thank you um i have anthony is on does he have any questions no questions no questions okay did anybody else have any more questions on the presentation i just have a comment uh shuttle will you can see some no okay so i think uh tom i know for many years we all have looked forward to your 5 a.m calls uh you know the the snow calls the uh the early dismissal you've looked forward to it yes so i think there's a critical
050piece of information in in the slide that talks about the four-tier busing system um and that it takes several hours to complete so can you give some insight to our community on how that weighs in when you have to think about is everybody going to be home safe and it's not just our students but it's our staff it's the bus drivers after the drop of the kids and the buses and so can you kind of walk us through what goes we are yeah absolutely and i'll defer to dr hatter as well but dr hatter is is absolutely not kidding when when he says that um many days in the winter time we are speaking uh before four o'clock in the morning uh based on even the potential for uh for uh bad weather so because
051the the the system is a four tier system and requires under ideal conditions three hours to complete if the first the first buses to um to accomplish the high school run in the morning are out of the bus yard before 6 a.m so dr hatter is typically on a call at 4 30 in the morning with his superintendent colleagues in the region and that's all after already having spoken to me and perhaps dave baganelli who is the uh the town's highway uh director and then we have to look into the future and because our buses are on the roads from about 6 00 a.m till 9 a.m we have to take our best guess based on the information we have what conditions are going to be like over the course of that three-hour window uh
052dr hatter would you say that's an accurate description or yes i think it's quite an accurate description and i shared some of this our buses drive three thousand miles a day i don't do that in three months and our buses do three thousand miles in one day six hours a day so three mr cole reference and yes that is the voice that you hear at 5 a.m mr cole reference 6 to 9 a.m but also from about 1 to 4 p.m the buses are out on the road and i can be seen many times standing outside of the high school at 1 41 because if those buses do not begin to roll at 142 the brookside and mohancek runs are going to be backed up and now we have parents waiting at bus stops longer
053than they should be waiting and the buses run late i often say that a two minute delay at the high school turns into a 30 minute delay on the last leg of the run and that is accurate and it's something that we try to stick to but once you add inclement weather to the situation it makes for such a challenge and early dismissals are not something that that we tend to be fans of but in terms of the routing of the buses six hours they're on the road there's a lot that goes into making that decision we speak i speak to the highway superintendent who is terrific he takes my call at 4 00 45 42 or 4 20 in the morning 4 30 i'm on with my superintendent colleagues 16 of us speak at
0544 30 and in fact we're speaking tomorrow morning because there's refreezing so fourth i generally take that call while i'm on the road driving uh through bluetooth but there's a lot that goes into it and we have in a good year in a regular year about 2 800 children scheduled to ride the bus on any one given day and we have about 200 high school students on any one given day who are driving to the campus so it's off and staff certainly who have to commute from communities north and south of yorktown thank you but i think the crucial question is who's going to make the calls next year i think tom's coming back to be determined did anybody else have any more questions we're all good so we have uh three more budget presentations
055before the superintendent presents the budget in full to the board and then i want to remind everybody that on may 17th is our budget vote which will be at the french hill school it's also the same day that we do the trustee elections i just want everybody to remind everybody it's at french hill and please come out on may 17th we appreciate everything uh ron did you have anything else no that's all thank you so much all right we're going to go on to the personnel agenda i have uh three resolutions upon recommendation of the superintendent a motion that resolutions a through c be approved we have one that um be it resolved the board of education hereby approves the creation of an additional 1.0 fte personnel assistant title and the elimination of a 1.0
056fda personnel clerk title effective february 8 2022 and be it resolved that the board of education does hereby approve the increase in the hourly rate to 17 effective february 2022 for the following positions substitute clericals and substitute cleaners and then be it resolved at the board of education hereby approves the superintendent to establish the following rate of pay her staff not under department of labor overtime rules for additional duties and that is his chaperone at thirty dollars and fifty nine cents an hour so all those in favor all right i opposed we have the personnel agenda upon recommendation of the superintendent a motion that the following be approved we have certified personnel we have part-time and temporary appointments we have graduate credits hang on i gotta scroll through all of them um we have an
057extra duties additions to the substitute list uh teaching assistance stipend change we have our spring coaches and co-curricular for 2021-22 volunteer coaches corrections on unpaid leave of absence a resignation for the purpose of retirement and under classified personnel we have a permanent appointment after the probationary period and in additions to the substitute list discussion perhaps ron have all the um coaching roles been filled for the spring at this point yes i believe that all of the positions have been filled all those in favor opposed under business office we have resolved upon recommendation of the superintendent the board of education approves proposal amendment number one to the agreement with critical response group not to exceed 989 dollars all those in favor aye opposed under special ed we have a motion to approve the following placements as
058of february 2nd is it second or the seventh february 7th 2022. so moved second all those in favor all right i opposed we have a settlement be resolved at the board of education does hereby approve the settlement and release agreement in regard to student alt id 00700 7059 and be it further resolved superintendent of school be authorized to execute such settlement and release agreement on behalf of the district second all those in favor aye opposed and then we have gifts grants and donations a motion to accept the following donation with gratitude at the middle school we have 90 gently used yoga mats from beth biarco of katona some of them second all those in favor aye opposed we are up to board comments pete i'm good lisa um thank you to uh tom for the
059presentation you always do such an amazing job and dr hatter thank you for your comments at the beginning clarifying some of the things that i think are on weighing on everybody's minds with respect to the controversies the masks all of that thank all of you for coming out it's so good to see everybody uh come out to a meeting and show your interest and support in the district and i'll just reiterate jackie's comments that there is a vote in may and please come out and exercise your right to vote there are three board trustee positions up mine is one of them so please everyone go out and vote well thank you tom uh for such a thorough budget presentation and also dr hatter and uh lisa um a huge shout out to the middle school
060fll team during my early years on the board i remember when we started the robotics team at the high school and then a couple of years later we started the middle school team and to see that team you know take off and win first place and a very competitive uh qualifier was you know just outstanding and i cannot wait to see uh how well they do at the regionals so congratulations to them uh and absolutely fantastic um to add on to what lisa roll said uh my seat is up as well uh in may um you know i i cannot wait to continue our collective work together uh we have accomplished a lot and there's so much more that we have on our mind carol uh yes i want to say thank you as well
061to tom for you know a great presentation tonight um we really do value your uh expertise and we're very lucky to have you unfortunately we won't be looking at the same face next year but i'm sure we'll have someone who's equally qualified um it was exciting to see some of the projects that we'll be looking forward to the steering projects i'm on that committee and it's been wonderful to work with you and jackie and dr hatter and and our outside vendors we've had some great projects in the past and as far as the high school gym and we look forward to the air conditioning that's going to be coming this summer so um thank you for for keeping us fiscally responsible and able to implement those projects and to piggyback off of my colleagues lisa
062role did announce that we do have three positions up for board trustee in may i am one of those uh seats i will be running again for another term and i would be happy to serve with the same commitment to and passion for education that i've served in the past two terms that i've been here so please come out and vote in may for the budget and for the receipts that will be um up terrific pete i got you all right so then it's anthony good okay so um i i just want to thank the administration for their hard work on the budget um you know you spend 15 minutes giving us a presentation and we know you've spent weeks and months putting it together so we appreciate all your work all of your departments
063work and all the work of all the schools and all the departments that put in the numbers and the time and the effort to create this enron we thank you for your leadership in doing this so um i'm just happy we're moving forward so thank you all ron thank you for your explanation of books and the masks and you know we we look forward to the time we can see the kids beautiful faces again and hopefully it will come soon and we're just waiting for the governor to give us an answer so thank you we are up to our second public comment is at 30 minutes in length and each person will have the opportunity to speak to up to three minutes we may choose as a board to extend the second public comment by
064a majority vote if there are more people or time exceeds 30 minutes i am going to read again the rules for public comment although the state law does not require us to hold the public comment period we have chosen to do so because we believe it is crucial for our community members to hear 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 the speakers were asked to sign up on the appropriate sign up sheets with their full name if your name is not legible enough that we can read it we cannot call on you please address all your comments directly to the board not
065to the audience our policy 1230 clearly states we do not allow discussion involving or using the name or situation of individual district personnel or students anyone who speaks in violation of our policy will immediately give up their right to continue to speak speakers are expected to consult themselves in a 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 other disruptions from the audience we will be speaking tracking each speaker's time and towards the end of your three minutes we will warn you to conclude if you fail to abide by the three-minute speaking time we will
066turn your microphone off um it looks like we have 10 people signed up i will start to call jeremy neuberger good evening yorktown board of education my name is jeremy neuberger i'm a yorktown parent i have two kids in the district both of them if you will indulge a father's bragging just made the principles list so proud dad i'm here to talk to you about uh book banning little history back in 1933 in germany the nazis burned and banned books that they determined un-german books by philosophers poets scientists and jewish authors the books were called degenerate the nazis didn't like the views of others so they banned them there's a great book on the subject called mouse i highly recommend it and ironically there's a movement that is trying to ban it right now here
067and now in our little town of yorktown books by black authors latina authors lgbtq authors are at threat of being banned i know that you the board are reviewing them these are books curated by our high school librarians deemed valuable and with educational merit these books today are also being called degenerate in one hyperbolic facebook post i saw the words pornographic cop killing sex deviant child porn folks this is hysterical partisan nonsense listen i'm a political guy i have strong opinions on social media but you know one of the things that i really love about yorktown school district is that they keep the politics out we have people in our town with differing political views but for the sake of our kids the district keeps the partisan craziness of cable news and twitter and facebook
068groups outside the school walls the focus is on educating our children preparing them for college no matter your political stripes in yorktown you should applaud that i applaud that and in my home we have an open book policy we encourage opening books and when my daughter read the hate u give a book by angie thomas on this book band review list that we're here talking about she loved it it inspired her in a way a book can and should she did not then decide to hate police after reading it that's absurd she learned the perspective of people that feel unfairly targeted by police and she learned empathy give our kids some credit they're bright let them read varying perspectives when you review the books on this list you'll see they do not match the inflammatory
069rhetoric being lied about by the latest political ban campaign make no mistake it's a campaign this is not some random yorktown parent stumbling upon a book in the library and saying let's review it there's a movement to ban and burn and it's partisan and it's ugly the remedy for knowing that these books are not what they accused of is to read them so i thank you and i hope that you'll review the books let's not ban books let's read books thank you janet jaramillo hi good evening first thank you so much for the thorough um information earlier i'm also speaking about the books under review when we read books we immerse ourselves in the story we relate to the characters or the situations and see ourselves reflected back to us and we feel connected and
070sometimes we don't relate and those stories are filled with ease or adversity we have not experienced and the differences that are described are interesting and they're sometimes uncomfortable and in those characters and situations we learn something all of this magic depends on the author's impeccable use of words in describing imperfect human beings in an imperfect world and all of this magic is inside every cover on a library shelf recreational reading is the biggest goal educators have for their students so much can be learned in a book my understanding is that many of the books under review are books about queer youth and youth of color so in this what feels like a never-ending pandemic in the third year of isolation and social distancing and disrupted connection and societal chasms we're pulling these books for review
071these books within which our students who may feel they are on the social fringe learning about themselves and their identity and how they fit and who they are these books can give them an opportunity to see themselves and feel like they are not so alone these books these uh these books give these kids a way to connect with themselves or read in solidarity with others in books there is power i am reflected i matter i belong and so do you in an age when mental health is so fragile keep the books in the library and provide the opportunity for these kids to learn through the stories these books may not be for everyone but that's the great thing about keeping them in the library they are for someone and the fact that we're here standing
072up and speaking about the need to keep for books to remain available to students is honestly preposterous we're not giving the students nearly enough credit to make their own choices about what they need and what they want in education and i'm sorry about what they want or need and in education they need it all at their fingertips to choose thank you matthew sweeney hi everyone my name is matt sweeney i would like to thank the committee for letting me speak this evening i am here as a concerned parent as a parent my main goal is to make sure my children's childhood is is or was better than my own unfortunately due to covet so far that goal is failing our children are required to wear masks all day stay six feet apart even during lunch
073most kids sit back to back as dr harter spoke about the ventilation systems being great in my son's class in mohancek the windows are open and the ac is running in the middle of winter in gym class performing physical activity with mass in my opinion this is child abuse the sku the schools are now making up their own guidelines my son doesn't know what his friends or his teachers look like my son is a borderline spectrum he didn't start to talk until three and a half years old and has enough challenges other states are lifting these mass mandates as ours continues to fight for the control the science doesn't support this children children need to build up their immunities we have complied we have done everything the government the state and the district has asked
074but enough is enough we are destroying the best times of these kids lives i am asking to please give our children the same freedoms we had no masks no windows and ac's running in winter and being able to socialize and sit together in class and in the cafeteria i came to this community to start a family and to give the best opportunity to my children if things do not change then i will find a state that does thank you you rachel frederick hello good evening rachel frederick i'd like to comment on the current issue regarding the complaints about curricula or instructional materials regulation according to ycsd's policy 1420r there's no mention of books under review being pulled off library shelves admin stated that the reason they're pulled is because there's only one copy available to
075be reviewed by the committee yet another admin stated that these books are being housed in his office while under review how can the committee be reading them while they're simultaneously in his office nevertheless i did a quick search of the westchester public library system to see if we can get more books into the hands of committee members for a more expeditious review process currently available out of darkness 12 copies beyond magenta 17 copies jack of hearts and other parts nine copies the hate you give 79 copies gender queer three copies all boys aren't blue 25 copies the bluest eye 102 copies these do not include books on tape or the possibility for e-readers in that same ycsd policy 1420r there's reference to the pico case 35 years ago in 1982 the supreme court of the
076united states heard arguments in the only case to involve censorship in school libraries this case was initiated because of a conservative activist group parents of new york united pony u they compiled a list of books that they wished to have removed from school libraries the titles included slaughterhouse five the naked eight down these mean streets best short stories of negro writers go ask alice laughing boy black boy a hero ain't nothing but a sandwich soul on ice a reader for writers and the fixer obviously history is repeating itself with conservative political operatives attempting to censor access to material regarding race and racism yet again and now lgbtq plus content also the outcome of that case determined that schools can remove materials deemed educationally unsuitable or pervasively vulgar school boards cannot impede student rights just because
077they object to a certain viewpoint or idea i would argue that non-required reading of which there seems to be only one copy would be impossible to classify as pervasive and most importantly if the decision lands in your hands i would ask that you follow the guidance of the decision of the courts that school boards cannot impede student rights just because they object to a certain viewpoint or idea nyset has issued guidance regarding intellectual freedom it reads one would think that any environment of teaching and learning especially one where inquiry and independent reading are promoted 10 seconds would naturally foster intellectual freedom i appreciate the sentiment of approved policy guiding the process for review and being responsive to your time is up thank you meg michalak hello my name is magmaholic i have three children in
078the district i wasn't planning on speaking tonight but i have decided to do so because it has come to my attention that people feel the books that are under review in our school library due to the books content is wrong i want to make it clear that this is not about homophobia transphobic or anything anti-anything this is about books being reviewed because books in question should not be acceptable to minors in public or middle school i'm not okay with books being banned but this is not a banning issue but more about an inappropriate content and rating issue for our youth and exposing them to content they are not ready for this is an issue to me because in my family i'm open i want to speak to my children but if they're looking at books
079that i don't understand or they don't understand i'd like to have that conversation with them i was raised in a very open um sorry it upsets me a lot because this town is very divided on situations we're throwing things back and forth on facebook and not having conversations in person because we're being are afraid of being told we're transphobic homophobic racist everything's divided i moved here from yonkers and there was more tolerance there than there is here the only reason i moved here is because i wanted a proper education a well-rounded education for my children i didn't come here for division my children need to learn everything on a broad spectrum but at age appropriate levels i don't think my five-year-old or my 11-year-old even my eight-year-old are ready for that i'd like to have
080an open conversation with them and i just wanted to make it clear that i'd want this community to come together not divided any longer i've seen some crazy things said to each other on their soapboxes let's have conversations with each other thank you thank you gary stallings thank you for letting me speak up my name's gary stallings i've been teaching medical students about lgbtq topics for the last 13 years at new york med down in valhalla more importantly i have two kids in this lovely school district when my friends told me about this meeting and the books they're under review i decided i needed to read the books because i wanted to form my own opinion about these books so yesterday and this morning i read genderqueer so i'm going to talk about that book
081because i haven't read the other ones to make an opinion i found the work to be well written it touches on topics that i know from teaching it to doctors is are very very difficult and for taking care of patients that have tried to kill themselves because they had nothing to relate to growing up and to know that the book is there for someone who needs it yes there are some pictures that some parents may not appreciate for younger children i i'm okay with that but the work in its entirety to me covered essential topics that someone who's struggling would benefit from greatly and as it is now the mental health statistics for lgtbq plus people are at least twice as bad as for everybody else to the tune of youth have a 39 chance
082of thinking about killing themselves in that group versus 18 for all the other youth that is huge the third leading cause of death for youth in this country is suicide to have a book one copy in this case available for someone who needs it despite some words and a couple pictures that we don't always appreciate i think it's worth that cost so that person can have something to relate to and hopefully stay well and grow up to be a adult with their own kids maybe even in this community thank you judas stevens hello i'm judith stavins i want to say uh oh for short people is that better okay great thank you for noticing that um i'm judith stavins first of all on an entirely separate topic thank you so much to mr cole and
083all the people who have worked on the budget in this town and are very solid fiscal standings it is much appreciated i want to thank dr hatter and the board members for all of your hard work and for allowing this forum for the public to express our concerns we understand it's not required i'm a 26-year resident of yorktown my son attended yorktown schools from kindergarten through this one i was extremely distressed to hear about the books being challenged and removed from our very own high school library right here in yorktown even without having seen a full list of the books in question i know that i adamantly do not want any of them removed from the library shelves i have faith in the knowledge and experience of our dedicated education professionals well someone may not
084want their children to read a particular book that does not give them the right to prevent all students from having access to it we know that books about gender issues and by people of color are being targeted as i'm sure you're aware books about lgbtq plus experiences in particular as we've just heard can quite literally save lives books from a black perspective especially from a pulitzer prize winning author are essential to the esteem initiative that we are rightly so proud of in this district i have read sections 1420 and 1420r of the policy handbook i hope that the books in question will remain available to students while a determination is being made i'm very concerned about that i also respectfully request that this process be made transparent to the community people such as myself a
085district taxpayer and the parent of an alumnus deserve clear and frequent communication shining a light on the process can be an important tool for us to support the district my asks are that the districts start with making public the list of books being challenged next please communicate the process and expected timeline to the community most importantly please make sure that these books are not removed from the library during the review process it would be a rare book indeed that wouldn't be available to the review committee members from another source and we have had that information provided as well what is with what is going on in our country right now i am also concerned about the reputation of our fine school district do we want to be known for removing objectionable books from school libraries
086or do we want to be known as a community that welcomes and supports all students i believe that you will find that the great majority of our neighbors support our educational professionals and have faith in their expertise thank you thank you katie schmidt federer good evening can you hear me okay i also want to thank the board for your your time your hard work mr cole i know budget especially is not the most glamorous part of our work but it's so important and we're so grateful for the fiscal responsibility of this uh this wonderful board um i was disappointed when i discovered via social media that yorktown administrators had pulled some library books from the shelves to review um for possible permanent re removal a list of seven books was circulated but i do not
087know if that is an accurate list so this leads to a few questions and i know the board cannot answer questions tonight but i'm sure that parents and guardians in our district would appreciate answers to these questions first of all how are we to be notified if books are under review for removal are we as parents and guardians allowed to know what the complaint is for each book who is on the committee that makes these decisions and our parents part of that committee and if so how do parents apply to be part of this committee you mentioned that there are just there were only single copies of these books and for that reason they were pulled from the shelves but if you were given an offer of a second set of books for the library
088would the school district accept it because that offer is on the table from my husband and myself um what's sad to me is that i honestly don't believe people in this community suddenly realize they had concerns with these particular books but instead this is part of a national initiative which is meant to suppress honest discussion and knowledge of experience surrounding sex domestic violence toxic masculinity racism bigotry as i have stated at this microphone before i strongly believe that knowledge is power and that high school students this is high school students these are high school books um our high school students are smart enough and sufficiently capable and independent in thought to be able to read a book and come to their own conclusions without immediately needing um needing to to to to to have the
089same experiences as those in the books i have not read these books but i did take the time to research each book a bit read the reviews and the synopsis to better understand the themes language and actions represented the themes of these books seem to have something in common the longing to be seen to belong to be understood and to have rights and to be protected and though some of these books have sexual content that may not be appropriate for someone under the high school age we're fooling ourselves to think that our high school students are not familiar with these themes the last thing i want to say is in the end i'm grateful to those who brought these books to our attention because now i have a wonderful reading list for myself and my
090family thank you andrew maxwell good evening it's nice to see you all and i just want to tell you i appreciate everything that you do for all of our children sure the thing is is i'm here because i've seen a lot of things happen in the school district since my children have been here and i'm very concerned that we don't hear what's going on when things are negative very concerned that i hear it from my children and they know what's happening yet i get nothing from the school of incidents that take place whether it's a teacher hitting a student who's then fired whether it's another teacher touching a children inappropriately whether it's a fight on your school grounds or close to them and i don't know why that is i i get the emails about
091snapchat and the kids are doing things in the bathroom and we have to watch that i get the emails about the things on snapchat to watch out for the teachers because they're doing things but what about everything else why is it that i know that you know what's going on yet you're not informing us why is it that when i call the police department and i ask them they know that you know and we're still not getting the information i think that's crazy you know because i love our community and i think our schools are exceptionally great but i think that you should see the good and the bad this way as parents we could be here to support and teach our kids what is right what is wrong and what to do in these
092instances and i just don't understand why we're missing so much and i i love to hear about the buses and the work and and the gym and that's wonderful but what about everything else you know why is it that my daughter knows she could go or her friends could go and buy vape pens and weed in the high school do you guys know that why why don't we know that why is it that my children know there's a fight with a knife involved don't you think that's something the community should know about for the safety of our children why is it that i have to go to the police department and speak to them and find things out and then you know when there's something inappropriate with a teacher you get a letter that says
093they didn't violate the code of conduct are you kidding me they touched a child inappropriately and they didn't violate your code of conduct but when a child does it they're going to be expelled so i hope in the future things are a lot more transparent and if anybody would like to speak to me about these incidents personally because i have all of the information on it i will be more than happy to say it because i don't want to you know say things i'm not supposed to hear so thank you for listening to me and your time thank you tom maron thank you i'm going to be editing as i speak because so many of my comments have already been addressed i don't want to waste people's time but i am here today to address
094the recent brouhaha regarding censorship and books being removed from the ycsd first let me commend dr hattar and the district and the board for following a clear and straightforward policy regarding the review of challenged books i appreciate that second let me now challenge a portion of said policy i understand that a book under review is not banned thank goodness however if a book is challenged it should remain available to our students during its review process if there is only one copy of the challenged book the board should purchase another for review amazon has overnight delivery we can do this we're not a poor district we can afford another book if the challenge book is legitimately found offensive which i personally find hard to believe fine remove it from our school library donate it or both
095copies to the john c hart library i'm sure they would be proud to accept it and add to their banned book display more fundamentally i would like to address the book review process at its core while i understand that there are texts which offend certain parents i have to ask the following so what who gets to decide what's offensive who chooses what content violates this or that tenant of our community's values personally i am deeply offended by the sexist misogynist white supremacist christian nationalism i see rampant in media all over the place this does not give me license to ban the traitorous confederate flag or the insurrection to stop the steel nonsense people can say what they will and i have the right to argue no one can say you can't say that and no
096one has the right to deny another person's child the right to read whatever they wish keep your religion out of my child's education thank you very much thank you um we have reached the end of public comment so i am going to ask for a motion to adjourn someone second all those in favor hi i oppose thank you everybody for coming out tonight thank you you